NBA 2016-17 Season Thread - Knicks in 6

Since competition in the NBA is such a farce I look forward to LeBron opting out to join the Warriors this off season so they can reel off 10 or so in a row and we can let this ring discussion go.

Might as well go all out and really stomp out any competition.

Maybe they can all take the league minimum so they can have 12 all-stars on their roster.

They can go 98-0.

Spurs had some real bad luck this postseason with injuries. Healthy I think they had a real shot at it.

Where is your applause for Durant?

With the way this postseason has gone I wouldn't be surprised if Klay ends up being trade bait. Keep Durant and Steph. Would be sad to see Klay go, but he's been a non-factor for the most part.

Gaige said:

Where is your applause for Durant?

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Doesn't really deserve applause for picking the low hanging fruit. But less hate than Lebron should get.

zzeris said:

Not only the one superstar though. He pushed and got Love. Love was one of the hottest FAs for that year and a legit superstar. He has to play third fiddle now but has lit Boston the fuck up. It's hard when both LBJ and Kyrie need their shots but that team has been loaded since it first hit the court. The only difference is that GS built their team from the ground up and Cleveland hired out for most of the elite talent. Sour grapes from pussies who only think Lebron is allowed to build super teams.

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Cleveland drafted 3 of their big 4 and traded Wiggins for Love.

Irving - drafted
LeBron - drafted
Thompson - drafted
Love - trade

Not to mention Cleveland is the ONLY place Love wanted to play. Hard to pin that on LeBron.

Sour grapes for making a comparison? I don't care. LeBron got Cleveland a title last year over a 73 win team. He's good as far as I care. He doesn't need more rings. He just needs to work on putting these all time records out of reach.

So GSW in 5 so they don't celebrate on the Cavs home floor.

Just for the sake of factual clarity though he came back after he played out his Heat contract. Free agents have no obligations hence free agent. He went to a better team. Same reason everyone seems to give Durant a pass.

No one is giving Durant a pass. People just screw up their faces in a "huh?" look when Cavs fans start trying to make Durant out to be worse than Lebron. It's laughable.

Edit: "worse" in the sense that it was a worse move on his part leaving OKC versus Lebron leaving Cleveland.

It was worse because he went to the team that beat him, a 73 win team who had been to back to back finals.

Gaige said:

It was worse because he went to the team that beat him, a 73 win team who had been to back to back finals.

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That's not worse. You noted Lebron leaving Miami then "going to a better team" in returning to Cleveland...Durant literally did same thing in leaving a worse team to go to a better one. A worse one where his relationship with their other all star caliber player has always been rather off. The point also remains the rest of us are comparing Durant leaving OKC to Lebron leaving Cleveland to go to Miami. Lebron left the team with the best record in the league two years running to go form a super team, whereas Durant left a worse team to go to a better team.

zzeris said:

Exactly. That's all I've cared about. Proving the hypocrisy because they all do it. I wanted LBJ to win last year. Cleveland needed a championship in the worst way. I don't think they would have gotten one without him so congrats to him and them. LBJ will never be MJ's equal so he can have at it while the Warriors build another minor dynasty. Rings...that's all that will matter a decade from now. RINGS, baby!

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Cleveland did need a championship, but I didn't want Lebron to be the one to bring it to them after he ditched them and eviscerated the entire city when he took his talents to South Beach. Seriously biggest beta move ever, and worse thing done by an athlete to their home city, maybe ever. Guys dream about being able to get drafted by their home team and leading them to glory. Him coming back and winning a title doesn't erase the terribleness of The Decision. I hope Lebron ends up setting the record for most losses in the Finals.

Alex said:

With the way this postseason has gone I wouldn't be surprised if Klay ends up being trade bait. Keep Durant and Steph. Would be sad to see Klay go, but he's been a non-factor for the most part.

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I'd be very surprised if they looked to ship him this summer. He's had a bad shooting playoffs, but he still plays the D and always has the potential to go off for 30+ without needing the ball in his hands a lot. Time and again we see that the Warriors org rates Klay higher than most fans. A few years ago there were fans that were willing to trade all of Klay+Green+Barnes for Kevin Love lol, while the org might not have even gone for a straight up Klay for Love deal.

The only reason I think they'd consider moving him now would be if they were having trouble finding enough money to keep both Steph and Durant, and found a deal where they could ship Klay for a top 5 pick and a smaller contract to save 5 million or something. But I'm optimistic Steph and KD will be willing to take a bit less in order to keep it all together. Then they'll have the 4 locked up til 2019. Summer of 2018 they might start to evaluate Klay trades if it doesn't look like they'll be able to keep him when his contract expires. I could definitely see Klay going to the Lakers in '19 for a max deal and more shots.