If KD joined 57-25 win Cavs in 2016, would he got much less criticism?

Drygon · Post #1 » by **Drygon** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 4:59 pm

Obviously, Golden State Warriors ended up having a record of 73-9. Which has never been done before in NBA history.

They had a back-to-back MVP (one of them unanimous) Steph Curry, a perennial DPOY-candidate in Draymond Green who's actually a very good playmaker. & having an elite shooter in Klay Thompson. Never mind their perennial 6MOTY-candidate in Andre Iguodala.

On the other hand, Cleveland Cavaliers had a record of 57-25. Which is NBA's 3rd best record overall behind Warriors & 67-15 win Spurs. It's slightly above OKC's 55-29 record.

They had only 1 player who made into All-NBA team more than once as a member of them. Curry & Klay had at least 2 All-NBA selections at the time.

Cleveland Cavaliers were also not really exactly blessed to have elite shooters on level with Splas Bros and or having a DPOY-candidate or 6MOTY-candidate.

If Durant joined 57-25 win Cavaliers, would he got way less criticism than joining 73-9 win Warriors?

Wallace_Wallace · Post #2 » by **Wallace_Wallace** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:04 pm

Who knows the Cavaliers like to spend their money on Channing Frye, JR Smith and Tristan Thompson. Unless KD wants to take the MLE or the minimum, he wouldn't join the Cavs. If he did, people would laugh at him even more, taking a massive pay cut (close to 20+ million per year?) to be the side kick of LeBron and at the tier of Kyrie.

Drygon · Post #3 » by **Drygon** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:08 pm

Wallace_Wallace wrote:Who knows the Cavaliers like to spend their money on Channing Frye, JR Smith and Tristan Thompson. Unless KD wants to take the MLE or the minimum, he wouldn't join the Cavs. If he did, people would laugh at him even more, taking a massive pay cut (close to 20+ million per year?) to be the side kick of LeBron and at the tier of Kyrie.

The cap spike happened in summer 2016 as well, every team could afford to sign Durant without giving him MLE or minimum lol.

AJ_Joseph · Post #4 » by **AJ_Joseph** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:10 pm

The Cavs wouldn't have been able to sign him unless one of Irving and Love were gone. Cavs wouldn't have been as stacked as the Durant Warriors.

Golden State literally added him while only letting go of Barnes and Bogut.

hongdayuan · Post #5 » by **hongdayuan** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:12 pm

No he won’t because that’s more rings for the king

C3H6N6O6 · Post #6 » by **C3H6N6O6** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:15 pm

Wallace_Wallace wrote:Who knows the Cavaliers like to spend their money on Channing Frye, JR Smith and Tristan Thompson. Unless KD wants to take the MLE or the minimum, he wouldn't join the Cavs. If he did, people would laugh at him even more, taking a massive pay cut (close to 20+ million per year?) to be the side kick of LeBron and at the tier of Kyrie.

Teams shouldn't build their squads based on a future what if KD goes to the Warriors. Cavs did everything right. Players had all the leverage. Cavs could have lost TT and JR for nothing and they didn't have the money to sign anyone else.
TT's and JR's stock was high at that point too. I am sure a few mediocre or bad team would have taken them. Cavs owner doesn't have the ball to hire a GM like Morey and let him do whatever he wants to win it all.

Drygon · Post #7 » by **Drygon** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:16 pm

C3H6N6O6 · Post #8 » by **C3H6N6O6** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:19 pm

hongdayuan wrote:No he won’t because that’s more rings for the king

Have you seen the AD saga? Lakers weren't even as good as the Cavs.
People were losing their mind that Kawhi might join the Lakers.
On what world do people live where LeBron doesn't get criticized?

The truth is that if KD joined the Cavs then LeBron would be getting more criticized than KD.

Baski · Post #9 » by **Baski** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:29 pm

It would arguably be worse

Jay 20 · Post #10 » by **Jay 20** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:29 pm

If the Warriors had won 65 he wouldn't have got as much heat. It primarily would have been about joining the team that beat him.

