The Official Dwayne Wade <<<<<< you thread

[Freeza]

They can't go over the cap to sign Westbrook though. Which I guess you'd have to. Him and Durant are both gonna be taking up like 60+ million combined cap space.

[McAgger]

They can't go over the cap to sign Westbrook though. Which I guess you'd have to. Him and Durant are both gonna be taking up like 60+ million combined cap space.

Yeah they can't with wesbrook. I meant Curry. Sign Curry last and they can sign Wesbrook.

But obviously they won't need Westbrook, I'm just saying how ridiculous this situation is.

[LeSwagg James]

Well.. This should be fun

[Blue Barrett]

Has there ever been another case of "Can't beat 'em, join 'em"?

Can't remember anything like this.

The cba really f'ed the league. The sudden rise in cap made this possible and it's everything the NBA's financial system has built up to prevent. Having 5 all-stars on the same team is ridiculous.

Also Durant's ring won't mean anything in the legacy conversations. Doubt anyone respects him enough anymore.

Good for Warriors fans though.

People need to stop complaining about the new salary cap though. It's either that or the team owners get most of the money. The players are currently getting 50% of the money and that's completely fair, whichever way you look at it. The players ARE the league. Blame the GMs misusing the better opportunity they have to build killer teams. Don't blame the Warriors for using it to their advantage.

Some of these team owners got the team because their daddies passed it to them. No way on earth they deserve MORE of the revenue. So again, it's completely fair. Blame the GMs misusing their cap space for scrub players.

[Freeza]

Has there ever been another case of "Can't beat 'em, join 'em"?

Can't remember anything like this.

The cba really f'ed the league. The sudden rise in cap made this possible and it's everything the NBA's financial system has built up to prevent. Having 5 all-stars on the same team is ridiculous.

Also Durant's ring won't mean anything in the legacy conversations. Doubt anyone respects him enough anymore.

Good for Warriors fans though.

People need to stop complaining about the new salary cap though. It's either that or the team owners get most of the money. The players are currently getting 50% of the money and that's completely fair, whichever way you look at it. The players ARE the league. Blame the GMs misusing the better opportunity they have to build killer teams. Don't blame the Warriors for using it to their advantage.

Some of these team owners got the team because their daddies passed it to them. No way on earth they deserve MORE of the revenue. So again, it's completely fair. Blame the GMs misusing their cap space for scrub players.

I'm not complaining about it. I'm complaining about the transition of it. The players deserve all the money they can get, but the sudden rise resulted in contracts like Curry's that have allowed for the league to be decided before it starts.

[Freeza]

Meanwhile GSW gets Zaza Pachulia for 2.9m$

Can't wait to see what other veterans they'll get for peanuts.

[Blue Barrett]

Has there ever been another case of "Can't beat 'em, join 'em"?

Can't remember anything like this.

The cba really f'ed the league. The sudden rise in cap made this possible and it's everything the NBA's financial system has built up to prevent. Having 5 all-stars on the same team is ridiculous.

Also Durant's ring won't mean anything in the legacy conversations. Doubt anyone respects him enough anymore.

Good for Warriors fans though.

It wasn't just the massive cap raise. So many things had to workout perfectly for this scenario.

-Curry's injuries
-Curry's mindblowing contract.
-The sudden cap raise instead of the slow influx that the league suggested.
-Durant becoming free agent at such a perfect time.
-Durant's mentality to join rather than win it himself (Kobe/Timmy/Dirk mentality superstars and this doesn't happen).

Please don't ever mention Kobe in that convo again WHY does everyone like to conveniently forget that Kobe demanded a trade and only decided to stay when the Lakers got Pau? That counts him out imo. Stop trying to paint the picture like he "stayed no matter what" or "could never see himself playing anywhere else". I don't remember the team but if I'm not mistaken, he was already close to being traded to some other team.

I also understand this whole 'wants to win a ring' excuse. Isn't building a legacy and an eventual ring much greater? Just look at how beloved Reggie Miller is in Indiana, that's worth more than rings, showing heart and love for the people who supported you through the hardships.

Players who don't get any help are excused. Garnett, LeBron etc. never had the team Durant could've had in Oklahoma this year. They were even betting favourites after the GSW-Cavs series if Durant were to return.

