Where does Durant play next year?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Durant has meetings set up next week with OkC, San Antonio, and Golden State. Our board vote is hugely in favor of Durant staying, but he at least is going through the motions. And you gotta believe driving across the Golden Gate bridge after getting out of the Oklahoma heat and listening to Kerr enthusiastically sell him of joining a lineup of Curry, Thompson, Green and Bogut...with Iggy, Livingston, Barbosa and Ezeli still available off the bench...his head is going to be spinning!

I don't see Adams/Ilyasova/Durant/Oladipo/Westbrook beating Bogut/Green/Iggy/Thompson/Curry.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Drew, I don't know that we know Durant likes it in OkC. Have you ever been there...arguably the least attractive city in the NBA! He probably feels some loyalty and drvie to win one there, but with Ibaka gone, he may not think a team that starts Adams and Ilyasova at C and PF is good enough to win the West. And as a 9-year veteran, you know he wants to win this year.

Replacing Barnes in GS's lineup would almost guarantee him a championship, and living in the Bay area is certainly more pleasant than lving in Oklahoma City. By declining Barnes, the Warriors have the cap space to give Durant the 1-year max he probably wants, and they will still have room under the luxury tax threshold to sign Livingston, Ezeli and filler. Golden State seems like the best option for Durant to achieve his three likely goals. The only downside for Golden State is that they likely have to let Bogut and Iggy go in 2017-8 to stay under the lux tax after giving Curry his max, but they can probably stay under the lux and continue to win championships with a Big 4 of Curry, Durant, Klay and Green plus 11 cheapies.

Good analysis, LST. If Durant is all about winning a championship, then signing with the Warriors is a no-brainer. But I suspect his loyalty will win out and he'll stay in OKC. A know someone whose son was Durant's college roommate. She said Durant is a super nice guy and doesn't like glitz, glamour or big cities. I think he's very comfortable in Ok City.

Yeah, I know that's one of the reasons he isn't interested in going home to DC. Durant's comfort level with cities that aren't big media centers is one reason I didn't immediately discount him possibly being interested in the Wolves, but we aren't ready to compete yet with the likes of OkC and GS.

If it were me, I'd probably move to the Bay Area and enjoy multiple championships. but I suspect the majority is right here and he stays. His announcement of meetings in SA and GS is a new factor to consider though.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Drew, I don't know that we know Durant likes it in OkC. Have you ever been there...arguably the least attractive city in the NBA! He probably feels some loyalty and drvie to win one there, but with Ibaka gone, he may not think a team that starts Adams and Ilyasova at C and PF is good enough to win the West. And as a 9-year veteran, you know he wants to win this year.

Man, there isn't a city with an NBA team that I wouldn't pick to live in over OKC. Orlando and Indianapolis might not be far behind, but it's the last NBA city I'd want to live in. And yes, the bay area would be an awesome place to live (if you made NBA money and could actually afford to live there).

But I meant Durant seems to like playing with OKC as a team, especially with Russell. At least, he seems to like it enough to give it one more year.

Interesting side note, rank the top 5 and bottom 5 NBA cities you'd like to live in. This is just based on the cities. If you were you and not an NBA player.

Top 5
1. Portland
2. San Francisco
3. Boston
4. Chicago
5. Denver
*Honorable mention for Philly/Memphis/Minneapolis!

Bottom 5
1. OKC (man, to move from Seattle to OKC, that would suck)
2. Orlando
3. Indianapolis
4. San Antonio
5. Dallas

[TAFKASP]

Drew, I don't know that we know Durant likes it in OkC. Have you ever been there...arguably the least attractive city in the NBA! He probably feels some loyalty and drvie to win one there, but with Ibaka gone, he may not think a team that starts Adams and Ilyasova at C and PF is good enough to win the West. And as a 9-year veteran, you know he wants to win this year.

Replacing Barnes in GS's lineup would almost guarantee him a championship, and living in the Bay area is certainly more pleasant than lving in Oklahoma City. By declining Barnes, the Warriors have the cap space to give Durant the 1-year max he probably wants, and they will still have room under the luxury tax threshold to sign Livingston, Ezeli and filler. Golden State seems like the best option for Durant to achieve his three likely goals. The only downside for Golden State is that they likely have to let Bogut and Iggy go in 2017-8 to stay under the lux tax after giving Curry his max, but they can probably stay under the lux and continue to win championships with a Big 4 of Curry, Durant, Klay and Green plus 11 cheapies.

