KD picked the wrong spot.. again..

[Upperclass]

In a very weak east.. Atlanta should’ve been a clear landing spot for his services..

Top tier offensive PG
Plenty of bigs
Solid defenders and rebounders
No recent winning culture so he couldve established one
And just an outright perfect fit for that lineup overall

[CodeBreaker]

Doesn't matter, he ain't winning a chip on either team

[baldur]

houston looks like a top 3 team in the west though. they got a good squad with great depth.

[NoStatsGuy]

KD didnt pick solely based on whos the best team and where his best chance at the finals is.

He picked a team he wants to retire with. Its pretty clear he wanted to move to texas. And honestly i dont think atlanta with KD gurantees the finals or anything.

[bonita_the_frog]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

[Chuck Everett]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

A "safe" bet? Are you sure that's the phrase you want to use? Like a safe bet is Utah finishing in the upper lottery again so as to not lose their pick. Houston or Dallas beating OKC in the playoffs is far from safe. Either team could easily lose to other WC playoff teams before even playing the Thunder.

[bonita_the_frog]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

A "safe" bet? Are you sure that's the phrase you want to use? Like a safe bet is Utah finishing in the upper lottery again so as to not lose their pick. Houston or Dallas beating OKC in the playoffs is far from safe. Either team could easily lose to other WC playoff teams before even playing the Thunder.

But OKC are the only team ever to concede 70 points in each half of a playoff game, despite defense being their main thing, and they shot worse than Indiana from the field, three and free-throw-line in Game 7.
They really only beat Denver and Indiana because of injuries, and they lucked out at Minnesota because there should have been 0.6 on the clock.

So OKC look more fragile than any champion maybe ever!
When i said Houston and Dallas are safe bets to beat OKC i meant if they play them actually, and i said if Dallas are healthy.
Houston i put above OKC definitely without a doubt, so the opposite of a lottery

[Chuck Everett]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

A "safe" bet? Are you sure that's the phrase you want to use? Like a safe bet is Utah finishing in the upper lottery again so as to not lose their pick. Houston or Dallas beating OKC in the playoffs is far from safe. Either team could easily lose to other WC playoff teams before even playing the Thunder.

But OKC are the only team ever to concede 70 points in each half of a playoff game, despite defense being their main thing, and they shot worse than Indiana from the field, three and free-throw-line in Game 7.
They really only beat Denver and Indiana because of injuries, and they lucked out at Minnesota because there should have been 0.6 on the clock.

So OKC look more fragile than any champion maybe ever!
When i said Houston and Dallas are safe bets to beat OKC i meant if they play them actually, and i said if Dallas are healthy.
Houston i put above OKC definitely without a doubt.

Fair enough.

[GSP]

They wouldve had to give up Jalen Johnson to make contracts work. Phoenix isn't taking Kp and Hawks w/o Jalen aren't a good team his two way impact isn't far off the impact Trae gives the Hawks when you factor in his horrendous defense. One of those bigs you mentioned is Kp who you don't even know will play 30 games and damn sure isn't lasting a playoff run

Trae, Naw, Kennard, Dyson, Risacher, Nance, Kp, Okongwu

I mean it's a nice team but Houston is way better

[lethalizer]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

This gave me a good laugh, so thank you, for that.

I think Rockets are around +550 to win the conference as of now, so it's a great time to bet on them if you're into safe bets.

I'd actually say Denver is legitimately a more serious threat than Rockets, as of now.

[phanman]

In a very weak east.. Atlanta should’ve been a clear landing spot for his services..

Top tier offensive PG
Plenty of bigs
Solid defenders and rebounders
No recent winning culture so he couldve established one
And just an outright perfect fit for that lineup overall

KD has never been interested in establishing a winning culture since leaving OKC:
- The Dubs already won in 2015 and lost the finals the year before he joined after winning 73 games in the RS
- The Nets had already climbed out the gutter with those 3 tanking seasons and had that surprise 42-40 season as the 6th seed to attract both him and Kyrie into that culture Kenny established
- Phoenix was fresh off a Finals run 2 seasons prior and won a franchise record 64 games the season before he joined

All your other points are overshadowed by the fact that Houston just has better options through and through. There isn't a better fit for KD than what Houston is going to be able to provide him next year.