Listen, there have been a lot of NBA superstars in the past whose names have fizzled out because they never won rings.

John Stockton
Karl Malone
Elgin Baylor
Patrick Ewing
Shawn Kemp
Mark Price
Vince Carter
Tim Hardaway
Tracy McGrady
Penny Hardaway
Dominique Wilkins
Chris Webber
George Gervin
Steve Nash
I can go on and on

Hell, even Allen Iverson. He's only talked about these days (apart from his recent HOF induction) when people want to talk about his personality.

Charles Barkley is only relevant these days because he has such an infectious personality on TV.

Throw all that talk out the window please championships are important. Clyde Drexler would have fizzled out too but he joined the Hakeem while he still had something in the tank and now when you remember Drexler, you remember him as a champion. You can talk about Reggie Miller all you want, but I'm sure Reggie would trade the Indiana love with nationwide reverence of championship pedigree.

FACT: Championships matter A LOT. Durant has made a smart decision just like Lebron did (although not totally the same situations) six years ago and I respect that.

No matter what decision he made, he was going to be criticized either way. If he had stayed with OKC, a year from now when he gets beaten in the playoffs, people would laugh at him for making a stupid decision. If he had joined Boston or any other team, people would ask "what's the point? OKC was a better scenario!". He joins the one team that's better than OKC among all his options and everyone's acting like it's the end of the world

[Freeza]

Barrett, it's perfectly fine to compare Kobe in that conversation. He demanded a trade to Chicago if they didn't get him help. They then went all out and got him some help. The team we had in those years were all Kobe and Lamar Odom. Our third best player was what? Smush Parker? Luke Walton? Kwame Brown? Awful team.

Team Duncan never had had a season below 50 wins. He has never ever had any hardships in his entire career in regards to having a good team and winning. So how exactly is his loyalty valued over Kobe's in this case?

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Casuals may feel that way Barrett, but Basketball fans hold those players in no less regard because they ran into better teams.

[McAgger]

Zaza perfect replacement for Bogut This free agency keeps getting better and better.

[Freeza]

Casuals may feel that way Barrett, but Basketball fans hold those players in no less regard because they ran into better teams.

Agreed.

Never seen anyone not call Maline or Stockton top 5 in their position all time.

Also none of the examples listed aside from Maline and Stockton really created a legacy in one place. Iverson did and that guy is a hero in Philly and everyone knows his greatness.

I just don't think Durant winning a ring with GSW will do much for his legacy. GSW as a team though. They could be one of the most terrifying teams of all time.

[LeSwagg James]

Simmons out here dropping some beautiful dimes

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/750121230909382658

Insane lol, he's going to be so good.

[LeSwagg James]

A different way to look at this story is that yet another great player has avoided LeBron's conference like the plague

[LeSwagg James]

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/750121230909382658

Insane lol, he's going to be so good.

In b4 LeBron joins his young apprentice at the tail end of his career to win additional rings

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Or it could be that all the teams in the East is trash and nobody wants to join them

[McAgger]

Casuals may feel that way Barrett, but Basketball fans hold those players in no less regard because they ran into better teams.

Agreed.

Never seen anyone not call Maline or Stockton top 5 in their position all time.

Also none of the examples listed aside from Maline and Stockton really created a legacy in one place. Iverson did and that guy is a hero in Philly and everyone knows his greatness.

I just don't think Durant winning a ring with GSW will do much for his legacy. GSW as a team though. They could be one of the most terrifying teams of all time.

I think if this Warriors team can go on from here and 3peat (anything else is a bonus) you bet your ass everyone is going to forget about all the hate nonsense and all of these players legacies will be helped.

[LeSwagg James]

Or it could be that all the teams in the East is trash and nobody wants to join them

They could come and build a great team to compete, but the King's presence scares them away

[Blue Barrett]

Barrett, it's perfectly fine to compare Kobe in that conversation. He demanded a trade to Chicago if they didn't get him help. They then went all out and got him some help. The team we had in those years were all Kobe and Lamar Odom. Our third best player was what? Smush Parker? Luke Walton? Kwame Brown? Awful team.

Team Duncan never had had a season below 50 wins. He has never ever had any hardships in his entire career in regards to having a good team and winning. So how exactly is his loyalty valued over Kobe's in this case?

