OT Durant to Warriors

[beerfan]

It wasn't that long ago that Garnett and Allen joined up with Pierce to bring Boston a title.

 

[aceboon]

This is an interesting offshoot. Lots of local talk about how no one wants to come to Boston. Weather is awful. Media is harsh. Not a lot to offer from a city perspective (against a Miami or LA). Over time the "destination" seems to factor more in to the decisions and Boston is taking the hit.

Missing another big element about the negativity surrounding Boston...

 

[tzznandrew]

Missing another big element about the negativity surrounding Boston...

Boston's changed a great deal and is starting to shed that image, but there's a reason it took a good deal of convincing to get Garnett to accept Boston as a place to play.

 

[aceboon]

Boston's changed a great deal and is starting to shed that image, but there's a reason it took a good deal of convincing to get Garnett to accept Boston as a place to play.

Yea Garnett was well aware of what happened with Russell. And you already know I'm originally from Boston, I only lived there on a permanent basis until age 11(still have family there that I visit often) and by 11 I had experienced enough racist encounters to fill up a lifetime.

 

[Adios]

This is an interesting offshoot. Lots of local talk about how no one wants to come to Boston. Weather is awful. Media is harsh. Not a lot to offer from a city perspective (against a Miami or LA). Over time the "destination" seems to factor more in to the decisions and Boston is taking the hit.

Have you moved out of New England yet?

Here's a little gold nugget from espn.com...

"...and as those close to Durant often say, he has a bad habit of telling people what he thinks they wanted to hear."

 

[FartMan69]

It wasn't that long ago that Garnett and Allen joined up with Pierce to bring Boston a title.

They were traded there.

 

[David 76]

Oh so OKC sucked. And didn't have Oladipo coming in. The team that had GS on the ropes 3-1. Yeah, good for KD to get himself out of such an awful basketball situation.

I think, if you try, you can get my point.

 

[FartMan69]

This is an interesting offshoot. Lots of local talk about how no one wants to come to Boston. Weather is awful. Media is harsh. Not a lot to offer from a city perspective (against a Miami or LA). Over time the "destination" seems to factor more in to the decisions and Boston is taking the hit.

In a league where any team can offer max money it makes local environment a huge deal. The Sox can throw more money than most, the Pats are the best run organization of the last 15 years and hockey players are insane people so Boston is right up there alley. Pro basketball is just a different animal and it hurts the modern day Celtics.

 

[FartMan69]

Oh so OKC sucked. And didn't have Oladipo coming in. The team that had GS on the ropes 3-1. Yeah, good for KD to get himself out of such an awful basketball situation.

You really think Westbrook wants to spend the rest of his career in OKC? It'd be crazier to think he doesn't want his own Free Agent show and why would KD want to be the one on the hook? IMO he knew Russell wanted to explore and to blame him for going to the best possible situation to do the one thing that's dogged his career is laughable.

 

[Excalibur]

They were traded there.

The deal was contingent on Garnett agreeing to a three-year extension, which he did . . .

 

[Deepster]

Missing another big element about the negativity surrounding Boston...

I didn't touch that one since I didn't want to speculate. You can't argue the weather and media points. Yeah, Boston also has a racist reputation. That can't help either.

 

[superjohn]

In a league where any team can offer max money it makes local environment a huge deal. The Sox can throw more money than most, the Pats are the best run organization of the last 15 years and hockey players are insane people so Boston is right up there alley. Pro basketball is just a different animal and it hurts the modern day Celtics.

I don't understand this post at all. Boston is for insane people and it hurts the modern day Celtics? What am I missing?

 

[FartMan69]

I don't understand this post at all. Boston is for insane people and it hurts the modern day Celtics? What am I missing?

I was half joking about hockey players being insane but it is a hockey crazy city hence the attraction for FA's. For some reason or another and I guess that can be debated but obviously NBA stars don't see the Boston and the Celtics as attractive as players from other sports see the Pats, Sox or B's. Can that even be debated?

