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I like what Barkley says about the Durant move. He makes some great points, can you imagine Isaiah Thomas in the 80's leaving the Pistons and going with the Celtics because he couldn't beat them? Could you imagine Dr. J leaving the 76ers because he couldn't beat the Celtics? Could you imagine Jordan leaving the Bulls in the 80's because he couldn't get to the finals. Some very good points. I agree with Barkley and Steven A. Smith on this, I think bandwagon jumping and creating this super teams is generally weak.
Barkley has been a Warriors hater since day one, even after they won the championship. Take anything he says with a grain of salt.
Yep... and that's why the NBA will never topple the NFL.
Only in the NBA can you pick the 16 playoff teams and the 2 finals participants 9 months in advance... which is what happens when you have a league full of garbage teams looking up at the elite 3-4 teams.
How does the NFL manage to stay pretty competitive overall? There are certain teams like the Patriots that seem to stay competitive annually.
Even in baseball where there is no salary cap, spending the most doesn't mean you're winning the World Series or even getting to the playoffs.
That's certainly understandable. It's certainly not good from a competition standpoint. It elimates parity.
Part of what made the warriors so great is they were made up of home grown super stars and cast off role players who fit the system so well. Really they have only added one big free agent, but the fact that their draft picks have panned out so well is quite remarkable. Similar to what the Thunder had or could have had with Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka.
Durant is a great talent obviously, but if I'm the Warriors, why would I ever tinker with a team that won 73 games this past season? Don't fix what is not broken!!
I'm curious to see what the addition of such a big piece does to their "puzzle".
Durant is a great talent obviously, but if I'm the Warriors, why would I ever tinker with a team that won 73 games this past season? Don't fix what is not broken!!
I guess part of it is that they were going to be in a bind either way. Think about it. What if I gave you these choices?
-Harrison Barnes for $23 million per season
-Kevin Durant for $25 million per season
That's the choice the Warriors were facing. Nicolas Batum would have been a nice pick up but he's getting a cool $24 million per year in Charlotte. Joakim Noah would have been a good pick up but he's getting $18 million a year from the Knicks. Your other option would have been to pay Dwight Howard $23 million per year for 3 years. So let's recap.
-Barnes for $23 million
-Batum for $24 million
-Howard for $23 million
-Noah for $18 million
-Durant for $25 million
This is a no-brainer. You can call Durant "weak" for agreeing to play in Cali, but you can't call the Warriors' front office fools for taking him. It is an absolute steal considering what teams are dishing out for B-level talent. The alternative would have been to give Harrison Barnes a max deal and still have to make most of the same difficult roster decisions.
I guess part of it is that they were going to be in a bind either way. Think about it. What if I gave you these choices?
-Harrison Barnes for $23 million per season
-Kevin Durant for $25 million per season
That's the choice the Warriors were facing. Nicolas Batum would have been a nice pick up but he's getting a cool $24 million per year in Charlotte. Joakim Noah would have been a good pick up but he's getting $18 million a year from the Knicks. Your other option would have been to pay Dwight Howard $23 million per year for 3 years. So let's recap.
-Barnes for $23 million
-Batum for $24 million
-Howard for $23 million
-Noah for $18 million
-Durant for $25 million
This is a no-brainer. You can call Durant "weak" for agreeing to play in Cali, but you can't call the Warriors' front office fools for taking him. It is an absolute steal considering what teams are dishing out for B-level talent. The alternative would have been to give Harrison Barnes a max deal and still have to make most of the same difficult roster decisions.
I guess part of it is that they were going to be in a bind either way. Think about it. What if I gave you these choices?
-Harrison Barnes for $23 million per season
-Kevin Durant for $25 million per season
That's the choice the Warriors were facing. Nicolas Batum would have been a nice pick up but he's getting a cool $24 million per year in Charlotte. Joakim Noah would have been a good pick up but he's getting $18 million a year from the Knicks. Your other option would have been to pay Dwight Howard $23 million per year for 3 years. So let's recap.
