2016 NBA Off-Season Thread

[Hambombs]

DAVID WEST HIT 3 MORE 3 POINTERS THAN I DID LAST YEAR!!!! LOL

thank God you added him....42% from 3.....maybe if he QUINTUPLES his 3 pt total next year he will ALMOST get to 20!

Whiteside has more assists....now THAT is saying something.

Huh?

 

[bksballer89]

Well I did say it at the point where they didnt. So I was right for a day lol. They have depth now still isnt compared the best bench in the league last year

You know they're not done right?

 

[Hambombs]

He attempted .1 3 pointers a game. Cmon. He doesnt shoot the 3. You are reaching hard for this old guy

I know lol. But hes still a really good player?

 

[WiggyRuss]

The more articles I read- the more i feel like the public persona that Durant sold all of us was complete bullshit....the first paragraph down there leads me to htink that this guy needed to go somehwere where he was not the alpha...i never thought that about kevin durant before either...never.


But there was always concern of Durant being persuaded -- that outside forces would sway him. Those close to him talk about how he's impressionable and impulsive, and the moment Durant agreed to meetings in the Hamptons, his future hung in the balance. In reality, he had one foot out the door.

Durant had spent the past nine years telling everyone, both publicly and privately, that he was wholly committed to the Thunder. He was angered by former teammate Reggie Jackson wanting a trade. "I never liked guys that didn't want to be here," Durant said.

But that pressure is relentless, and Durant couldn't escape it. Especially as The Guy -- as the franchise cornerstone. Little things got to him, like when he made an off-hand tweet about Kawhi Leonard excelling in San Antonio's system when he won Finals MVP. He took flak for it, and in his mind, because he was a non-ring holder criticizing a ring-holder. If he was a champion, his opinion would be validated. He felt like he was on the outside looking in on the cool kids' clique.

Durant was also drawn to the idea that the Warriors are an inclusive team, not a two-headed super-duo leading a franchise. He often talked privately about the media drawing battle lines between teammates, rebuking the narrative that someone had to be the alpha. The Thunder tried to sell him on driving a franchise alongside Westbrook as the flagbearers, reinforcing the idea that as long as they were together, the parts could move around them. The Warriors just said come be a part of us.

Durant pushed back against it being his team or Westbrook's team. He talked constantly about being "the leader," almost repeating it to a point so that he would believe it himself. He sarcastically texted friends about wondering why the same wasn't asked about Curry and Klay Thompson. The pass-happy rhythm and flow offense is one Durant has always longed for, but the Thunder struggled to adapt to that. Under Donovan the Thunder improved their movement and spacing; they still ranked last in the league in passes per game, while the Warriors ranked first.

After a game in December when Oklahoma City's offense finally clicked under Donovan, snapping the ball all over the floor, racking up catch-and-shoot assists, Durant was ecstatic.

"I feel a breakthrough, "he said. "Nobody can beat us when we play like that. F---ing beautiful."

 

[WiggyRuss]

is this for real? what a fucking pussy!


Privately, Durant was annoyed with a perceived media infatuation with the Warriors and Curry. He joked about how the Warriors were suddenly the "poster child" for the league. He expressed angst to friends about how they could seemingly do no wrong. He had come off a season from hell - three surgeries on his foot in the wake of his triumphant MVP, an award he desperately wanted. He was supposed to be Curry -- the aw-shucks golden child who plowed his way through the league and dethronedLeBron James. Instead, he was in a boot watching Curry win an MVP and a championship.

His star had fallen, something that bugged him. He had said he was tired of being second. He thought he had affirmed his place in the league, but he was slipping from the conversation.

"If you talked about the best players," Durant said at the end of the regular season," my name, still today, is still not in that conversation. And I feel as though I went out there and proved it to you, you know what I mean?"

His last two signature shoes -- the KD7 and KD8 -- didn't sell well. His jersey sales slipped. Durant has never sweat market size, but those around him were beginning to. The phrase that kept getting used: "shake it up.

 

[Shanemansj13]

omg this is positively disgusting, lol......and i thought LeBron was a fraud at hte time...

After pledging his loyalty to OKC, what made Durant change his mind?

KLAHOMA CITY -- On June 15, 2015, Kevin Durant was in a walking boot, watching the NBA Finals, thinking about the upcoming season.

He had just met newly hired coach Billy Donovan. He was pushing through rehab and edging closer to returning to the court. He was fired up.

He sent a text.

"It's our year next year!" he said.

He sent another.

"Then Ima sign back and build a sick ass house and keep stacking chips!! That's [the] goal."

He was going to stay. He was going to plant his flag. He was going to finish what he started. Anyone who was around the team saw Donovan's hiring as the start of a new era, a fresh start and the first step in retaining their franchise player. Durant felt it, too.

Rehabbing his foot in Oklahoma City meant Durant spent a lot of time around Donovan. That's all it took. Durant was enthusiastic about Donovan's arrival and the new direction he represented.

Durant went about his usual business of ingraining himself even more into the community. He restored basketball courts at elementary schools. He donated significant money to inner-city school programs. He was inducted into the state's Hall of Fame to stand alongside the likes of Will Rogers and Gene Autry.

