Quite the opposite, the East regular season was tougher last year with all the above average/good teams fighting for playoff berths. The four team West does mean two tough playoff rounds, but a much easier regular season and an easy opening round.
I don't think this means the 5th place WC team wasn't as good as the 5th place EC team. The West had to play a lot more games against Golden State and San Antonio who averaged 70 wins between them. Meanwhile the only elite team in the east coasted through the regular season saving it's energy for the playoffs.
Phoenix could be really good too if Bender and Chriss develop quickly.
That makes sense. Thanks.
But that was compensated for by getting to play a lot more games against bottom ten teams. That's the reality. There are a lot more ham & eggers in the West these days. Hell, the West's eighth seed was actively trying to miss the playoffs and couldn't manage it.
I just read this in Jerry Remy Voice and laughed... preemer knocked her... what NBA player turns that down?
Um, no. Have a closer read of what I wrote: in the West, you have a tougher regular season path towards obtaining home-court advantage against the top-tier teams (Spurs, Warriors, arguably Clippers). In the East, there's no need to worry about home-court advantage until the ECF when you go up against Lebron.
They don't really have the cash now though--they'd have to make some big moves.
If you don't count his current team and only remove the three teams mentioned, he is actually only meeting with 18.5% of the league's teams.
Why woudn't you count the team who is the heavy favorite to sign him? He met with them for 5 hours hammering out details yesterday. It will take a lot of work for someone to get him out of that situation for one year with the cap increasing again next season.
Okay. I see your point. Still checking in at much less than a quarter of the league (22%).
Good point (and point taken). Not too sure what the banner would look like.
Just to be clear, there is no leverage to be had here. OKC can/will not pay him more because he took a bunch of meetings that each "went well".
One could say it's leverage not for more money, but to force the Thunder to get better (Horford) or otherwise alter the roster to Durant's liking.
What leverage? Every single team in the Durant sweepstakes is going to pay him every possible penny they're allowed to. This isn't Amir Johnson we're discussing, this is a future hall of famer in his prime. Five teams are offering him the same contract, and the sixth is offering him even more.
I think they would do that regardless of whether Durant took meetings or not. The impediment for them is getting someone to take Kanter off their hands. Not that Doc and his dysfunctional bunch or Riley and his bag of rings are going to break bread with KD.
Listen I get it.
Yeah, clearly the Thunder would tell their HoF forward in his prime "Take it or leave it, we're not adding an all star big man to help you win" if not for his meeting with the Celtics.
Sure. But it's entirely believable that Durant's agent might say to him "look, I know you want to stay here, but take a few meetings first, just to let them know they can't take you for granted".
Perhaps, but the way they are going about it - making groups of people trek out to the Hamptons in the midst of the fourth of July weekend (this is a huge pain in the ass on a normal summer weekend - on the fourth its a gargantuan journey) - seems like more than just posturing.
If you take out all of the teams Durant isn't meeting with, than the Celtics are in the same boat as 100% of the league. So there's that, too.
Oh I have no doubt that they are all heading out by air (helicopter most likely). Thing is, so too are tons of other far, far wealthier folks. I mean, they may have to actually wait for the bigger fish to land first. The Hamptons are a place where super rich people feel inadequate. And they are a pain in the ass to get to regardless of who you are.
Yeah, clearly he's going through the process of meeting with these teams because he has a deep need for affirmation of his specialness. Look, he's meeting with these teams for the simple reason that he's considering ditching his present team. This isn't about psychological neediness or "leverage" over a bunch of teams all offering him the exact same deal.
Can we do this DiceK style and have a game thread monitoring the flight path?
The broader context here is that there are a lot of posters that just can't let go of the woe is me, Boston will never get a free agent victimology and have gone to extraordinary depths in this thread to hold on to it.
Until they actually, you know, get a FA, I think there's something to be said about a predominantly white city with shitty weather and high taxes looking for nba players.
It's mostly dumb for a number of reasons, but the top 2 are:
MA taxes are low as compared to pretty much any state except the ones with no income tax. MA hasn't been a high tax state for something like twenty years.
I'd be interested to see the career PER (prior to signing with a new team) of the top 3 free agents per team since FA began.
