Kevin Durant to Washington Thread (Part 2)

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Abandon thread?

Nah. He signed a 1+1 with the Warriors. He'll coast to his ring, then come home....

....and so it begins.

The 'real plan' is working perfectly. EG defrauds us and Turd, and keeps his job for another year based on a wing and a prayer.

The KD2DC 'wing' and a prayer strategy.

Machiavelli couldn't have plotted it better.

[doclinkin]

Kevin Durant is being taken to task for disloyalty because he's made a big show out of the importance of loyalty and disloyalty. Remember all those times he was asked about the Wiz, and his answer was always, Wizards fans need to be MORE loyal, and stop being DISLOYAL by cheering for me instead of the guys in Wizards uniforms right now.

He's even made a big show out of being a loyal Skins fan, despite the fact that they haven't exactly been a title contender since he was in diapers.

So, when the time comes for the ultimate test of his loyalty to his OKC fans, what happens? KD commits the ultimate disloyalty.

To me it's less about loyalty and more about competitive spirit. We watch games to see evenly matched competitors battling to overcome eachother's best efforts. Athletes at the level of KD et al can do things inconceivable by most of the couch mushrooms who grip their remotes and shout at inanimate electronics as if they could influence the result. We wish we could do these things, and desire to siphon inspiration from the victory of our heroes. To borrow from their dedication and desire and apply it to our own lives maybe. But to see a player we admire wilt under pressure, and then --instead of meeting the call with redoubled effort-- to see them slink away to the team that beat him like a whipped mutt apologizing to his human for not knowing why he got beaten. That part taints a player. You want to see a guy get steely and come back and defeat the opponent, not defect to their squad. It's not terribly inspiring. And okay so a historically strong team gets even stronger. it will feel nice to win. OK. KD will like his hardware if they win,nice for him. But, yeah, the act is kinda weak.

He's still my PG county homeboy and favorite non wizard, OK neck and neck with Stef, and I can see why he'd do a 1+1 to win and get it out of the way. I'd still love to have him come home with hardware on his knuckles, but still, I wish he'd picked pretty much any other team. And again this is from me who wants Stef Curry to bear his children basically.

[doclinkin]

this

[tweet]https://twitter.com/KDTrey5/status/18688294600[/tweet]

[SizzlinSimms]

I don't really even blame KD at all. I mean if you can get paid as a max player and join the arguably one of the best teams ever, why wouldn't you?

I think the blame should be more the way the CBA and NBA salary structure is. There shouldn't be a max contract. If a team wants to offer KD 1 year 65 million then allow it, obviously it'd never happen but it's a hypothetical, but otherwise we are gonna constantly get this super teams the way this max contract goes. There is no way King James, Durant, and etc are the worth less than Mike Conley.

[jangles86]

What an idea it was to put all our eggs in the Durant basket for 3+ years and not have a plan B or even plan C.

If our front office had half a brain they would've been going in for a Whiteside or Horford aswell and not be so infuriated with the unlikely idea that Durant wanted to come back to DC. From memory I never heard him once say he ever missed home and wanted to come back.

[stevemcqueen1]

It kills me that he's going to be remembered as a pussy. He is one of my favorite players, but now I can't say anything to defend him. There is no sugar coating this.

[fishercob]

The only reason any of this is possible is because individual salaries are artificially capped. If the max salary went away, so would super teams.

[stevemcqueen1]

The only reason any of this is possible is because individual salaries are artificially capped. If the max salary went away, so would super teams.

Or they could just use a hard cap and do away with the luxury tax.

I think they should institute both changes. They're going to have to in order to sustain and build the popularity of the league. Much as the NFL pisses me off, there is no arguing with the success of their parity driven model. Every team's fan base has a reason to watch every game. If anything, the NBA should have an even stronger impetus to create parity because they have so many more games they have to sell.

[LyricalRico]

The salt in the wound for Oklahoma City? Had Durant given a verbal commitment to return to the Thunder, they were very confident that fellow free agent Al Horford would have come too. Horford, the 30-year-old forward who agreed to sign with the Boston Celtics, played under Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan during his University of Florida days.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2016/07/04/kevin-durant-warriors-free-agent-thunder/86684632/

Interesting, especially considering that Horford didn't wait for Durant's decision. Had he not committed to Boston so early, would KD have stayed in OKC and brought Horford with him? Maybe, although other parts of the article makes a case for Durant wanting to be in GS all along.

[closg00]

The Pitch to KD
http://www.businessinsider.com/warriors-recruited-kevin-durant-with-terrifying-pitch-2016-7

[BigA]

Abandon thread?

Nah. He signed a 1+1 with the Warriors. He'll coast to his ring, then come home....

....and so it begins.

The 'real plan' is working perfectly. EG defrauds us and Turd, and keeps his job for another year based on a wing and a prayer.

The KD2DC 'wing' and a prayer strategy.

Machiavelli couldn't have plotted it better.

My vision of the future:

After the Warriors win the title next year, I see KD, Steph Curry, Westbrook, and Blake Griffin signing at below-market rates to form a super team with the Wizards.

I see the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, the party at the Trump Hotel, and visiting with President Trump at the White House afterwards.

[verbal8]

Durant signing with GSW sets up a possible dynasty and an epic East/West rivalry with the Cavs. While this isn't great for teams like the Wizards that are turned into cannon fodder(oh wait that is Ted and EG), it is great for the NBA potentially expanding popularity.

What brings in fans - the Lakers/Celtics, Jordan's Bulls dynasty or the Rockets/Pistons/etc teams that have won when the championship/play-offs were more open?

[nate33]

Durant signing with GSW sets up a possible dynasty and an epic East/West rivalry with the Cavs. While this isn't great for teams like the Wizards that are turned into cannon fodder(oh wait that is Ted and EG), it is great for the NBA potentially expanding popularity.

What brings in fans - the Lakers/Celtics, Jordan's Bulls dynasty or the Rockets/Pistons/etc teams that have won when the championship/play-offs were more open?

Is it good for the NBA though? The way I see it, at least 27 teams currently have no chance. The only teams that should even bother to play the regular season are Golden State, Cleveland and San Antonio. Maybe the Clippers can put it all together and have a shot as well. That's it. Everyone else may as well be the Washington Generals.

There are only 6 or so teams in the league whose best player is better than the Warriors' 3rd best player.

[keynote]

While it's clear that hiring Brooks didn't entice Durant to come to DC, might the hiring of Brooks actually have been the final deterrent?

This article is about KD's relationship with Westbrook, but if the sources are accurate, it also confirms some of our suspicions about KD's relationship with Brooks. Now, this isn't necessarily an indictment on Brooks: it's still unclear whether *any* coach can tame Westbrook and have him manage a ball movement-oriented offense. But if this article is true, then it's obvious that *Durant* wasn't happy with Brooks -- and if EG had done his due diligence, he would've known that.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2650148-frustration-with-westbrook-sent-durant-fleeing-opens-door-to-trouble-for-nba

Durant wanted an offense that kept the ball moving and provided him easier scoring chances. The Thunder fired coach Scott Brooks and brought in Billy Donovan, and still the offense stalled out at key moments, often with Westbrook dribbling into oblivion. The Thunder led the NBA in blown fourth-quarter leads last season, according to Darnell Mayberry of NewsOK.com, despite their firepower.

"Ultimately, he got frustrated and felt that they had plateaued," said a person with insight into Durant's thought process. "[Donovan] came in, and he still had the same issues that he had with Russ under Scotty. The offense didn't change much. He still had to take a ton of contested shots every game; and that's when he had the ball at all."