OT Paul Pierce Compares KD Joining Dubs to Kid Getting Beaten Up, Joining Bullies

ya but they were like im not playing without my buddy kind of shit

 

Link. That's just a bad post.

Ainge assembled that team. There was no collusion at all. He's just one of the best GMs in the league and BOS is a destination.

 

Sources: Kevin Durant willing to take less than max to keep Warriors' core intact

 

I get where he's coming from, but it's just annoying to hear guys like him and others who have formed/been on superteams. Especially Pierce who was essentially on the original superteam. He was a good player before Garnett and Allen came, an all-star, but in the previous 4 years they only made playoffs twice and only played in 11 games. One of those years they made the playoffs with a losing record. Another year they won 20-something games. So for someone who's legacy was so changed and impacted by the rescue of a superteam forming around him, I feel like he shouldn't be so salty.

He also then went onto Brooklyn with KG and Jason Terry and joined with Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez (and AK-47, Shaun Livingston and some decent rotation players like Mirza Teletovic, Andray Blatche (12/6 off the bench that year, and Mason Plumlee). On paper and online, people thought that team was gonna be great, but it didn't work out for him and he ended up on two other teams. Washington who had Wall, Beal and Gortat and had just had 5 players average 14+ppg as well as the next year with LAC who were coming off of winning 56 games and had Paul, Griffin, Deandre as well as Redick (16ppg) Crawford (14ppg).

I understand that it's different because GS knocked out OKC last year in a brutal way, but it's not like Pierce hasn't jumped to other teams where he thought he could succeed on somewhat established teams that on paper looked very very good as well.

 

They were assembled on boston. Im talking when they went to nets together.

 

They got the 1st pick in the draft for Parish. You usually got to give up quite a bit for the top pick.

McHale and Ainge were drafted. The only guy they really stole was DJ.

 

Kind of different scenarios though. Durant left a great team to go to the warriors, a team that they were beating 3-1 in the conference finals and a GM that has shown to be able to make good moves and put good talent around side KD. Lebron left a team that was a bunch of role players and him with very little else and a GM who made a bunch of bad moves and couldn't surround Lebron with much of anything.

 

He'll gain a lot of heat from it!

 

And they weren't a "super team". They had the GOAT and a HOFer in Pippen, and then guys like BJ Armstrong, Horace Grant, Billy Goat Cartwright, Will Perdue. Sure they had Kerr and Rodman for the 2nd 3-peat, but excepting Rodman, those Bulls teams were 2 HOFers, a smattering of good role players, and a bunch of nobodies.

 

IMO, if you want to get rid of superteams, get rid of the max contract. Artificially holding down the salaries of players like James, Curry, Durant, etc, is what allows teams to put together 3 or 4 superstars. If James or Durant made $40-50M per season, good luck putting together more than two superstars and still filling out the rest of your roster.

 

Steve Kerr could return for Game 2

 

What a twat. Paul Pierce is human garbage.

 

I see that a lot of people compare this current "Warriors" abomination to legitimate past teams (Miami, Boston).

1.Celtics traded their then promising young players to Seattle and Mini for KG and Ray Allen. The Wolves and the Sonics were not even playoffs rivals of the Celtics. That Celtics team was formed under the rules of the NBA salary cap.

2.Lebron James indicated before his departure that his contract extension is not written in stone. Lebron decided to leave the Cavs via a sign and trade deal to the Miami Heat. Lebron didn't join the team who beat him (The Celtics).
The Lebron "superteam" was formed under the NBA salary cap restriction which meant they could only add low paying role players to that team.
It is also worth noting that the 2009-2010 Heat team did not play the Cavs and Lebron in the playoffs as they were eliminated in the first round, Lebron actually joined a lower ranked team. Durant joined a record-setting team.

3.GSW used a short window in which the NBA salary cap was non-existent. They were only able to achieve their current status because of the incompetence of Adam Silver and the weak mentality of Kevin Durant.


So yeah, members of the 08' Celtics and Lebron can talk all the shit they want on this Whorriors abomination because that's not how the league should have handled that TV deal and that's definitely not how a competitive hall of fame player should handle a defeat.

 

Know your NBA history:

 

JESUS. THANK YOU!!

 

Uh, so Auerbach fleeced a couple incompetent GM's. Not really sure what that has to do with the current day shenanigans of shopping rings. It doesn't cheapen any of the Celtics rings, they did a great job assembling that team.

 

So did the Warriors. People blast Durant for joining the Warriors because the Warriors were already a great team--they were a great team because of the drafting and lower-key signings they had already done. They also didn't rush to extend Harrison Barnes, which is an underrated factor in even being in position to sign Durant. A lot of teams extend their young, emerging players the year before they hit RFA--the Warriors inquired into whether they could get Barnes at a decent price, decided they couldn't and let it ride. Worked out pretty well for them.

As the years go by, and distance is gained from the fan-created soap opera, no one's going to care. People insisted at the time that James' rings would be tainted when he formed the Miami superteam. Not so much, it appears.

 

I never denied that they didn't do a great job assembling that team. The pieces were in place already, adding Durant just makes it corny.

I still think the Cavs win this series though.