nixluva wrote:Only way I see OKC getting to the next level is a quality PG who can make better decisions late in games. KD and Westbrook are just not making smart TEAM plays when they need to play team ball.

They have Cameron Payne, who I like a lot- unfortunately he wasn't ready to majorly contribute this season, but longer term he's just what they need.

GustavBahler wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:

GustavBahler wrote:Might be the last time we see Durant and Westbrook on the same team. My guess is that OKC mgmt will look for a third star to form a big three to keep Westbrook and Durant in OKC.

they are capped out

They have some good pieces to offer in a trade.

They only have two possible trade chips, Kanter and Ibaka. They need both players and just signed Kanter to a long deal. The problem is people might not value Kanter and Ibaka will be a FA next summer. OKC needs to upgrade their 2 guard and back up wings.

yellowboy90 wrote:

GustavBahler wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:

GustavBahler wrote:Might be the last time we see Durant and Westbrook on the same team. My guess is that OKC mgmt will look for a third star to form a big three to keep Westbrook and Durant in OKC.

they are capped out

They have some good pieces to offer in a trade.

They only have two possible trade chips, Kanter and Ibaka. They need both players and just signed Kanter to a long deal. The problem is people might not value Kanter and Ibaka will be a FA next summer. OKC needs to upgrade their 2 guard and back up wings.

They could do a sign and trade with Adams as well. I wouldnt trade him unless it was for an elite player. Im guessing that Kanter would be traded first, if at all. There is some room for OKC to maneuver IMO.

Adams, at least from my point of view, is fantastic, dependable, and slowly getting better, and radically underpaid at $3 million. He's probably quite tradable but who you gonna get to replace him? He's worth, IMO, near max money.

NumberTwoPencil wrote:I'm not sure what OKC might get for them but I'd trade Waiters and Ibaka for lesser but smarter players. A sign-n-trade might work for Waiters, he's underpaid (I guess, he's getting about $5.5 million this year and he didn't resign during the season). Ibaka has one more year left but I'd guess any number of teams might want to pay him what he's getting, roughly $12.5 million this year and next.

Adams, at least from my point of view, is fantastic, dependable, and slowly getting better, and radically underpaid at $3 million. He's probably quite tradable but who you gonna get to replace him? He's worth, IMO, near max money.

Adams was one of the main reasons that they got here and almost won ... no way in hell I get rid of him. Not even for Rolo.

TPercy wrote:

mreinman wrote:

Chandler wrote:And I'd say hats off to both teams. OKC definitely choked but they beat GS 3 out of 7 and Klay Thompson had to play possessed in game 6 for there even to be a game 7. I mean he's great, but that performance was amazing

GS definitely showed guts and composure. A lot of the announcers were talking about OKC arguing, eye rolls etc. Didn't see that on GS and it may have been the difference between the two teams. One really trusted their teammates, and the other -- more questionable

I continue to think -- despite his assist stats -- Westbrook should be playing the 2 spot. You have to think they have assets to swing a trade with Atlanta for one of their pgs

Klay was definitely a hero but dray also played pretty badly. I think that Cleveland will have no way of stopping Dray.

Westbrook seems to need the ball in his hands way too much so I don't see him deferring to another PG that easily. What Westbrook needs is to know when its time to play with some brains. I never cared for him but he showed that he can potentially be one of the top couple of players in the league, but he also showed that he can still be a selfish dunce with a low IQ when it counts.

You point about GSW trusting his team ... look at how many times Curry just gives up the ball and makes the correct unselfish basketball play and he is freakin steph curry.

Someone mentioned in the game thread yesterday that Kerr is overrated ... way off in my opinion.

That was me. He is a great coach, but I thought that GSW had multiple recurring mistakes throughout the series that could have been fixed. I thought there were improvements made in game 7 that played very well in his favor.

Kerr is a great coach, but this is a series OKC lost. When westbrook and durant were passing (instead of driving) OKCs turnovers were way down and they were humming. Not sure why they veered from that; couldn't see what adjustments GSW made to stop that

was also surprised that Donovan shied away from Kanter. He seemed effective when teamed with Adams because the latter had reasonably quick feet on defense

still hats off to both; okc has a whole summer to stew over this series (GSW in contrast needs to send extra thank you notes to the NBA and the refs)

DrAlphaeus wrote:Billy Donovan's comments about trying to build better habits for next season I found interesting. Westbrook seems like the type of guy a 90s Zen Master Phil could get to buy into a team concept and get him to that next level. Russell is a maniac but seems like his ****iness got the best of him. Snickering at that defense question was not a good look — and I'm a fan of his game.

I swing back and forth from being amazed and kinda hating on the Ws. Amazed because its like watching NBA Jam version of the Warriors. Hating because its so different from the basketball I grew up watching in the 90s. Possibly the best backcourt ever made of sons of NBA players. Growing up with intimate knowledge of the league, it's almost like they hatched from some David Stern eugenics lab! Is this the new normal? Jerian Grant, hope you were paying attention to your father and uncle at the barbeques!

A NY Times commenter said that this team is def better than the 72-win Bulls because folks forget that expansion spread out the talent pool. An interesting observation.

The opposite of that last part is that the expansion diluting the league makes the Warriors competition less strong. You could argue that expansion makes their 73 win season LESS impressive, not more. If there were only 28 teams, there'd be more talent on every team, making it tought to win 73 games. But, also, weren't the Grizz and Raptors brought into the league in 1995? Have there been any new teams since then? That means the Bulls and Warriors played the same number of teams, I think. The expansion teams were certainly more green back then though.

Re: your first point, I've said for a while that while I don't love the Triangle for our Knicks, I do think that it would benefit the OKC. That team needs a system to get it easy shots. It seems like KD and Russ are fighting for every shot attempt, even against weaker competition sometimes. With some more discipline on offense, I think they could've won game 5 or 6.

the playoffs are always best when the series seem like wars of attrition, especially ones that go the full seven games. hence the warriors didn't win so much as the thunder lost.

if durant stays i will be a bit surprised, as it means he has the faith that donovan can work with westbrook to harness his energy and get westbrook to tighten up his game.

i don't see it and i hope durant doesn't allow sentimentality to cloud his judgment.