What can the league realistically do?

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Natebishop3 said:
I was talking about OKC. Not Golden State.

Giving the Thunder credit for drafting Durant at #2 is like giving me credit for marrying a model. It wasn't a difficult decision.
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Sure, but Westbrook, Ibaka and Harden were anything but sure things.
 
Natebishop3 said:
Kevin Durant - drafted in 2007

Russell Westbrook - drafted in 2008

Serge Ibaka - drafted in 2008

James Harden - drafted in 2009
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That just tells me that Presti ran out of magic dust at some point and made some bad choices and couldn't seal the deal despite his nose for talent in the draft.

There's always a significant luck factor in teams getting to the promised land or not. It's a tough business.
 
A hard cap would be great. A hard cap of $115M instead of soft and $94M. Then, raise the max contract percentages (25% for 0-6yrs, 35% for 7+ years).
 
Plus, draft pick compensation for a team losing a free agent. Adding picks to the lottery, which should happen after free agency.
 
Mamba said:
I don't understand why there are a lot of angry people. OKC fans? Yah I understand that, but reading reddit and people demanding for this to be fixed? What exactly did GSW do wrong? They drafted really well? Put great roles players around their people? Managed their contracts well? Enticed a marquee player to sign there because of all that? Why should they be punished for running an extremely solid organization.

Should Philly be punished for sucking balls, even though it seems like they're always in the lottery? And a franchise tag? I don't know? I don't like that. OKC knew the risk they were taking, they could have traded Durant. You guys could have traded LaMarcus. Orlando could have traded Dwight way sooner. Durant gave OKC 9 years of commitment and superstar ball, he has earned the right to sign wherever he wants too. Now OKC needs to decide if they want to go down this road with Russell again or trade him for picks and young players.
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I don't blame GS for taking advantage of a flawed system. Any other organization would have acted the same way in their shoes. I blame the system itself for being flawed and Durant himself for being a front-running bitch and sucking off a 73 win team's tit.

And the idea that OKC could have just traded Durant is bullshit. He is way too good of a player to just dump in a trade unless you're 100% sure that he isn't coming back. Neither Durant nor Aldridge ever gave their team any such assurances, and in fact they presumably did just the opposite and misled their teams into believing they were likely to resign. And no team was going to give up a ton of assets to take on an expiring contract like Durant given the uncertainty of his FA situation.
 
I'm not bothered at all by this move. Frankly, I can't understand what the big deal is. Since the mid-90s, talent has congregated, sometimes leading to a ring, othertimes not.

We weren't competing for a championship anyway. When we're ready to, Golden State will be in their sunset. My biggest fear when Aldridge left was that he could screw us and get a ring. Now, there's no way he gets one unless he begs for a trade to the Warriors. F*** that guy.
 
Building on my earlier comment about uncapping salaries:

Here’s another way to look at the same set of facts. The NBA’s greatest players exert more control over the direction and history of their sport than athletes in any other league. But the great man theory of NBA history doesn’t capture the deeper structural forces that govern how the sport works. The last few days have been the perfect illustration of how the CBA creates the NBA. Thanks to a $24 billion television deal, the league’s salary cap spiked this offseason from $70 million per team to an estimated $94 million. General managers have to spend that money somewhere, so huge chunks of change have gone to bench players like Jon Leuer (four years, $41 million) and Timofey Mozgov (four years, $64 million). Rookies, by contrast, are massively underpaid, while the collective bargaining agreement's max contract rules stipulate that LeBron James makes roughly the same amount as Chandler Parsons.

Given that the CBA works as a redistribution program, with players like Leuer, Mozgov, and Parsons grabbing cash that should really belong to draftees and superstars, it’s inevitable that a player like Durant would look to extract value in some other way: by winning championships, for instance. And the surest path to winning a championship is to form a super team. From the team’s perspective, it will cost Golden State approximately as much to sign Durant as it would have to match the Mavericks’ offer to Harrison Barnes. (Or to put it in terms that Joe Lacob would understand: In the NBA, it costs as much to purchase Apple stock as it does to buy a broken floppy disk.) When money is no longer a differentiating factor, players will inevitably choose the franchises that give them the best opportunity to win. By mandating that the best players don’t get paid like the best players, the CBA has given us the era of the super team.
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Link
 
Most talented starting 5 of all time? I like Magic/Worthy/Scott/Green/Kareem personally. Who do the Warriors have at center?
 
Tim Kawakami, a Bay Area beat writer, wrote that according to sources, the thinking in the Warriors' office was that if they signed Durant, they'd probably start the Curry/Thompson/Iguodala/Durant/Green lineup.

So they're planning to go untraditional from the outset. I can't entirely blame them, considering how little they were getting offensively from Bogut and Ezeli. Green and Durant both provide rim protection (at least, Durant does when he's focused on defense, as he was in the playoffs), so that mitigates being "small" on the defensive end. They'll just have to figure out how to get rebounds.
 
Minstrel said:
Tim Kawakami, a Bay Area beat writer, wrote that according to sources, the thinking in the Warriors' office was that if they signed Durant, they'd probably start the Curry/Thompson/Iguodala/Durant/Green lineup.
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The "we don't need a center when our PF can kick people in the nuts at will" lineup is pretty amazing, gotta admit.
 
I think the Spurs and the Grizzlies can really make the Warriors pay with their size. The Grizzlies may match up the best with them...

Conley/Allen/Parsons/ZBO/Gasol

Will give them issues.
 
Five Second Violation said:
I don't blame GS for taking advantage of a flawed system. Any other organization would have acted the same way in their shoes. I blame the system itself for being flawed and Durant himself for being a front-running bitch and sucking off a 73 win team's tit.