JoeyMorgan619 · Post #11 » by **JoeyMorgan619** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:30 pm

He literally could have joined any team ever in the history of the NBA and would've gotten less hate. Some people don't seem to understand just how weak his move was. He joined the team that just beat them after being up 3-1 and coming off the most wins in NBA history.

Wallace_Wallace · Post #12 » by **Wallace_Wallace** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:31 pm

Drygon wrote:
Wallace_Wallace wrote:Who knows the Cavaliers like to spend their money on Channing Frye, JR Smith and Tristan Thompson. Unless KD wants to take the MLE or the minimum, he wouldn't join the Cavs. If he did, people would laugh at him even more, taking a massive pay cut (close to 20+ million per year?) to be the side kick of LeBron and at the tier of Kyrie.

The cap spike happened in summer 2016 as well, every team could afford to sign Durant without giving him MLE or minimum lol.

If the Cavs had the cap room, how come in that offseason the Cavs were only able to resign their guys and then minimum guys like Mike Dunleavy and Chris Anderson?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2016/08/24/cleveland-cavaliers-offseason-recap-lebron-james-jr-smith/89272890/

Baski · Post #13 » by **Baski** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:32 pm

C3H6N6O6 wrote:
hongdayuan wrote:No he won’t because that’s more rings for the king

Have you seen the AD saga? Lakers weren't even as good as the Cavs.
People were losing their mind that Kawhi might join the Lakers.
On what world do people live where LeBron doesn't get criticized?

The truth is that if KD joined the Cavs then LeBron would be getting more criticized than KD.

I think he means that because everyone is a LeBron stan, KD helping him to win more rings will never be criticized as much as directly preventing him from winning anymore.

PistolPeteJR · Post #14 » by **PistolPeteJR** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:32 pm

AJ_Joseph wrote:The Cavs wouldn't have been able to sign him unless one of Irving and Love were gone. Cavs wouldn't have been as stacked as the Durant Warriors.

Golden State literally added him while only letting go of Barnes and Bogut.

I don’t agree with the bolded statement, because as soon as you put ‘17 LeBron next to KD, AND add Kyrie, LeBron + KD + Kyrie and Co. >> Curry, Klay, Draymond and Co. Heck you’d have the two best players on the same team.

Benedict_Boozer · Post #15 » by **Benedict_Boozer** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:32 pm

KD would have been teflon, all the criticism would have gone towards LBJ

Warriorfan · Post #16 » by **Warriorfan** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:39 pm

Cavs weren't the historically good team so there wouldn't be the same criticsm.

I think it's KD leaving a contender in OKC that fueled the Internet heat.

Rockice_24 · Post #17 » by **Rockice_24** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:40 pm

Why is this still a thing. Who cares anymore?

Kawhi isn't joining LAC without PG. AD isn't joining LA without LBJ.

Guys want to win because people put so much stock in rings. KD only got hate because of how unfair the league was. They were favorites to win it all and added a top 3 player in his prime. You piss people off when you do that. At this point though it's in the past so who cares. People would have freaked in Kawhi joined LAL too. As long as there is some semblance of parity people will be fine seeing stars join up. Once people think it's unfair then the outrage starts.

The league is wide open again.

PhilBlackson · Post #18 » by **PhilBlackson** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:41 pm

So instead of joining the previous year's champs, he joins the reigning one with the best player of his generation, Kyrie and Love?!

I think you're missing the point...

hongdayuan · Post #19 » by **hongdayuan** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:41 pm

C3H6N6O6 wrote:
hongdayuan wrote:No he won’t because that’s more rings for the king

Have you seen the AD saga? Lakers weren't even as good as the Cavs.
People were losing their mind that Kawhi might join the Lakers.
On what world do people live where LeBron doesn't get criticized?

The truth is that if KD joined the Cavs then LeBron would be getting more criticized than KD.

For how many people I have seen saying kd joining warriors is not the same as lebron forming big 3. Yes he would have been criticized less.

thebigbird · Post #20 » by **thebigbird** » Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:41 pm

He primarily got heat because he joined the team that beat him after he blew a 3-1 lead against them. The fact that they won 73 games in the regular season and had won a ring the previous season with the same core just made it worse.