The soft cap is designed to help with player retention. It slants the FA game towards the team that has bird rights. I don't think eliminating it will help here.
They still have to play the games. The 73 win team lost in the Finals. LeBron's team is still likely to win it all next year. GSW had the luxury of being able to rest players during the season. Their going to lose depth and have to rely on their starters for more minutes. Why is it a problem for Free Agents to go where they choose?
It isn't. But what do teams who lose mega free agents gain? Nothing. And not only that teams, especially that of small markets, can't survive in the NBA. The only way they can is by sucking ass 50 years in a row like Philly and Minnesota and hope you strike gold in the draft. Small Market teams can't sign free agents, usually can't make lopsided trades because the player wanting out doesn't wanna go there, and has a hard time resigning there own free agents once they become UFA.
Cap space. OKC has had remarkable success drafting players. The Warriors, too. Cap space allows the smaller market teams to retain their players.
I don't understand why there are a lot of angry people. OKC fans? Yah I understand that, but reading reddit and people demanding for this to be fixed? What exactly did GSW do wrong? They drafted really well? Put great roles players around their people? Managed their contracts well? Enticed a marquee player to sign there because of all that? Why should they be punished for running an extremely solid organization. Should Philly be punished for sucking balls, even though it seems like they're always in the lottery? And a franchise tag? I don't know? I don't like that. OKC knew the risk they were taking, they could have traded Durant. You guys could have traded LaMarcus. Orlando could have traded Dwight way sooner. Durant gave OKC 9 years of commitment and superstar ball, he has earned the right to sign wherever he wants too. Now OKC needs to decide if they want to go down this road with Russell again or trade him for picks and young players.
The splash bros and Green are all draft picks. Durant, Westbrook, Adams, Ibaka, the guy with the beard who falls down if he's breathed on, Reggie Jackson...
You take a rat and put it in a maze with a piece a cheese. Right before it gets to the end of the maze you remove the piece of cheese. If you do this repeatedly and think, "It's there you just have to believe in the system?!" It'll stop trying after a while. That's where the NBA is with most small market fans. San Antonio lucked into a great situation with Pops and Duncan.
I was talking about OKC. Not Golden State. Giving the Thunder credit for drafting Durant at #2 is like giving me credit for marrying a model. It wasn't a difficult decision.
Kevin Durant - drafted in 2007 Russell Westbrook - drafted in 2008 Serge Ibaka - drafted in 2008 James Harden - drafted in 2009
That just tells me that Presti ran out of magic dust at some point and made some bad choices and couldn't seal the deal despite his nose for talent in the draft. There's always a significant luck factor in teams getting to the promised land or not. It's a tough business.
A hard cap would be great. A hard cap of $115M instead of soft and $94M. Then, raise the max contract percentages (25% for 0-6yrs, 35% for 7+ years).
Plus, draft pick compensation for a team losing a free agent. Adding picks to the lottery, which should happen after free agency.
Like I said above, he ran out of fairy dust after those 4 amazing picks . . . until perhaps Adams (and that Harden trade was a total bust).
I don't blame GS for taking advantage of a flawed system. Any other organization would have acted the same way in their shoes. I blame the system itself for being flawed and Durant himself for being a front-running bitch and sucking off a 73 win team's tit. And the idea that OKC could have just traded Durant is bullshit. He is way too good of a player to just dump in a trade unless you're 100% sure that he isn't coming back. Neither Durant nor Aldridge ever gave their team any such assurances, and in fact they presumably did just the opposite and misled their teams into believing they were likely to resign. And no team was going to give up a ton of assets to take on an expiring contract like Durant given the uncertainty of his FA situation.
I'm not bothered at all by this move. Frankly, I can't understand what the big deal is. Since the mid-90s, talent has congregated, sometimes leading to a ring, othertimes not. We weren't competing for a championship anyway. When we're ready to, Golden State will be in their sunset. My biggest fear when Aldridge left was that he could screw us and get a ring. Now, there's no way he gets one unless he begs for a trade to the Warriors. F*** that guy.
Most talented starting 5 of all time? I like Magic/Worthy/Scott/Green/Kareem personally. Who do the Warriors have at center?