And the idea that OKC could have just traded Durant is bullshit. He is way too good of a player to just dump in a trade unless you're 100% sure that he isn't coming back. Neither Durant nor Aldridge ever gave their team any such assurances, and in fact they presumably did just the opposite and misled their teams into believing they were likely to resign. And no team was going to give up a ton of assets to take on an expiring contract like Durant given the uncertainty of his FA situation.
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Exactly how is the system flawed ?

How is Durant a front running butch? He gave OKC 9 years of dedication. He gave them his heart and soul. Eventually, he earns the right to dictate where he plays. He had Already signed an extension with OKC, why is he "required" to sign another?
 
Mamba said:
Exactly how is the system flawed ?

How is Durant a front running butch? He gave OKC 9 years of dedication. He gave them his heart and soul. Eventually, he earns the right to dictate where he plays. He had Already signed an extension with OKC, why is he "required" to sign another?
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There's an unwritten rule in sports, you don't join someone who barely beats you when the people around you already improved themselves.
 
EGame said:
They can abolish small market teams and just leave the big market teams. Namely, LA, New York, and Miami among a few others.
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why would the league want to abolish their profitable farm system? Everything's humming along perfectly

STOMP
 
BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94 said:
There's an unwritten rule in sports, you don't join someone who barely beats you when the people around you already improved themselves.
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huh? I thought the saying went... if you can't beat beat them, join them

isn't that how Andre Iguadala landed there?

STOMP
 
MARIS61 said:
The league controls the game results through officiating, any time they feel it necessary.

So nothing has changed leaguewise.

Also, I don't see GS as being anything better than they were this year, really. You can't have 6 on the court so for them to get Durant is really just making their bench another man deeper, and possibly upsetting their chemistry.
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SMH... If you believe this about the league manipulation so strongly, why do you watch? I seriously don't get it. There MUST be something better you can do with your time.

And are you serious about an upgrade of KD over Barnes not making them better?

Even worse, is that people gave your comment likes... ... ... :speechless:
 
BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94 said:
Yes, it is. Him leaving was a sign of true lack of heart.
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everyone has an opinion. Like every player ever, KD wants to win titles. The League pretty much requires players migrate to their preferred markets if they want that shot. I don't blame the player here.

STOMP
 
STOMP said:
everyone has an opinion, but thats all the above is.

Like every player ever, KD wants to win. The League pretty much requires players migrate to their preferred markets if they want that shot. I don't blame the player here.

STOMP
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Are you kidding? KD left a GREAT situation to go to a team that HE choked against. To make it even worse the Thunder IMPROVED their roster during the draft.
 
One thing I find interesting is what fan-inspired "conventional wisdom" would be, about what pro atheletes should and shouldn't do, if true free agency had been the rule in major pro sports from the early days. I suspect we'd have seen a lot more players choose to play with other stars they like, in baseball, basketball and football. It's not terribly meaningful to say that, "Magic Johnson would never have done this," or "Oscar Robertson would never have done this," since they didn't have the control that players like LeBron James and Kevin Durant have, so we have no idea what they would or wouldn't have done (and Magic wouldn't have mostly because he was on a great team pretty much from the start, but that's neither here nor there).

For example, in an alternate universe where the Bulls never quite get over the hump and the current incarnation of free agency existed in the 1990s, I could very easily see Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley choosing to get together on the same team. Neither would have considered it "ball-less desire to take the easy way out" and more "taking control of their own destinies because they could."
 
Natebishop3 said:
Franchise tag.

That's about the only thing I can think of. But guys like LMA and Durant are taking LESS money to sign with contenders, so I'm not sure if more years will really do anything.
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I don't think the owners care that much about competitive balance. It's a big deal for us fans, but for the owners it's pretty far down the list. I remember seeing this same suggestion on every message board I went to when Lebron went to Miami. But when the CBA was up and they went to the negotiating table the owners didn't bring it up. They care a lot more about money than they do restricting players' freedom to move.
 
ebott said:
I don't think the owners care that much about competitive balance. It's a big deal for us fans, but for the owners it's pretty far down the list. I remember seeing this same suggestion on every message board I went to when Lebron went to Miami. But when the CBA was up and they went to the negotiating table the owners didn't bring it up. They care a lot more about money than they do restricting players' freedom to move.
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the owners care about their bottom line and thats best served by big markets w/big stars + winning. The way the league is set up & run isn't some random accident. Sure people want to win too, but everyone in the game is on board.

STOMP
 
Mamba said:
Exactly how is the system flawed ?

How is Durant a front running butch? He gave OKC 9 years of dedication. He gave them his heart and soul. Eventually, he earns the right to dictate where he plays. He had Already signed an extension with OKC, why is he "required" to sign another?
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A model that promotes parity is ultimately in the best interests of the league. When the cap jumps up $25 million in one offseason and the best team in the league is allowed to add a top 4 player on a "max" deal, you have a system and a league culture that essentially promotes a monopolization of talent. The league should do away with max contracts and add a hard cap at this point because it's becoming a joke. If a team like the Warriors is going to add another superstar player, the system should disincentivize that as much as possible and force the guy to take a truly massive pay-cut in order to join an already stacked payroll.

As for Durant being a bitch, I think it speaks for itself. It's akin to a general leading his troops in a conflict, getting shellacked in a final battle on account of a bad order he gave (Durant in Games 5/6/7), and then finally defecting at the 11th hour and joining the other side as it becomes clear that they are best suited for winning the war. His decision feels especially callous because Durant's supporting cast was fine last year in the postseason and the ultimate blame for their collapse lies with his poor clutch performances in the WCF. He has himself to blame, and now he's taking the easy way out and joining a team he should be hyped up to beat. Total pussy.
 
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