Agreed. Can't believe those guys have that pick though. Even more amazing, but I think the Lakers drafted James Worthy with the #1 pick a couple weeks after they won the NBA Championship.
How about the Spurs drafting Duncan after the Admiral was hurt? That won them a few titles. I thought the Bulls would have pulled the same move this season with Rose out, but damn, they've got a good coach and some great role players.
Man, I remember that. Boston had the worst record that season and I remember them getting heat for tanking down the stretch. I think Dominique Wilkins was San Antonio's leading scorer that season.
Yeah man, blast from the past. That was a bad team, because it wasn't the old school Wilk, it was the old man Wilk. Just looking at the records, the Spurs went 59-23 with Robinson, then the next year they went 20-62 without Robinson, so they got the #1 pick (Tim Duncan). The very next year, Robinson's healthy, they have Tim Duncan, and they go 56-26, win the title a year later, and start to build a dynasty.
It will suck if they end up in the top three, but remember they only have this pick because they traded Harden. I still think they took a bath on that deal. Lamb, Martin, and whatever this pick ends up being.
I think you have to look at long-term cap/luxury tax scenarios, as well. Bennett/McClendon aren't PA or Prokhorov. Or even Cuban or Dolan.
Agree, but I don't think OKC owners are keen on having an 82M payroll next year, and goodness knows how high after that. Ibaka at 12.5M a year, Durant at 18M and year and increasing, RW at 15M a year and going up and then Harden at 15M a year and going up? They'd be over the cap just with those 4 players. While I wouldn't have made the decisions they did on who to keep and trade, I think that for OKC $10M of savings in payroll and another 10-15M in luxury tax savings meant that Harden was going to be gone unless they could've signed him on a real sweetheart hometown discount deal. Getting a lotto pick this year, Lamb and a season of Martin and his expiring contract seems like an OK haul after you decide you're making that move.
It's a sweetheart deal until you realize that they probably could have done a hell of a lot better. Harden is arguably the best young shooting guard in the league right now, with Kobe's future in question and Wade entering into his later years. Can you imagine what they would have gotten for Harden after a year like the one he just had? They could have easily had the #1 overall pick and probably another young talent. If I was Charlotte and I ended up with the #1, I would think long and hard about dealing the pick and MKG for Harden. Of course, I always felt that Westbrook should have been the one to go.
I agree with you on Westbrook, and I think we all agree that he's one of the league's best players but still a horrible pair for Durant, and trading him when his stock had never been higher last summer should have been the first option for OKC. As far as Harden is concerned though, letting him go was probably a bad move in terms of what they got back, but I really want to see how he winds up in the long-term. He had an amazing statistical season as the go-to-guy, but he's done so as their primary offensive weapon, who is just starting to get figured out by both opposing teams and refs alike with the way he cuts into contact. In terms of building a complete team, I don't think they made a bad move in essentially choosing Ibaka over Harden. They probably could have gotten a better deal for him, but it's not like it was a bad personnel move, like their decision to hold onto Westbrook is. If Presti was worth half his billing, he'd follow through on the Harden move by trading Westbrook for a player that compliments Durant's game.
At some point it will come down to either durant or westbrook leaving. Okc isn't big enough for both of them. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I don't get how everyone else sees that except for Presti. The writing's been on the wall for a while, and I think he just wants to have one more shot at the title with this failed experiment of a team carried on Durant's shoulders, but the reality is that even if they survive Memphis or LAC in the second round, they'll have the same problems against Miami that they did last season. Durant continues to be more productive, Westbrook continues to take more shots and screw shit up in the clutch, and yet Presti's clinging to the Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka core. Just imagine how much better that team would be with Deron Williams instead of Russell Westbrook, and you best believe a major market team like Brooklyn would love to have Westbrook, especially after some down seasons from Williams. You could probably even get a pick out of the deal, as well as Reggie Evans, and amnesty Kendrick Perkins in the process.
In the 1986 draft, the Celtics picked Len Bias with the #2 pick. They won the championship in 1985-86 and had a 67-15 record.
Okc should have gotten Chris Paul. He is the perfect player for Durant. They probably would have gotten the draft rights to Anthony Davis too. Thank God clay Bennett and co are dumb as nails.
They really lucked into Durant, and Westbrook was a good pick, so was Harden. But it sure seems like they've been bungling it up the last few years. The Jeff Green trade was especially stupid, and now the Harden deal.
They could have kept harden and landed cp3. Ibaka getting paid was pretty steep, IMO. Could you imagine their starting lineup of Cp3, Durant, harden and Anthony Davis? Sheesh!!!!!
