Kevin Durant changes game,
With Durant, Golden State looks unbeatable
The balance of power in the NBA remained in the Western Conference with Kevin Durant’s stunning decision to play for the Golden State Warriors.
But within the West, the scale has swung — almost impossibly so for a 73-win team with three All-Stars — even more in the Warriors’ favor for the 2016-17 season and beyond.
By adding Durant, one of the league’s best players and 2013-14 MVP, to a roster with two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-NBA players Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, the Warriors are heavy favorites to win the title next year after losing a dramatic seven-game Finals series to the Cleveland Cavaliers in June.
Some teams improved in the Eastern Conference, but nobody has improved enough to surpass the Cavs as favorites for the East title next season. There is a strong possibility the Warriors and Cavs will play in the Finals for a third consecutive time — something no two teams have done, not even the Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers of the 1960s and 1980s.
The San Antonio Spurs, who finished with a franchise-best 67 victories last season, fell further behind the Warriors with Durant’s decision.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, who had a 3-1 lead on Golden State in the conference finals in May, lost its star and must ponder a long-term plan that might not include Russell Westbrook, who will be a free agent next summer.
The Los Angeles Clippers maintained the status quo.
The Warriors can dominate in the West. It’s a dynasty in the making.
That doesn’t mean they will try to break their record of 73 regular-season victories. In fact, expect Golden State to take a more deliberate approach to the
regular season, pacing itself for the two-month playoff run.
Now, the Warriors have work to do on the court. Incorporating four All-Stars into the lineup won’t be easy, especially on the offensive end. But that’s why coach Steve Kerr — as he has said before — is paid so well. It’s up to him and his coaching staff to get buy-in from those stars to play a certain way, to sacrifice for the good of the team. But on the surface, that roster creates so many problems for opposing defenses.
Don’t think for a second Durant’s decision to leave smallmarket Oklahoma City for bigmarket Golden State sits well with the rest of the league.
The 2011 lockout, in part, sought to create better opportunities for small-market teams to
compete. The league instituted tougher restrictions in the collective bargaining agreement, including harsher financial penalties for teams spending above the luxury tax line.
As recently as June 2, just before Game 1 of the Finals, Commissioner Adam Silver said, “Creating a system that allows every team I’d say the equality — an equal opportunity to compete for championships. I think we’re never going to have NFL-style parity in this league. It is the nature of this league that certain players are so good that those teams are likely almost automatically if that player remains healthy to become playoff teams and especially mixed with other great players.”
But the influx of TV money
gave teams that otherwise would not have had the financial flexibility to add a maximum-salary player the freedom to do just that.
Remember all that angst in 2010 about creating super teams after LeBron James joined the Miami Heat alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh? Well, the Warriors just created the super team of all super teams in this era of the NBA.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti can’t be happy about the league’s inability to prevent a move like this from happening.
Silver knew the unprecedented rise in the salary cap, from $70 million in 2015-16 to $94 million in 2016-17, would create unintended circumstances.
Five years ago, NBA owners and front office executives were
not envisioning a scenario in which a team with three All-Stars could add a fourth.
But that’s what just happened, and 29 other teams, including the champion Cavaliers, are wondering how they’re going to beat Golden State in a seven-game series.