Of course Shawn Kemp in his prime was straight up nasty.
Success is Not the Same Thing As Love: Kevin Durant’s Strange Golden State Predicament
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/6...curry-warriors
These have been interesting times for Durant and his legacy. He chose to go play for the Warriors. He went to go find basketball nirvana, to be part of something beautiful. And there have been moments where even the most vocal haters have had to admit that Golden State’s play in the Durant era has reached beyond great, beyond historic, and into something nearing the sublime. Those haters don’t have to appreciate the team. Nobody has to appreciate anything, ever. Just because a thing is impressive doesn’t mean it can’t also be lame. But it’s been impossible to watch some of the possessions they’ve had these last couple seasons and not confront the fact that what they were doing both offensively and defensively was ninja stuff. I know this because I’ve tried denying that truth. I hate the Warriors. I think they’re gross. I don’t have any fun watching them play. But there are moments they’ve operated on another plane of basketball existence, up beyond the clouds, in the gold stuff, the rest of the league by comparison wallowing in the dirt and the grass and the mud. And while things this postseason maybe didn’t go near as smooth as anticipated, they wound up where pretty much everyone thought they would—rings on their fingers, too much for Cleveland.
Durant was inducted into the state of Oklahoma’s Hall of Fame a year before Westbrook. He opened a restaurant in downtown Oklahoma City. KD’s Southern Cuisine. The food was somewhere between fine and mediocre. It was overpriced. The decorations were basically an ESPY, some game worn shoes, a couple signed basketballs, and televisions. People ate there anyway. Fans went so hard for him The Oklahoman issued an apology for a headline—shouts to Mr. Unreliable, which somehow happened only four years ago, not the million it feels like—that criticized him harshly. Then he went west and the cupcakes came out. He may well reach favorite son status again for some other city if, somehow, he leaves the Bay, but he’ll never be one in Golden State. Their own fans admit as much. This is not an original thing to type, but they’re just never going to feel about him the way they feel about Steph, or Draymond, or Klay. You might could throw Iguodala into the mix there. Maybe even Shaun Livingston. I mean, it seems like people at Oracle get more excited when JaVale dunks on no one than they do when Durant does something. And that ultimately doesn’t matter, really. Love is not a prerequisite for success.
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The newness of Durant’s decision to go to the Warriors has worn off, but it bears repeating that it’s still just absolutely wild he went there. What if James Harden was a free agent this summer and, after taking them right up to the brink, signed with Golden State? People’s reactions to LeBron going to Miami were so outsized, so visceral, so angry, that when Durant made his decision, we may have overcorrected, scared to death to come off like sports talk clowns. People tried like crazy to act like it wasn’t what it was: a lame move that made the league way more predictable.Durant’s not going anywhere. He’s signing with them again this offseason. He clearly doesn’t pay attention to podcast professional C.J. McCollum’s Twitter activity. There was a faction of the internet that claimed that in 25 years, nobody will remember how he got to Golden State. They’ll only remember the titles. Context be damned.
That feels less and less true every day. People will remember. It was too huge a move to forget. He has two rings now and two Finals MVPs to go along with them. A few hours after the game of his life he had to be lightly restrained from going at a Cavs fan who heckled him. He’s winning and losing at the same time.
I read that article - it was poorly written drivel and more pretentious than me after my grades come in.
My favorite part is that narrative that he played poorly in Houston - no he played poorly by his standards. He still put up good games. That's sort of the point - when he's not efficient just putting out a performance akin to a normal all-star player.
Then we get to the point where he was being blamed. Of course he was being blamed. He's the player that is new to the machine. And yet even he is off, he still takes high percentage shots when you factor in his skill. You trade some of the high flying three pointing shooting with KD to have a more consistent offense. And when Golden State goes cold now, it's not like when it got cold in the past. Klay Thompson is one of the streakiest shooters in the game, and while he can go off, he typically is less likely to have insane scoring games. Steph is less streaky, but still goes quiet for large stretches. Remember game seven when Harrison Barnes, Barnes?!??! shot the Warriors out of that game? Remember when the Warriors lost some offense when Bogut was on the court, but loved his defense? Or when Green and Igy were better shooters because they got more shots to find a rhythm, but would still just be slightly above average?