Going by that logic, EVERYONE that ever criticized Lebron's move to Miami owes him a serious apology. This man took a team that started Larry Hughes, Sasha Pavlovic, Drew Gooden and Big Z to the Finals. Kobe struggled with similarly terrible teams, yet when Lebron moved, everyone was going crazy. If you're going to say Kobe was loyal and he just had no help, then you have to say that about Lebron too. Can't have one without the other.

And as for Timmy, I've never seen him as "loyal" either. He has been on 50 win teams for his entire career. I mean, this guy got thrown straight into a team with David Robinson and got a chip right away. Couldn't complain even if he tried.

Casuals may feel that way Barrett, but Basketball fans hold those players in no less regard because they ran into better teams.

You'll be surprised that even a chunk of basketball fans don't remember those guys often. Their names only come up when arguments that require stats pop up.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

They went crazy because he left to join two all stars lol, Bosh was a 20 and 12 guy at the time. Not really hard to understand tbh.

[Luca]

They went crazy because he left to join two all stars lol, Bosh was a 20 and 12 guy at the time. Not really hard to understand tbh.

Not to mention, Bosh, Wade and LeBron were all free agents at the same time. Wade re-signed with the Heat, Bosh second, LeBron capped it off.

There are some parallels with Durant's choice but the two are entirely different and should be treated as such.

First of all, LeBron is considered either the GOAT or one of them, Durant is a superstar in his generation of players but is not in that category.

Second of all, LeBron left his hometown only to return to them a few years later, not only nullifying the decision but almost making it a self-admitted mistake. This talk of loyalty to OKC is blasphemous to me, loyalty in sports is dead. Durant gave the city 9 years, he left as a free agent. This notion that he was bound to Oklahoma because they were one game away from the finals is absurd.

Third of all, Oklahoma traded away Ibaka presumably to make room for Horford to entice Durant to stay. They failed to do so and in the process (while I think Ibaka is somewhat deadweight), did not improve this summer and if anything Oklahoma became weaker through losing Ibaka without replacing him with another max contract type of player. I do think Oladipo is a good player and I like Ilyasova too, but it's not enough to put them above Golden State or even the Spurs with Pau.

Fourth, I think Durant gets flack regardless of his "decision". I mean, let's really think about it. If he chooses OKC, it's probably the best, safest route but unless he takes a long term deal, it just delays the inevitable (and for all we know, he wanted a change of scenery so its unfair to trap him when he's free from contract and has been a great player for them). If he chooses Boston he joins a team that will, at best, be second best in the East and a worse team than OKC, it begs the question: what for? If he chooses LA, or New York, or Dallas, it's the same thing: you left a great thing for a not so great thing. It leaves Golden State, you instantly forge the best team ever but also become the most hated. Every night will be an all star game, it's absurd to think about how amazingly talented this team is going to be. Durant also took a short term deal almost to say, I'm going to evaluate things, I'm not set. I love it from his perspective and I understand the hate at the same time.

[LeSwagg James]

Does anyone know how much he would have been paid to sign a 1+1 with OKC? And the difference in the max contracts he can sign next year?

I want to know how much he loses by going to the Warriors. I know if he just signed a 4 yr contract it would be less than what OKC could give him on a 5 year, but I didn't see him to sign a 1+1 with the Warriors. Its the best thing he could have done tbh.

[Luca]

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2016/6/28/12050498/kevin-durant-contract-salary-money-nba-free-agent-rumors

[LeSwagg James]

I also wonder if the Cavs look to respond now.. David Griffin admitted after the Finals that he could of done a better job building the Cavs to face the Warriors.. It's clear it was in reference to Love imo, he just struggled against them

Now they just got more perimeter oriented and faster.. Maybe he looks to pull the trigger now, or maybe see how they're looking at the trade deadline in February..

[Luca]

I also wonder if the Cavs look to respond now.. David Griffin admitted after the Finals that he could of done a better job building the Cavs to face the Warriors.. It's clear it was in reference to Love imo, he just struggled against them

Now they just got more perimeter oriented and faster.. Maybe he looks to pull the trigger now, or maybe see how they're looking at the trade deadline in February..

What if they manage to sign Wade?

Curry would have to guard one of Wade or Irving

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