NBA Finals Gamethread or how the NBA has more downtime than Game Of Thrones

Kliq

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Happy for David West, who turned down $10+ million to play for way less on contenders with the hopes of getting a ring. Well done.
 

Kliq

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I would have felt great had he won it in OKC. Joining this team? Meh. Good guy and even better player but I'm not moved by this.
Yeah Zach Lowe was talking about how as nice as it is to see Durant win it wouldn't be as sweet as say, Dirk's victory with the Mavericks for that very reason. From the minute he signed with GS this was the predicted outcome.
 

Deathofthebambino

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Did they just say Iguodala was finals MVP, or were they referring to their last championship? It's gotta be Durant, right?
 

Apisith

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LeBron is an amazing player. Credit to the Warriors for a great season, and to Durant for playing well in the finals.
 

Scoops Bolling

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I would have felt great had he won it in OKC. Joining this team? Meh. Good guy and even better player but I'm not moved by this.
Yeah, I feel nothing for him, or this team. Here's hoping Westbrook or Harden wins one in their present locations.
 

Deathofthebambino

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I would have felt great had he won it in OKC. Joining this team? Meh. Good guy and even better player but I'm not moved by this.
That's where I am. I would have enjoyed watching the Warriors win this, if they didn't have Durant, but I also would have loved to have seen Durant win it in OKC. In the end, I found myself rooting for Lebron, because he's such a warrior.

I always forget that OKC team had Durant, Westbrook and Harden. How the hell did they let Harden go? I know he wasn't the star he is now, but damn, that team with guys like Steven Adams, absolutely could have been competitive with Golden State.
 

JCizzle

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They simply can't run it back with this team and expect to beat Golden State. Love has to be the guy to go.
Who is going to be knocking down the door to give up something better than Love in exchange...for Love? Do they really have any other assets to offer?
 

Sox and Rocks

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Yeah Zach Lowe was talking about how as nice as it is to see Durant win it wouldn't be as sweet as say, Dirk's victory with the Mavericks for that very reason. From the minute he signed with GS this was the predicted outcome.
I, too, like Durant as a player and a person, but this title does nothing for me. If anything, it makes me respect his career less at this point. JMO.
 

BigSoxFan

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Who is going to be knocking down the door to give up something better than Love in exchange...for Love? Do they really have any other assets to offer?
No other assets but Love at his contract is still valuable. I still think Paul George for Love makes some sense for both teams if George becomes a rental as expected.
 

Deathofthebambino

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No other assets but Love at his contract is still valuable. I still think Paul George for Love makes some sense for both teams if George becomes a rental as expected.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Love is cost controlled for a few years, so some team that knows they are going to lose a guy to free agency, like Indiana with George, may as well get something in return while they still can, and Love isn't a horrible consolation prize.
 

Greg29fan

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I always forget that OKC team had Durant, Westbrook and Harden. How the hell did they let Harden go? I know he wasn't the star he is now, but damn, that team with guys like Steven Adams, absolutely could have been competitive with Golden State.
They wouldn't have Steven Adams cause one of the picks they got in the Harden trade they used on him.

Basically it came down to they decided to keep Kendrick Perkins and to build around Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka instead.
 

djbayko

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I would have felt great had he won it in OKC. Joining this team? Meh. Good guy and even better player but I'm not moved by this.
Ditto.

I love watching GSW play their brand of basketball. I loved watching Durant's play at an MVP level this series. But I'm ambivalent when it comes to Durant and him winning this championship. He took the easy route, and he accomplished...exactly what everyone expected. Congrats, I guess.
 

Deathofthebambino

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They wouldn't have Steven Adams cause one of the picks they got in the Harden trade they used on him.

Basically it came down to they decided to keep Kendrick Perkins and to build around Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka instead.
I couldn't for the life of me remember how that went down. Kendrick Perkins. Man...
 

BigSoxFan

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Ditto.

I love watching GSW play their brand of basketball. I loved watching Durant's play at an MVP level this series. But I'm ambivalent when it comes to Durant and him winning this championship. He took the easy route, and he accomplished...exactly what everyone expected. Congrats, I guess.
And this obviously isn't his fault but he also benefitted from a dirty play that took out literally their only competition in the West. This will be a pretty forgettable season in the history books.
 

Kliq

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In Durants defense, if the rest of the Warrriors played like they did in this series without Durant, Cleveland would have probably swept the series:
 

Kliq

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David West wasn't getting any big contract last year
Who cares? Two years ago he had a big option with Indiana but he turned it down to sign a one year deal with SA, and then hopped over to GS this year.
 

