Sources: Kevin Durant will be Warriors' top target in free agency

Jenky

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Manwiththeplan

Manwiththeplan

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I'd be shocked if he didn't sign a 2 year deal with OKC with an opt out after year 1. Makes more sense to make 1 more run at a title with Westbrook, then they both hit free agency together.
 

bigdnlaca

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I think Golden State will go after that Biyombo dude. He cant resign in Toronto because he will go back to the bench.

In Golden State he will be a starter playing with Green in the middle.
 
CalPolyTechnique

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bigdnlaca said:
I think Golden State will go after that Biyombo dude. He cant resign in Toronto because he will go back to the bench.

In Golden State he will be a starter playing with Green in the middle.
Click to expand...

Biyombo would be the center in Golden State.
 
dogunwo

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bigdnlaca said:
I think Golden State will go after that Biyombo dude. He cant resign in Toronto because he will go back to the bench.

In Golden State he will be a starter playing with Green in the middle.
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I don't know about that. Biyombo gives you nothing offensively. He's an elite low post defender, but he can be taken out of games by stretch big men. They already have that dude in Festus Ezeli.
 
bounce

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Durant is everybody's top target in free agency.

Honestly, though, that would be a terrible signing for GS and Durant. In an all-star game, sure...but all three of those guys (Steph, Klay, Durant) are volume guys. The biggest knock in OKC was that Westbrook didn't defer to KD enough, right or wrong. So, the defending two-time MVP scoring leader solves that problem? Or the 22ppg all-NBA guy on the wing? Iguodala worked because he changed his role entirely. Durant isn't becoming a defensive stopper, or a bench guy. Curry takes ~20 shots a game, Klay takes ~17. Durant currently takes about 20...where are those shots coming from in GS? It would take them two years and some trades before they figured out that system.

Not to mention, there's no way a guy jumps ship to the team that just knocked him out, when it's just marginally better.

Gut feeling, he's back in OKC on a 1+1 deal.
 
CalPolyTechnique

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bounce said:
Durant is everybody's top target in free agency.

Honestly, though, that would be a terrible signing for GS and Durant. In an all-star game, sure...but all three of those guys (Steph, Klay, Durant) are volume guys. The biggest knock in OKC was that Westbrook didn't defer to KD enough, right or wrong. So, the defending two-time MVP scoring leader solves that problem? Or the 22ppg all-NBA guy on the wing? Iguodala worked because he changed his role entirely. Durant isn't becoming a defensive stopper, or a bench guy. Curry takes ~20 shots a game, Klay takes ~17. Durant currently takes about 20...where are those shots coming from in GS? It would take them two years and some trades before they figured out that system.

Not to mention, there's no way a guy jumps ship to the team that just knocked him out, when it's just marginally better.

Gut feeling, he's back in OKC on a 1+1 deal.
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Curry averaged 20 shots per game, but he also shot +50% from the field. Thompson averaged a little over 17 shots per game and shot 47%. You want the guys taking the most shots to be making them at a high percentage, which they were. Allen Iverson was a true example of a "volume" shooter that negatively impacted his teams.

BTW, Westbrook and Durant averaged 18.1 and 19.2 shots per game respectively.

Hypothetically speaking, Durant would be taking over in part the shots vacated by Harrison Barnes, whom likely would be gone. Also, I would also expect Curry and Thompson to willingly defer to a proven scorer like Durant.
 
bounce

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CalPolyTechnique said:
Curry averaged 20 shots per game, but he also shot +50% from the field. Thompson averaged a little over 17 shots per game and shot 47%. You want the guys taking the most shots to be making them at a high percentage, which they were. Allen Iverson was a true example of a "volume" shooter that negatively impacted his teams.

BTW, Westbrook and Durant averaged 18.1 and 19.2 shots per game respectively.

Hypothetically speaking, Durant would be taking over in part the shots vacated by Harrison Barnes, whom likely would be gone. Also, I would also expect Curry and Thompson to willingly defer to a proven scorer like Durant.
Click to expand...

I get all that - but all three of them need the ball in their hands. You're not going to have a split of three guys (wing guys) getting ~15-20 shots a game, especially with them being fairly streaky.

