For the reader - Presti got nothing when Durant left. That’s what happens when the team signing a player can take them into cap space. Same with Kyrie signing with Brooklyn. Sign and Trades aren’t always possible.
I realize jwax has me blocked, but maybe I can help educate someone else.
Yes with all the platitudes like “Couldn’t get the job done” and “They are in Cancun now” you both have educated all of us.
To be fair to Horst, I don’t think Brogdon wanted to be in Milwaukee, so they did the sign-and-trade so they could at least get something for him.
Building a roster that wins 60 games and is now in the defacto finals isn’t good enough. You need to sign 3 mediocre players to max contracts (all while crying about how hard it is to sign FAs in Boston) flame out year after year in the playoffs, and roll over your treasure trove of draft picks every year to maintain job security; if you never go all in, you can’t ever shoulder the blame!
The one thing the whole convo reminds me of is that OKC somehow had Harden, Westbrook, Durant and some very good pieces to go along with that (e.g. Ibaka) and converted that into zero titles.
Amassing those assets is impressive, but not converting that into at least one ring seems really bad.
His team just “didn’t want it enough” and “were not clutch”.
They would both be better drafters if they were better at the “eye test”
Tangentially, Presti most likely blew the Harden call (vs. Westbrook if it had to be one or the other because of cheap ownership) by overvaluing WIM.
I don’t know who that is so I will defer to your expertise here.
The players wanted it plenty - Durant for example left as a free agent because he wanted to win a title, and knew it could never happen in OKC under Presti. Presti hired Scotty Brooks, traded Harden for flotsam and jetsam (a year before he had to), and never could improve the team quite enough to get a ring. You just hate to see talented players be let down by that. I feel for OKC fans too - I’d have hated to see Paul Pierce leave Boston without a ring. That kind of thing could make a man lash out online for no reason.
WIM = Want it More.
Of course they wanted it. They are professional athletes. I’m making fun of all the platitudes you have used to defend and criticize different GM’s.
We think about sports and results differently.
To be clear I have enjoyed watching you two debate. I haven’t watched a show like first take in years.
(Psst - I know, I’m having some fun at your expense. If you look at any GM in this thread you’ll see I leveled valid criticisms at them. My use of platitudes was mocking jwax - for example, he said Ainge didn’t “go for it” so I used that phrasing a bunch, often putting it in quotes).
That’s pretty easy to say in hindsight, but at the time Harden had just shit his pants in the 2012 Finals (something that turned out to be a pattern in the playoffs) and they rightfully thouht Kevin Martin could replace his scoring the next year. They won 60 games the year after they traded Harden, had the best record in the West, and had bad injury luck with Pat Bev blowing out Russ’ knee. Lost Durant and Ibaka in subsequent playoff runs, before the 2016 WCF where Durant decided he was going to Golden State in the middle of game 6 apparently.
Presti went ahead and traded for PG since Ainge was sitting on his hands (scared money don’t make none) and after disappointing runs with PG / Russ, parlayed them into the best asset stash in the league. Not bad for a shitty GM in a hell hole that no free agent would actually go to.
Apparently Presti is so bad that Boston has been wanting to replace Ainge with Sam for a while according to Simmons / Jackie Mac / Russillo. (They probably don’t know as much about basketball though)
0 voters
Understandable, but at the end of day, he blew the biggest call of his life and nothing he has done since matters. Probably still has KD if he keeps Harden too. Heard on a recent Simmons (who is very friendly w/ Kerr) podcast that the recipe of the pre-Durant Warriors for defeating the Durant Thunder was to “let Westbrook cook.” Durant isn’t dumb, he can notice shit. Durant even liked a Tweet from a burner account saying “the problem was Westbrook.”
Just imagine, the big 2 of the Brooklyn big 3 everyone is salivating over for a decade plus. Sigh, so sad. Ruined Durant’s emotional well being too, turned him into a super salty mf.
Don’t sleep on the disastrous decision of employing Scotty Brooks. He was a prime reason the “let Russ cook” defense was so successful.
I don’t think Billy Donovan was any great shakes, either, but I can’t say I watched many OKC games once Durant left so I’m open to being wrong there. Watching Russ hunt triple doubles isn’t a way I want to spend my time. Too much of that could cause a man to lash out online.
Durant burner account said he didn’t want to play for Donovan, and that is all that matters. How do you end up w/ a coach that your Free Agent to be superduper star doesn’t want to play for, lol?
A lot of this is really harsh on OKC chances. They absolutely choked vs GSW. The difference in narratives is about 2 minutes of performance by Russ.
And Klay going god mode