-Barnes for $23 million
-Batum for $24 million
-Howard for $23 million
-Noah for $18 million
-Durant for $25 million
This is a no-brainer. You can call Durant "weak" for agreeing to play in Cali, but you can't call the Warriors' front office fools for taking him. It is an absolute steal considering what teams are dishing out for B-level talent. The alternative would have been to give Harrison Barnes a max deal and still have to make most of the same difficult roster decisions.
not exactly apples to apples.
They could resign Barnes and go over the cap because he was theirs already. It's more like Barnes, bogut and ezeli including barns 23m for durant at 25m.
If Barnes were the only thing given up then I'm with you
I guess part of it is that they were going to be in a bind either way. Think about it. What if I gave you these choices?
-Harrison Barnes for $23 million per season
-Kevin Durant for $25 million per season
That's the choice the Warriors were facing. Nicolas Batum would have been a nice pick up but he's getting a cool $24 million per year in Charlotte. Joakim Noah would have been a good pick up but he's getting $18 million a year from the Knicks. Your other option would have been to pay Dwight Howard $23 million per year for 3 years. So let's recap.
-Barnes for $23 million
-Batum for $24 million
-Howard for $23 million
-Noah for $18 million
-Durant for $25 million
This is a no-brainer. You can call Durant "weak" for agreeing to play in Cali, but you can't call the Warriors' front office fools for taking him. It is an absolute steal considering what teams are dishing out for B-level talent. The alternative would have been to give Harrison Barnes a max deal and still have to make most of the same difficult roster decisions.
I'm just with Barkley and SAS on this one. I think it just waters down the whole league with this "superteam" building crap. I think it would have been a much less interesting league if Karl Malone jumped to the Bulls in the 90's or Isaiah Thomas said screw the Pistons in the 80's and jumped on the Celtics bandwagon just to get a title. Or Jordan said screw the Bulls in '89 and jumped on the say the Lakers bandwagon. I just think it's weak and bad for the league overall.
I'm just with Barkley and SAS on this one. I think it just waters down the whole league with this "superteam" building crap. I think it would have been a much less interesting league if Karl Malone jumped to the Bulls in the 90's or Isaiah Thomas said screw the Pistons in the 80's and jumped on the Celtics bandwagon just to get a title. Or Jordan said screw the Bulls in '89 and jumped on the say the Lakers bandwagon. I just think it's weak and bad for the league overall.
Making matters worse is the fact that the league is already watered down to begin with. Meaningless first round playoff games. I forget the exact stat, but basically if you are not a #1 or #2 seed forget about winning the Finals. And if you are not a #1, #2 or #3 seed forget about even making the finals.
Moves like this make things worse because it not only makes a great team better, but it makes what was a good team now worse. Had Durant gone to any other good team outside of the Warriors, Spurs or Cavs, it would have at least kept the league a bit more competitive.
Making matters worse is the fact that the league is already watered down to begin with. Meaningless first round playoff games. I forget the exact stat, but basically if you are not a #1 or #2 seed forget about winning the Finals. And if you are not a #1, #2 or #3 seed forget about even making the finals.
Moves like this make things worse because it not only makes a great team better, but it makes what was a good team now worse. Had Durant gone to any other good team outside of the Warriors, Spurs or Cavs, it would have at least kept the league a bit more competitive.
Well said. The move eliminated one more elite team (OKC) and just made another already elite team stronger. Making the league less competitive and the regular season and playoffs meaningless. Don't even have watch any NBA now until mid May 2017 to watch the W's and Cavs in the finals.
I'm just with Barkley and SAS on this one. I think it just waters down the whole league with this "superteam" building crap. I think it would have been a much less interesting league if Karl Malone jumped to the Bulls in the 90's or Isaiah Thomas said screw the Pistons in the 80's and jumped on the Celtics bandwagon just to get a title. Or Jordan said screw the Bulls in '89 and jumped on the say the Lakers bandwagon. I just think it's weak and bad for the league overall.
Except this isn't about building a super team. Maybe if this was some random signing, but it's not. This is no different than any other big free agent signing in NBA history.
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