(I know that Westbrook didn't take as many shots as KD, but a huge knock was that he didn't defer MORE. It sort of tapered off this year, but for the previous few it was also WB bearing the brunt of the criticism.)

Add Draymond to that, and is simply just a shortage of looks for these guys, and I just can't see it working.

Now, don't get me wrong, if you have a chance to get one of the top 5 guys in the league, you do it, and figure out the rest later. If Golden State can land Durant, they'd be fools not to do it -- I just couldn't see it working that well for a while. It took the Heat a half season to figure it out, and they were totally different roles. All still moot, because I just can't see him jumping to the Warriors.
 
CalPolyTechnique

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bounce said:
I get all that - but all three of them need the ball in their hands. You're not going to have a split of three guys (wing guys) getting ~15-20 shots a game, especially with them being fairly streaky.

(I know that Westbrook didn't take as many shots as KD, but a huge knock was that he didn't defer MORE. It sort of tapered off this year, but for the previous few it was also WB bearing the brunt of the criticism.)

Add Draymond to that, and is simply just a shortage of looks for these guys, and I just can't see it working.

Now, don't get me wrong, if you have a chance to get one of the top 5 guys in the league, you do it, and figure out the rest later. If Golden State can land Durant, they'd be fools not to do it -- I just couldn't see it working that well for a while. It took the Heat a half season to figure it out, and they were totally different roles. All still moot, because I just can't see him jumping to the Warriors.
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I think GSW is a different beast though. Their offense is predicated on spacing (created by proficient outside shooters) and swinging the ball out to the open man on the perimeter or passing it inside to a cutter freed from a defender running/chasing out. Also, I think a lot of what you're saying is based on the presumption that guys like Klay and Curry will demand to have the same number of looks. I just don't agree with that. This is a team that led the entire league in assists by a wide margin.
 
FuzzyLumpkins

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Sam I Am said:
The Spurs should be burned to the ground.
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"Look, we're not the San Antonio Spurs," Durant said. "We're not going to make 30 passes in a possession. We're not that. Of course, people want us to be that. That's great basketball, don't get me wrong. But we're not that. We've got guys that can score. We've got two guys on this team that can get a bucket. There's going to be times we gotta iso, there's going to be times we gotta be aggressive to look for our shot to make a play."
 
FuzzyLumpkins

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"I know how important this time is," Durant said. "Like I've been saying all season, I have people I trust. I have all the trust in the world in them that we'll sit down and figure this thing out, figure out what's best for me. It's a little bit more complicated now, because it's still a few weeks away.

"I'm worried about basketball," he said. "That's what it is for me. It's a basketball decision."

Asked what he means by a "basketball decision," Durant said it's not necessarily about the spotlight or the money.

"Just who I'm going to be playing with and the people I'm going to be around every single day, that's what it's all about for me," Durant told ESPN.com in an interview at Stubb's Bar-B-Q in downtown Austin. "You tend to hear about the market and the opportunities you can get off the basketball court, but I'm blessed, man, to be making what I make as a basketball player."
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http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16371994/kevin-durant-free-agency-basketball-decision
 
ABQCOWBOY

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I don't think Durant fits in GS either. Warriors lead the league in Assists but Assists to who? Curry and Thompson were the benefactors of this. The scoring is a two player deal in GS. Heck, even Green's production was a distant 3rd to those two and this guy shoots 49% from the field. If Durant were to go to GS, it would have to be a deal in which he has to give up shots IMO. I don't see Curry giving up the ball and Thompson is actually a better Three Point Shooter then Durant so why would you take the ball out of his hands? The thing that saves GS from the rest of the league is that they have two guys who can shoot the three with exceptional accuracy. If you change the offense and go away from that, then their size shows up and that's bad. They probably should have lost to OKC in the Conference Finals and it was specifically because OKC went big on them.

If Durant is OK with giving up his offense, then yeah, it could work because the only reason GS wants Durant is for ISO situations when they need buckets in the crunch that are outside of their current Offense. They need playoff baskets in one on one situations and Durant can do that but that's not the Offense GS can play very much if they want to win. Would Durant do that? Could he do that? That's a lot of money to pay and if Durant isn't satisfied with anywhere from a 3rd to half the shots he is currently seeing in OKC, it's probably not going to work.

JMO
 
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