 

[superjohn]

I was half joking about hockey players being insane but it is a hockey crazy city hence the attraction for FA's. For some reason or another and I guess that can be debated but obviously NBA stars don't see the Boston and the Celtics as attractive as players from other sports see the Pats, Sox or B's. Can that even be debated?

Garnett, Allen and Pierce did. The top free agents want to go to a place they can win it all right away, that's not happening in Boston. Look at the Knicks, the top free agents won't even visit NYC. Anyways, Celtics got Horford.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

My take on this is that Durant saw a few options:

1) He stays in OKC and never wins a title.
2) He stays in OKC, makes a big run and wins a title.
3) He goes to a team like the Celtics and Wizards and repeats option 1 and 2.
4) He goes to GS and wins 2-3 titles.

Barring something catastrophic, they're going to win 68-70 games a year, go deep into the playoffs every year and be "must see TV" for the next couple years (at least). I think that's more fun than going to the Wizards and trying to gut out something as a 5 seed and no homecourt advantage for the rest of his prime.

There is also a nightmare scenario #5) He goes to Golden State and they fail to win while he is there. Doesn't seems likely, but it is possible. And if that happens, KD's legacy is trashed forever.

 

[Adios]

Some OKC fans in OK are even beginning to speculate if the franchise is going to be relocated.

 

[tzznandrew]

Some OKC fans in OK are even beginning to speculate if the franchise is going to be relocated.

I'd feel bad for some fans, but I feel no guilt for this franchise. They moved the team out of Seattle, they cheaped their way out of a potential dynasty.

This is a team that could have been playing:

Reggie Jackson
Russell Westbrook
James Harden
Kevin Durant
Serge Ibaka

Even if Ibaka still develops the way he did, that could be a FA draw for a serviceable big.

Instead, they traded Harden (and essentially only ended up with Adams, who is good but took a few years to develop).

They refused to get rid of their coach, a coach who could not figure out how to develop an offense to accommodate anyone besides Durant and Westbrook, and whose offense was so simple that teams with enough athleticism could stymie it.

That bred ill will, and led to the Jackson trade.

This is what the Thunder brass deserved.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Garnett, Allen and Pierce did. The top free agents want to go to a place they can win it all right away, that's not happening in Boston. Look at the Knicks, the top free agents won't even visit NYC. Anyways, Celtics got Horford.

The Celtics are quite possibly the second best team in the East at this moment. They have the best young coach in the league, a very savvy GM, more fan support than most teams, a huge stockpile of picks, young talent, and cap space. Yeah, why would anyone go there?

 

[tzznandrew]

The Celtics are quite possibly the second best team in the East at this moment. They have the best young coach in the league, a very savvy GM, more fan support than most teams, a huge stockpile of picks, young talent, and cap space. Yeah, why would anyone go there?

Yeah, if they finally luck out in the lottery, they could get a good young player to go with the young core (Horford really being the only older player), and they could probably lure someone in.

What Deep and Ace were alluding to is real, make no mistakes. And athletes were well aware of it. "A Flea Market of Racism"

As someone who moved to Boston in the late 2000s, it's not as apparent. The particularly racist areas have been broken up (Southie) and the older people who participated in bussing have either fled south to Norwood and those areas, or north to towns like Bellerica. But it's still here to an extent, and it has justifiably taken a while to shed its image (and while my wife is hispanic and not really experienced it, I'd probably defer to someone who is black to really tell me if it's as strong as it still was in the early 1990s).

 

[superjohn]

The Celtics are quite possibly the second best team in the East at this moment. They have the best young coach in the league, a very savvy GM, more fan support than most teams, a huge stockpile of picks, young talent, and cap space. Yeah, why would anyone go there?

I already told you they couldn't win it all next year, a guy like Durant isn't going to leave an already better team to go to Boston when he could sign with the Warriors and be the odds on favorite. I like Steven's a lot and the Celtics bright future but if you think they are ready to win it all now you are clueless.