Those are the reasons why the first title against an injured Cavs team meant very little. And those are the reasons why the Warriors admitted when they were chasing the 73 win record that they got gassed in the playoffs. You know what cures that? KD. Oh, you need a volume shooter who is slightly efficient (overall) in a game because the sharpshooters are off? KD. Oh, you need 26 points on efficient shooting? KD. You need someone to hover between those two extremes? KD. Post game? KD. Three point shots? KD. Mid-range game necessary? KD. A good passer? KD.
He doesn't really have *bad games* when compared to almost anyone else. As far as scoring goes, he's the most complete scorer overall...ever. This isn't some cute center taking three wide open 3's a game and making two of them. It's not some guard with a nice little post game. It's an offensive player literally being good at everything on offense, and great at many things.
The article also gets it wrong on which player was more beloved. RWB was favored not just by the idiot front office man, and being thought to be 'better' doesn't mean that KD was favored by the fans. KD was considered the best player, but Russ was beloved because he was the guy getting beat up on by the media, and he was just scrutinized too much! It wasn't fair!
And as far as being beloved in GS, that was the biggest reach of a take I've seen in ages. They love KD. They go nuts for him. I've heard the crowds pop for Draymond, Klay, et al. The only person who gets a louder pop than Durant in Oracle is Steph. Steph is the golden child. And even if KD was a golden child in OKC, we know how much being loved there meant to him when weighed against the cancer known as RWB.
Then this article is incredibly disrespectful saying he could one day be a top 15 player. He already IS a top 15 player. Go ahead name 15 better. Once you get past 10 you're going to start seeing a bunch of names of guys that at their best aren't as good as KD. Guys that, maybe sure, overall had better careers, but, if you're being honest with yourself you'd probably just take the ten years of KD that you have now because you're still getting 7 years of better basketball.
Then we get to that "people will remember," line and sure, they will. They will remember in the same way they remember that Kobe was barely a top ten player in the league when he got his first two rings. Or in the same way that people remember that Tom Brady was a game manager on his first two rings. Or in the same way that almost no one cares that LBJ got his first rings in Miami (so much for 25 years, haha). Or they will remember how Hakeem didn't win his rings when MJ was in the finals. Or that David Robertson's only titled came in a shortened season. Spare me. The cult of rings is about being cultish over rings. They mocked Gary Payton for not having a ring, then he was a role player in Miami and that stopped. The league wanted Karl Malone to snatch a ring when he was a Laker.
Make this understood - people are already seeing how without KD the Warriors can't even go back to back. It's his team on the court. And sure, some opponents might mean that iterations of the offense best go through Steph, but when it's on the line in the finals, KD is the man. Game three, in the finals, consecutive years, he took shots that Steph could make, those are KD's moments.
Don't you ever post that shit again, Abe. If you do, I'll drop 43 points on you and I'll win that game!
one of the more interesting scenarios out there, IMO, is the possibility of lebron going to san antonio. . . it only works if they can re-sign kawhi and move aldridge, but LBJ and pop teaming up to take on the league's super villain would be entertaining stuff. . . that spurs culture and ball movement, with two elite scorers who can also lock down the wings on defense, would be a potent force. . .
Apparently there's a way LA can get LBJ, CP3, and then a trade for George. That's interesting.
Another idea was him to Boston and then trading Kyrie/Hayward/both for a dominant scoring shooter.
Philly would be interesting. I don't think having him and Simmons is a bad form of redundancy. Some like it a lot, others don't, but it would be interesting.
It'll be really fun to watch it develop.
if he wants to challenge GS, i think he needs to land in houston, boston, or san antonio. . . i don't think philly's young talent can compete at the highest level, and the lakers supporting cast would be junk. . . pair him with pop or brad stevens, they might at least have a chance. . .
i'm not saying they can't build a potentially very good team. . . i'm not sold they can build a team to compete with GS, though. . . they basically have zero core pieces in place, and they don't have the culture or the coaching staff that teams like SA and boston do. . . they would have to build from the ground up, and that's a process that takes time-- time that bron doesn't have at 33, even he is gonna slow down some pretty soon. . . granted, other teams would also have to make changes to accommodate him, but the three squads i mentioned all have existing chemistry, and most importantly, a strong defensive foundation and work ethic already in place. . . which is critical, because you aren't beating GS just by outscoring them. . .
Houston is already good enough to beat golden state. I don’t know why cp3 would go anywhere.
Out of the “no shit” category we get...
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