[morosis]

not gonna lie - i do wish some of the talent in the west would go east. its been almost 30 years since this "cyclical" conference imbalance "cycled".

either that or the nba could, yknow, not give the two conferences separate playoff brackets. since we should kinda want the two best teams in the league to play in the Finals, irrespective of conference affiliation.

[bonita_the_frog]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

This gave me a good laugh, so thank you, for that.

I think Rockets are around +550 to win the conference as of now, so it's a great time to bet on them if you're into safe bets.

I'd actually say Denver is legitimately a more serious threat than Rockets, as of now.

I agree, Houston and Denver are a lot better placed than OKC, and Dallas if healthy have a better team than OKC and love to play them !!
Denver only lost because of injury anyway... and now they got Cam Johnson who is a playoff legend with .489 field, .416 threes in 38 playoff games!
Then again Cam Johnson has a really terrible history of injuries, so can't really bank on Denver's health.
Houston are more likely to be healthy AND have the best roster in the NBA most likely and EASILY the best coach...

[HMFFL]

In a very weak east.. Atlanta should’ve been a clear landing spot for his services..

Top tier offensive PG
Plenty of bigs
Solid defenders and rebounders
No recent winning culture so he couldve established one
And just an outright perfect fit for that lineup overall

Plenty of bigs?

Atlanta lacked bigs until they acquired Kristaps Porzingis.

KD has roots in Texas.

Texas has no state income tax.

Everything makes sense.

[lethalizer]

Indiana were ONE 3rdQ away from winning the championship, so its a safe bet Houston will beat OKC, and Dallas will beat OKC if healthy obviously.
Houston are more athletic than OKC, and have a better coach than anyone!
Houston is hotter than anyone right now in my good opinion.

This gave me a good laugh, so thank you, for that.

I think Rockets are around +550 to win the conference as of now, so it's a great time to bet on them if you're into safe bets.

I'd actually say Denver is legitimately a more serious threat than Rockets, as of now.

I agree, Houston and Denver are a lot better placed than OKC, and Dallas if healthy have a better team than OKC and love to play them !!
Denver only lost because of injury anyway... and now they got Cam Johnson who is a playoff legend with .489 field, .416 threes in 38 playoff games!
Then again Cam Johnson has a really terrible history of injuries, so can't really bank on Denver's health.
Houston are more likely to be healthy AND have the best roster in the NBA most likely and EASILY the best coach...

Keep up the good work my friend, I enjoy this kind of stuff a lot

[chrisab123]

In a very weak east.. Atlanta should’ve been a clear landing spot for his services..

Top tier offensive PG
Plenty of bigs
Solid defenders and rebounders
No recent winning culture so he couldve established one
And just an outright perfect fit for that lineup overall

Atlanta isn’t a big enough market to land him. I’d say Houston isn’t either but he loves Ime and obviously loves no state taxes. So…

[durden_tyler]

Can't trust a player like Trae Young so i understand where KD is coming from.

[bonita_the_frog]

Keep up the good work my friend, I enjoy this kind of stuff a lot

Thanks my Dad is a basketball coach

[jkvonny]

In a very weak east.. Atlanta should’ve been a clear landing spot for his services..

Top tier offensive PG
Plenty of bigs
Solid defenders and rebounders
No recent winning culture so he couldve established one
And just an outright perfect fit for that lineup overall

Atlanta isn’t a big enough market to land him. I’d say Houston isn’t either but he loves Ime and obviously loves no state taxes. So…

TBF, Houston and Atlanta are big markets like Philly, Chicago, etc.
They ain't mid/small markets.

[jkvonny]

Minnesota is one of them.

Pacers is interesting, but probably doesn't fit with them due to Pacers fast pace ball movement. The ball would stick too much with KD