Kevin Durant Leaves OKC- Joining Warriors

secund2nun said:

1. They may not be short but they have no size. That will kill them. No center no rim protection.. Also no depth.

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They have a center; one of the best centers in the NBA. They have some rim protection.. Draymond is a better rim protector than Tristan Thompson or Timofey Mozgov ever were.

secund2nun said:

2. Thompson is a good defender but he is not a dpoy quality defender nor is current iggy.

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Klay is absolutely a DPOY quality defender. He got more DPOY votes than LeBron James and is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.

Iggy is an excellent defender, even today.

secund2nun said:

Also curry is not a good defender.

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Sure he is... If good means considerably better than average, then he's absolutely a good defender.

secund2nun said:

He is a poor defender and that's with being surrounded by good defenders and having the luxury of defending the worst offensive player from the opposing team. His trash defense is why we won the title this year.

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That's totally not true.

Curry was second in the league in DRPM behind Ricky Rubio in 2014-15 for his All-NBA level defense. By any definition of the term, Curry is a "good defender."
Can he guard Westbrook and Kyrie? No. But who can?

secund2nun said:

3. Their defense is much worse period.

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No it isn't.

secund2nun said:

No bogut

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He averaged 16 MPG in the playoffs, and was killing them in the PnR. C'mon. They added DURANT.

secund2nun said:

no izeli

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Ezeli's defense is what kept him off the floor. He was one of the worst defenders in the playoffs. Not sure what you're talking about here.

secund2nun said:

no center at all.

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Draymond Green.

secund2nun said:

Green can't play center 48 mins per game.

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He doesn't have to....


I'm going to stop here..

I think a lot of people are really not being objective here or just aren't familiar with the Warriors personnel. They are much better with this trade. I'm not going to argue ref advantages or illegal screens; who the fuck knows what will happen with all of that. What I do know is that the Cavs will have a difficult time trapping/doubling again, which was a big part of our defensive strategy.

p.s.
Folks need to STOP saying they don't have depth.

They have Iggy and Livingston, and they also have the room exception and vet min deals are possible. They could bring back Barbosa and Varejao. Their second unit will very likely run with Durant and Livingston.

Let's slow down with thinking they're somehow fucked by adding a Top 3 player in the league - because if the Cavs had added Durant, nobody would be saying these things.

So we're going to try to trade Love m, under contract for 3+1 more years, for a PG, who while amazingly skilled and athletic is a point guard and ball controller, add him to a team with another all pro PG, on a one year deal.

And we're going to feel comidenr come next summer that he doesn't want to go home to LA or go to Boston/SAS etc where he can be the main guy and sole PG once again?

That is a massive risk. I mean, if he puts out noise that he want to be in Cleveland, that's one thing, but to just trade for him and potentially be in the same spot OKC was just in, exacerbated that it's not an ideal positional fit here w Kyrie, that is just too, too much risk without a commitment

MirORich said:

So we're going to try to trade Love m, under contract for 3+1 more years, for a PG, who while amazingly skilled and athletic is a point guard and ball controller, add him to a team with another all pro PG, on a one year deal.

And we're going to feel comidenr come next summer that he doesn't want to go home to LA or go to Boston/SAS etc where he can be the main guy and sole PG once again?

That is a massive risk. I mean, if he puts out noise that he want to be in Cleveland, that's one thing, but to just trade for him and potentially be in the same spot OKC was just in, exacerbated that it's not an ideal positional fit here w Kyrie, that is just too, too much risk without a commitment

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I really don't see the benefit of a 1-for-1 swap of Westbrook. Honestly think OKC does that in a heartbeat given the player control and cap friendly parameters of Love's deal.

It sounds crazy but I wouldn't even consider a Westbrook for Love swap unless they got someone like Adams as well. The Cavs need a young asset if they're taking the massive risk of watching Russ walk. Given that's not going to happen (Adams as well), I just don't see the fit there.

There really isn't an obvious deal for Love left. Boston signed Horford and it is incredibly unlikely they would gut their depth. I think they're just going to see what happens with Brooklyn next year and then make a decision.

@gourimoko how do you see Durant fitting with Curry specifically? I don't think Draymond and Klay will have too many problems adjusting offensively

gourimoko said:

Cavs are a day late and a dollar short.

Should've been pitching Durant on a S&T.. He wanted to cruise to a ring, we're the champs. And, OKC would've preferred a Love S&T to Durant walking in the same conference.

Sickening....

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I wonder if we'll ever get the story of why we never got involved. Did KD make it clear he wouldn't come to Cleveland, i.e. he preferred Cali if he was going to leave? Or did Bron's ego not like the idea of someone challenging for the thrown in his hometown (Kyrie is still seen as the rising star and we know where Love fits in the pecking order)?

I don't think Golden State is worse, nor do I think they are anything but favorites, but they certainly have holes that, with the right personnel, can be exploited. Now, they very well might have enough offensive firepower to overcome, but they have holes they didn't previously have.

