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NBA Off-season 2016 thread (https://chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=300473)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirk digler (Post 12301338)

Just last season OKC missed the playoffs when Durant was out and now they have no Ibaka either.

westbrook averaged around a triple double with Durant out

To win a ring, Durant is joining the team that his team would have beaten had he not completely choked in game 6. Enjoying every bit of this. LMAO

OKC should still be good with Westbrook, Adams, and the others, but are they even better than that Memphis team with a healthy Marc Gasol? I'm not so sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection (Post 12301384)

OKC should still be good with Westbrook, Adams, and the others, but are they even better than that Memphis team with a healthy Marc Gasol? I'm not so sure.

I think the more important point is that it gives OKC the ability to build around Westbrook instead of trying to make a system that makes the two of them work together. Same argument I made when I rallied against KLove. I get that with Bird rights it's not that cut and dry but it gives them much better flexibility. Won't happen right away but they're now in a much better position to do that. It might be one of those moves that benefits both Durant and OKC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirk digler (Post 12301338)

Just last season OKC missed the playoffs when Durant was out and now they have no Ibaka either.

And Westbrook was in MVP conversation, they still won 45 games and missed the playoffs by 1 game

three teams that made the playoffs that year are now complete blown up garbage (Mavs, Pelicans, Rockets). Blazers won 51 and Grizz won 55 and I still think OKCs current roster can hang with both of them as long as the Thunder get a wing player worth a damn

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection (Post 12301384)

OKC should still be good with Westbrook, Adams, and the others, but are they even better than that Memphis team with a healthy Marc Gasol? I'm not so sure.

I think if Adams/Kanter keep improving they are.

Zbo has to decline sometime, Parsons is overrated and injury prone so its still just Gasol and Conley at the end of the day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NWTF (Post 12301325)

lol I dont get the big deal with it. The good free agents almost always sign with a good, better team, so the Warriors should have been seen as a realistic possibility. Actually reminds me of when Lebron went to Miami, and I was all for that too, other than the stupid "decision" thing.

That's not true. Most true NBA superstars almost always resign with their teams. They may leave later when they are past their prime but most don't do what Durant is doing. He is taking the easy way out.

OKC did everything they could for him. They drafted him and built their team around him and WB. They gave him Westbrook and Harden as well. A little loyalty would be nice instead of leaving to a team that just beat you...

He doesn't want the pressure of leading an NBA team to a championship. He'd rather play with the best instead of beat the best. It's pretty obvious.

Zaza Pachulia just signed with the Warriors for 1 year 2 million

lol he was 14,000 votes from a starting all star spot this past season

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobBlake (Post 12301376)

westbrook averaged around a triple double with Durant out

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcaj22 (Post 12301411)

They were only decent because Durant played part of the season. If Westbrook is still around prior to the start of the season we will find out but these stats are telling IMO.

Quote:

Because of a knee injury, Russell Westbrook missed 36 games during the 2013-14 season. With a healthy Durant on the floor, OKC was 25-11 in those games. The Thunder finished with a record of 59-23.

• Westbrook was great this season, but in 55 games without Durant, the Thunder was 27-28. Oklahoma City was 45-37 overall and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

Stephen A Smith has been acting like a petulant child on twitter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirk digler (Post 12301429)

They were only decent because Durant played part of the season. If Westbrook is still around prior to the start of the season we will find out but these stats are telling IMO.

Adams also missed like 30 games and hes an ascending player.

Their roster today is much better than when they went 27-28 with Westbrook

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcaj22 (Post 12301439)

Adams also missed like 30 games and hes an ascending player.

Their roster today is much better than when they went 27-28 with Westbrook

We will have to wait to see who they attempt to fill Durant's spot but right now they have Westbrook and Waiters (lol) as the only scorers. At least this season I think we will see the same thing happen to OKC that happened to Miami when Lebron left.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirk digler (Post 12301448)

Kanter and Oladipo are more than capable young offensive players/scorers

They also have an offensive stretch 4 in Illyasova and an ascending defensive big in Adams.

They have a nice front court. They need wings badly, Presti should swing a trade for a good wing and they would be right back in it

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection (Post 12301091)

Oh man, this is exactly what I was hoping for.

After completing one of the NBA's all-time greatest chokes, Durant goes to the same 73 win team that he choked to. Heel turns don't get much larger than that. That same 73 win team (who experienced one of their own all-time chokes) admits that they can't beat LeBron James without the help of a top 3 player in the league and the best player on their main conference rival. Quite the submission from a smug and self-satisfied group that seemed so sure that they were better than Jordan's Bulls until LeBron produced arguably the greatest Finals performance ever.

This move should also help further diminish the star of the overrated Steph Curry (which was becoming hilariously over-inflated prior to his game getting exposed in the playoffs) and make an already unlikable Warriors team even more hated. They will have a ton of pressure on them to be better than they were last year and that won't be easy to do (Durant or not).

After winning with Cleveland, LeBron is also now left with nothing to lose in a Finals matchup against such a team and everything to gain. He's already exerted his superiority over all of these guys that have teamed up against him and has nothing left to prove in the back half of his career. He'll be absolutely loving this too, I'm sure.

It's going to be a fun year.

It's hilarious that you see it this way. Haters are going to hate.

If you were the GM of a team and you had two choices:

1. You could bring Harrison Barnes back, who absolutely tanked it the entire year, on a max deal.

or

2. You could sign a top 5 player in the league in Kevin Durant to a max deal to replace a roleplayer that you would have had to pay a max deal to keep.

What would you have done given that scenario?:rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection (Post 12301380)

To win a ring, Durant is joining the team that his team would have beaten had he not completely choked in game 6. Enjoying every bit of this. LMAO

No you're not.

Lebron's run is over before it started.