 

[superjohn]

Yeah, if they finally luck out in the lottery, they could get a good young player to go with the young core (Horford really being the only older player), and they could probably lure someone in.

What Deep and Ace were alluding to is real, make no mistakes. And athletes were well aware of it. "A Flea Market of Racism"

As someone who moved to Boston in the late 2000s, it's not as apparent. The particularly racist areas have been broken up (Southie) and the older people who participated in bussing have either fled south to Norwood and those areas, or north to towns like Bellerica. But it's still here to an extent, and it has justifiably taken a while to shed its image (and while my wife is hispanic and not really experienced it, I'd probably defer to someone who is black to really tell me if it's as strong as it still was in the early 1990s).

I've met some really racist people from Boston but I have to imagine the whole Boston is a racist town stuff is more a relic of the past. I've met some really racist people in Chicago as well and they look a lot like your Boston racists. Mostly Irish people from neighborhoods that were all Irish a million years ago and became much more black in the 60's. They aren't too bright and think their neighborhoods and country has been stolen from them, on the national level these are your Trump supporters.

 

[auror]

Here is the problem however. The Warriors should not be able to afford him. There is no way that any team with that roster should have the cap space available for Durant. The new cap, plus the max contract structure, allows super teams to be built and eliminates any chance at parity. It makes the NBA a joke league. As much as I don't like these insane salaries, if the cap is up, the max contract number needs to increase, so that this isn't possible. A team like Boston should have been able to pay him more than GS could.

Agreed, but the league couldn't smooth the cap increase because the Player's Association blocked it. Hopefully the season is exciting and dynamic and not boring due to 5 years of super teams. Could come back to backfire on the players in the long term.

But it probably won't. People like greatness and for all everyone's bitching, the Warriors should be GREAT.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yeah, if they finally luck out in the lottery, they could get a good young player to go with the young core (Horford really being the only older player), and they could probably lure someone in.

What Deep and Ace were alluding to is real, make no mistakes. And athletes were well aware of it. "A Flea Market of Racism"

As someone who moved to Boston in the late 2000s, it's not as apparent. The particularly racist areas have been broken up (Southie) and the older people who participated in bussing have either fled south to Norwood and those areas, or north to towns like Bellerica. But it's still here to an extent, and it has justifiably taken a while to shed its image (and while my wife is hispanic and not really experienced it, I'd probably defer to someone who is black to really tell me if it's as strong as it still was in the early 1990s).

I think people confuse racism with prejudice. I moved to the Boston area in 1999, and even lived in Southie for a couple of years. Those that opposed busing in Southie had many valid complaints, and busing was a terribly disruptive force. Did you get bused many miles away from your good friend who lived two doors down the street? That's what happened really, neighborhoods and relationships were destroyed. It was a mess.

I think Boston has improved a lot on race relations, but like most northern cities, lacks a well integrated African American middle class. The cities in the south are really much further along. But Boston sports fans certainly don't hesitate to support black athletes at this point in time.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I already told you they couldn't win it all next year, a guy like Durant isn't going to leave an already better team to go to Boston when he could sign with the Warriors and be the odds on favorite. I like Steven's a lot and the Celtics bright future but if you think they are ready to win it all now you are clueless.

With Horoford and Durant, they'd be as good as Cleveland is. Win it all? I would have pegged GS for that even before Durant, but you never know. I don't fault him for signing with Golden State, but to suggest that Boston isn't currently attractive to free agents looking to win is just wrong.

 

[superjohn]

With Horoford and Durant, they'd be as good as Cleveland is. Win it all? I would have pegged GS for that even before Durant, but you never know. I don't fault him for signing with Golden State, but to suggest that Boston isn't currently attractive to free agents looking to win is just wrong.

They aren't nearly as attractive as the teams that could win it all next year. They weren't getting Horford and Durant and even with that they wouldn't be as good as Cleveland. Take your Boston fan glasses off for a second, give me a break.