Again, Memphis took two games off of them two years ago and then Mike Conley broke his face. Now they have, finally, a legitimate off the ball offensive weapon who can shoot in Chandler Parsons. If Gasol finds his form, that's a team GOlden State should try and avoid at all costs.

I do feel for Thunder fans. Less than two months ago, they were within one win of the Finals, and now they could be the worst team in the NBA if they trade Westbrook.

batdan said:

@gourimoko how do you see Durant fitting with Curry specifically? I don't think Draymond and Klay will have too many problems adjusting offensively

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From an attitude perspective, in the new Marc Spears Undefeated article, Even though the Ws felt great about their pitch meeting, on his own, Curry texted KD later that night to tell him that he didn't care about shots, rival shoe deals, who gets MVP, that he just wanted to be his teammate.

If they lose some games early like the Heat did first year, we'll see how that holds up but on offense it's hard to not see them as even more dominant, especially against regular season defenses

Rich said:

I don't think Golden State is worse, nor do I think they are anything but favorites, but they certainly have holes that, with the right personnel, can be exploited. Now, they very well might have enough offensive firepower to overcome, but they have holes they didn't previously have.

Again, Memphis took two games off of them two years ago and then Mike Conley broke his face. Now they have, finally, a legitimate off the ball offensive weapon who can shoot in Chandler Parsons. If Gasol finds his form, that's a team GOlden State should try and avoid at all costs.

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A major part to Kerr's coaching was playing with a deep lineup and trusting his bench, even in playoff games. This held true all the way up until the Finals where he finally started to tighten the rotation a bit as the series wore on. With this team potentially nowhere near as deep, that certainly raises some questions. I think they'll go through a little growing pains and don't foresee them gunning for the win record again (they simply aren't built for it this year). But come playoff time, it's really hard to underplay how good they could really be. Teams with more depth and physicality could be their Achilles heel. But lets not kid ourselves, there might only be 2 teams in the league capable of doing that. Fortunately, the Cavaliers are one of those teams - but standing pat definitely isn't possible right now and I hope Griffin is overlooking all options available right now.

castor777 said:

A major part to Kerr's coaching was playing with a deep lineup and trusting his bench, even in playoff games. This held true all the way up until the Finals where he finally started to tighted the rotation quite a bit as the series wore on. With this team potentially nowhere near as deep, that certainly raises some questions. I think they'll go through a little growing pains and don't foresee them gunning for the win record again (they simply aren't built for it this year). But come playoff time, it's really hard to underplay how good they could really be. Teams with more depth are physicality could be their Achilles heel. But lets not kid ourselves, there might only be 2 teams in the league capable of doing that. Fortunately, the Cavaliers are one of those teams - but standing pat definitely isn't an option right now and I hope Griffin is overlooking all options right now.

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The question is how much extra effort they may have to put into winning games in the regular season and how that impacts them in the playoffs. Like, Draymond is going to have to play a lot of center. A lot of it. Iguodala's minutes are going up. Thompson's minutes are going up. CUrry's minutes are going up. If not, if they keep their minutes low and they stay healthy when the playoffs start, yea, everyone is in big trouble.

Welp. That was quick

If we pursued him, we had minutes to offer him behind Kevin and TT, and shared with Channing.

GS was able to pitch him on "there nobody else at center, it's all yours to man as long as you can set some nice illegal moving screens

Things worked out nice and cushy for all parties between GSW\Dallas/and the players from both teams who switched sides by trade or FA

Do people realize we cant accept anyone in a sign and trade because we're so far over the cap ?

They are putting a lot of pressure on Draymond Green. He is not gonna have Bogut/Ezeli eating minutes at the 5. Two championship runs with 73-9 run, Gold medal and banging with centers all year have to takes a toll on him right? Does he become a less effective 3 point shooter with less touches every night in a similar way Love became a liability in the post?

Early indication is Iggy gonna have to play more minutes. Can he hold up?

I feel like the book is out on Steph. Attack him when he is on defense and get physical with him when on offense. If he has to play more minutes how does this affect him at the end of the year?

This team is one injury away from putting a lot of pressure on the big 4.

I also wonder how the NBA is going to take this. Things Warriors used to get away with might not happen anymore which could hurt Curry/Klay and make Iggy less effective on Lebron.

I would be curious to see them match up with Grizzles/Clippers in a 7 game series. Talk about putting pressure on Green. I am hoping Warriors have to run through both squads on there way to the finals.

They do match up with us extremely well. Unless Love could take advantage of mismatches in the post he is basically worthless in this series. That would become a big problem.

Good news is though Cavs big 3 can still get better. Kyrie a better passer, Lebron the better jump shot, and Love bulking up a bit to become a dominant post player again. If we could get 2015 Shump would also be a big help.

Problem for us now though we are also losing depth and exposing Kyrie/Thompson.

It will be interesting to watch though. They still can't guard Kyrie/Lebron.

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