kayess wrote:JulesWinnfield wrote:Im not sure what to think about this deal, or more importantly what HE thinks about this deal, but I just see the writing on the wall for him there and hope I'm wrong.... And it's not like OKC is incapable. There is a difference between not having done something and being incapable of doing it. They've had championship caliber teams before, they've just had inopportune injuries at times, and sometimes somebody has to lose. Klay Thompson was out of his mind at the right time, otherwise they are in the finals with a shot. I do think the Cavs would have beaten them but nothing is guaranteed. Only one team can win it every year. They will continue to be in the hunt year in year out if he remains.
Edit: Just saw it, though Orlando was robbed of some draft picks or something. I hope they talked to KD beforehand about this, Serge was doing pretty well on Curry on those switches too.
Some of that was Curry not being 100% (TT is better this year most likely, but Curry couldn't shake him this Finals; same with Love on that last possession) IMO. But I do think he (Serge) was a key cog.
Paulie brings up a good point in terms of spacing, but I think defensively it creates more of a hole. OKC, for all intents and purposes, kind of figured out GSW's death lineup. The Warriors were very close to getting eliminated in five before Klay/Steph got into crazy shotmaking mode. They had no answer for WB-Roberson-Waiters-KD-Ibaka. During the season Ibaka didn't seem to be the same player he's been in recent years, but he was instrumental to that commanding 3-1 lead (and also, even if I didn't trust his shooting as much this year, it seems defenses still respected it enough not to sag off too much).
Adams is pretty mobile and very quick to react and recover defensively. But I wonder if he has the foot speed of Ibaka. Unless Ilyasova becomes a factor or Sabonis is an immediate contributor, that means Kanter is going to play heavy minutes. For the most part that's not a problem, and he was big in the SA series as well at times during the season. But he's unplayable against GS, who OKC will almost certainly need to get past in order to make the Finals.
Oladipo is a nice player though. I remember he was getting very favorable comparisons because of his defensive potential. From my understanding, Waiters is likely gone in free agency, and I think Oladipo should be able to fill his role better. We'll see though.
But yeah, I guess my grade of OKC's offseason will come down to what they can get in return for Kanter. If they can get even a passable 3-and-D wing who can run finish in transition, that would be a massive boon. But otherwise, I think Ibaka's absence will be felt, and it might be fatal in the likely WCF rematch.
Now that's the difference between first and last place.
Serge was gone in a year, and I think KD was OK with it.
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