RedOctober3829

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How can anyone not give KD credit or criticize him for his decision? He did not just ride the coat tails of others to cheaply win a ring. He was the best player and the reason they were able to win this series. He took over the Warriors and seemingly made it his team by being the go to player. He earned this.
 

ilol@u

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How can anyone not give KD credit or criticize him for his decision? He did not just ride the coat tails of others to cheaply win a ring. He was the best player and the reason they were able to win this series. He took over the Warriors and seemingly made it his team by being the go to player. He earned this.
The Warriors would have won without KD.
 

Kliq

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Part of it is that GS didn't feel challenged at all with Durant. Try as they might, Cleveland only took them to five games and only one of the four wins was particularly close.
 

Greg29fan

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Part of it is that GS didn't feel challenged at all with Durant. Try as they might, Cleveland only took them to five games and only one of the four wins was particularly close.
I would have liked to have seen a Spurs-Warriors series without Zaza crippling Kawhi
 

jcd0805

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How can anyone not give KD credit or criticize him for his decision? He did not just ride the coat tails of others to cheaply win a ring. He was the best player and the reason they were able to win this series. He took over the Warriors and seemingly made it his team by being the go to player. He earned this.
Agreed, didn't love it when he signed with the Warriors but he owned this post season, good for him to not have to worry about ever winning a ring anymore.
 

BigSoxFan

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How can anyone not give KD credit or criticize him for his decision? He did not just ride the coat tails of others to cheaply win a ring. He was the best player and the reason they were able to win this series. He took over the Warriors and seemingly made it his team by being the go to player. He earned this.
How many times do we need to rehash this? KD can do whatever the hell he wants. And he absolutely earned the accolades he's getting. But the decision from a pure basketball standpoint created a monster team that nobody, not even the team with the best player in the world, can compete with. Forgive me if I'm not jumping up and down in ecstasy.

I respect the hell out of this Warriors team. They're ridiculously good. But I also like to watch competitive basketball and Durant's decision tilted the competitive balance in the league too much for my liking.
 

The Social Chair

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I think Durant (and Nike) comes out of this a big winner. I think it's Curry who lost the most by Durant coming to the team.

Anyway 3 weeks until Fultz and Jaylen playing a summer league game together.
 

BigSoxFan

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I think Durant (and Nike) comes out of this a big winner. I think it's Curry who lost the most by Durant coming to the team.

Anyway 3 weeks until Fultz and Jaylen playing a summer league game together.
Durant is going to extend Curry's prime. There is definitely that LeBron/Wade in Miami dynamic at play here where a clearly superior player takes the alpha role away from the incumbent who had won a title before him. I think Curry will be perfectly fine with this arrangement.

The real question is now what they do, if anything, with Klay. Teams will be lining up if he's put on the trading block.
 

coremiller

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Durant is going to extend Curry's prime. There is definitely that LeBron/Wade in Miami dynamic at play here where a clearly superior player takes the alpha role away from the incumbent who had won a title before him. I think Curry will be perfectly fine with this arrangement.

The real question is now what they do, if anything, with Klay. Teams will be lining up if he's put on the trading block.
Durant and Curry are much more 1a/1b than LeBron and Wade ever were. Even tonight, Cleveland was much more concerned about trapping and doubling Curry to get the ball out of his hands than they were with Durant. A big reason Durant averaged 35 ppg in this series was that he got a lot of favorable matchups due to Cleveland setting up their defense to take away Curry.
 

Kliq

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Klay really got off the hook in this series. He scored 6 points less per game than he did during the regular season in a series where all the stars bumped up their scoring averages. Oh but he "played great defense"; but Cleveland still scored 113 ppg and Cleveland's two best perimeter players averaged 31 and 30 a game respectively. He was terrible in the series.
 

Apisith

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I don't think the Warriors win this without KD. LeBron's too good and the Cavs 'figured out' a way to beat them. KD put them way over the top.
 

BigSoxFan

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Durant and Curry are much more 1a/1b than LeBron and Wade ever were. Even tonight, Cleveland was much more concerned about trapping and doubling Curry to get the ball out of his hands than they were with Durant. A big reason Durant averaged 35 ppg in this series was that he got a lot of favorable matchups due to Cleveland setting up their defense to take away Curry.
Not true at all. Wade was absolutely a 1b player his first couple of years with LeBron.
 

Sox and Rocks

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How many times do we need to rehash this? KD can do whatever the hell he wants. And he absolutely earned the accolades he's getting. But the decision from a pure basketball standpoint created a monster team that nobody, not even the team with the best player in the world, can compete with. Forgive me if I'm not jumping up and down in ecstasy.

I respect the hell out of this Warriors team. They're ridiculously good. But I also like to watch competitive basketball and Durant's decision tilted the competitive balance in the league too much for my liking.
Yeah. Not sure why this is hard to understand.

I watch sports because I like competition. If my team isn't playing, I always want a seven game series and/or games that go down to the wire. Durant's decision robbed nba fans like me of a seven game series like last year, which would have been the only saving grace of a boring and uncompetitive playoffs.