It's one thing to join a loaded team and win a championship, it's another altogether to join a team that played in the last two finals and won one of them. In the first scenario you can be the piece that put them over the top, in the second you're just riding their coattails. To me it'd be like winning a championship while not playing because you're injured, it'd be empty as it was your teammates who won while you sat in a suit on the sidelines.

Now if he were to go to the Clippers or Lakers along with another piece and they won he could legitimately be the final piece of the championship puzzle. You have to earn the right to be called champion, not join one.

You just have to win the championship to be called a champion. It doesn't matter how you get there. They only count rings at the end of the day, not how you got them. The Magic Lakers and Bird Celtics were just as stacked as the Warriors would be with Durant and nobody brings that up when talking about Magic and Bird. They just talk about the greatness of great players on great teams and Durant would be a great player on a great team.

Neither Magic nor Bird joined a championship team to get a championship, they were drafted into those teams. I think Durant, should he leave OKC this year and join a ready made champion will be viewed as a guy who couldn't do it himself, couldn't elevate a great team to a champion. It likely won't matter one iota to Durant, or Warriors fans for that matter, but he'll never be viewed in the same light as the great champions of the past, or his new teammate Steph Curry for that matter.

And I wasn't suggesting he wouldn't be a champion, or be called one, just that it wouldn't carry the same weight as winning one in OKC would in terms of his legacy.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

So Bob Horry is a better player than Durant because he has 5 rings and Durant has none? How you get your ring matters to me. I'm old school and I loved how magic and bird fought each other every year for the title. They didn't ever wanna team up and form a superteam.

I hope Durant stays and doesn't go the way of Lebron and join the warriors.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Ha, SP posted same thought at the same time. Cheers!

[Monster]

Durant has meetings set up next week with OkC, San Antonio, and Golden State. Our board vote is hugely in favor of Durant staying, but he at least is going through the motions. And you gotta believe driving across the Golden Gate bridge after getting out of the Oklahoma heat and listening to Kerr enthusiastically sell him of joining a lineup of Curry, Thompson, Green and Bogut...with Iggy, Livingston, Barbosa and Ezeli still available off the bench...his head is going to be spinning!

I don't see Adams/Ilyasova/Durant/Oladipo/Westbrook beating Bogut/Green/Iggy/Thompson/Curry.

OKC is gonna be better than they were this year. How is OKC ever going to replace Ibaka's 12 and 7. Sounds like a tall order. If Ilyasova can stay healthy he is a really nice player. Just as good of a scorer just as good of a rebounder over their careers as Ibaka and a significantly superior 3 point shooter. He doesn't block shots but Ibaka has been widely talked about as being only above average the last couple years. The massive upgrade Oladipo gives them at SG compared to the crazy depth they have at PF where they didn't even play Collison or mcGary and added a legit stretch PF plus Sabonis sounds damn good.

I'll add here that Durant just watched Lebron win a title for his city. OKC isn't home but it's pretty much his adopted city. I don't see him really going to another contender when they could have won it all this year with the roster they had.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

So Bob Horry is a better player than Durant because he has 5 rings and Durant has none? How you get your ring matters to me. I'm old school and I loved how magic and bird fought each other every year for the title. They didn't ever wanna team up and form a superteam.

I hope Durant stays and doesn't go the way of Lebron and join the warriors.

Back to this stupid argument again. The amount of rings you have doesn't decide how good you are. Everyone knows that and nobody's arguing that. Whether you get your rings on a super team or an organically grown one doesn't matter one bit when history looks back on you. Lebron's ring in Cleveland is not going to hold more weight in his legacy than his 2 rings in Miami in the history books. It might to the people of Cleveland, but to the rest of the world it's just his 3rd title. Magic may have been drafted by the Lakers, but was Kareem? No. And Kareem is regarded as the better player quite often in history. Organic titles my ass. Does KG's legacy take a hit for joining Boston to win his title after years of trying in MN? Not one bit and in fact his legacy is greater today because he won a title in Boston and that's just like the big 3 in Miami, and it's just like it would be for KD in GS.

[Lipoli390]

In in the vast majority block that think he'll stay in OKC. But the Warriors option has to be tempting.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Get mad Kahns, get mad!!!