On July 4, 2016, Durant agreed to join the Golden State Warriors, leaving behind the only franchise he's ever known.

What changed?

To listen to Durant talk over the past eight years, leaving Oklahoma City seemed unlikely. Leaving for the Warriors -- a team that eliminated the Thunder in the Western Conference finals and had just won a record-73 regular-season games -- seemed even more improbable. Professional athletes say things, though, and as those close to Durant often say, he has a bad habit of telling people what he thinks they wanted to hear.

At his MVP speech in 2014, Durant galvanized Oklahoma City. "You get knocked down, but you keep getting back up, keep fighting, it's the perfect place for me," he said. "The grass isn't always greener somewhere else." As road writers baited for compliments about their city, Durant affectionately referred to Oklahoma City as home. He said he wanted to have his jersey retired there.

Even on the topic of ring chasing, Durant wasn't moved by the need for a championship to validate greatness.

"Our world revolves around championships," he said in a recent Sports Illustrated feature. "Who won the championship? Who will win the championship? If you're not the champion, you're a loser. If you're not first, you're last.

"Don't get me wrong, I want to win a championship more than anybody, but if you go through the journey we've gone through, you can also appreciate other things."

Durant repeated a phrase often: "I'm no frontrunner."

I never knew he said all that. All I have to say is Wow. Lebron always, as a businessman, knew to keep his options open and when he would say something answering a question he would always do it in a tricky way. He knew what he was doing. KD is as fake as a superstar in the NBA can get. Kinda disappoints me honestly.

 

[WiggyRuss]

lol...he was "feeling it" when he proposed?

This was always about Durant being persuaded. The impulse decisions, like proposing to girlfriend Monica Wright on a night he was just "feeling it" in 2013, or when he signed that extension in 2010 and later came to regret it, made it a danger

 

[WiggyRuss]

I never knew he said all that. All I have to say is Wow. Lebron always, as a businessman, knew to keep his options open and when he would say something answering a question he would always do it in a tricky way. He knew what he was doing. KD is as fake as a superstar in the NBA can get. Kinda disappoints me honestly.

i would honestly love if hte Cavs gave up Love for RW...a lot of teams prob wont give up a lot considering hes probably a rental- but fuck it...id do it in an instant just to see him tear Durants heart out of his chest in the Finals. Its been clear to me for YEARS--since RW was drafted- who had the real balls on that team. Wherever, whatever RW does- i hope he has a more successful career going forward.

 

[Shanemansj13]

You know they're not done right?

So Ray Allen? Lol Maybe Reggie Miller will come out of retirement or even better maybe Steve Kerr can make the bench even better and can be a player/coach? Lol

 

[Shanemansj13]

i would honestly love if hte Cavs gave up Love for RW...a lot of teams prob wont give up a lot considering hes probably a rental- but fuck it...id do it in an instant just to see him tear Durants heart out of his chest in the Finals. Its been clear to me for YEARS--since RW was drafted- who had the real balls on that team. Wherever, whatever RW does- i hope he has a more successful career going forward.

Yeah bc you saw it in KD's demeanor. He gave up at times, especially when it was hardest. He is a quitter. Westbrook will carry this team on his back. Watch

 

[WiggyRuss]

Yeah bc you saw it in KD's demeanor. He gave up at times, especially when it was hardest. He is a quitter. Westbrook will carry this team on his back. Watch

I think Curry will take the defeat and grow from it- just like LeBron did...and get tougher mentally......but i think Kd is just kinda soft. He could never make that team his own with RW there...and he never really stepped up and had that moment where you said- NOW THAT is the best player in the league! you have just never seen it.

 

[WiggyRuss]

So Ray Allen? Lol Maybe Reggie Miller will come out of retirement or even better maybe Steve Kerr can make the bench even better and can be a player/coach? Lol

shiiit...the Cavs would just counter with Damon Jones and the Warriors would be really fucked....

 

[WiggyRuss]

shiiit...the Cavs would just counter with Damon Jones and the Warriors would be really fucked....

View attachment 134270

View attachment 134271

that has to be ty lue right? lol, is it? next to Amon Ones... (No D, no J)

 

[Shanemansj13]

So what's the deal with Dwyane Wade, the Heat and the Cavs? | Heat Check

Wade is pretty pissed off right now

 

[bksballer89]

Great read

After pledging his loyalty to OKC, what made Durant change his mind?

 

[Wishbone]

Yeah bc you saw it in KD's demeanor. He gave up at times, especially when it was hardest. He is a quitter. Westbrook will carry this team on his back. Watch

This team always went as Westbrook went. Westbrook won the scoring title the year KD was hurt. He can put a team on his back. Durant will be forever tainted.

 

[bksballer89]

So what's the deal with Dwyane Wade, the Heat and the Cavs? | Heat Check

Wade is pretty pissed off right now

Making him their top priority would have been retarded

 

[Hambombs]

So Ray Allen? Lol Maybe Reggie Miller will come out of retirement or even better maybe Steve Kerr can make the bench even better and can be a player/coach? Lol

Splash quadruplets

 

[bksballer89]

At this point I'm pretty much done with Wade

 

[Hambombs]

Cavs fans talking more about the warriors is kinda interesting to watch now