2015-16 Raptors and General NBA Thread

[nik-]

Yeah, I don't see them winning in Oakland now

[Senator Clay Davis]

Thunder basically controlled this series at home for the first 139 minutes...bad time for your worst 5 minutes of the season. Warriors still have problems with the Thunder so I think it'll be a great game 7, but obviously you like the Warriors and a blowout is probably as likely as a close game.

[nik-]

I find OKC odd in general. In a time where the league was moving to the three headed giant model they decided to just break theirs up.

Wonder where Durant plays next year.

[Jason14h]

Wonder where Durant plays next year.

OKC unless he wants to leave 40 million on the table! I guess he could force a sign and trade.

[Trojan97]

Originally Posted by nik-

I find OKC odd in general. In a time where the league was moving to the three headed giant model they decided to just break theirs up.

Wonder where Durant plays next year.

NSFW!

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

OKC unless he wants to leave 40 million on the table! I guess he could force a sign and trade.

I think he's gonna be ok money wise. He wants rings.

[Trojan97]

KD would be smart to come to the east. Lebron has proven how easy (relative to the west) it is to come out of the east when you're a superstar with a somewhat decent cast. Why not walk through the first two rounds every year and then take your chances versus an aging Lebron in the ECF as opposed to walking the gauntlet of the west every year and hoping to MAYBE breakthrough once every few years. I'm not a Lebron guy but he is managing his career much more smart than most other players IMO. Playing in the east allows him much more rest than he would get in the west and he gets to make easier championship runs every year than anyone else. It's a huge win-win for him. I'm shocked no other big star has come east to try and follow suit.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Durant will almost certainly sign the bumper deal in OKC with an opt out after next year or the following year. Lets be real if not for an insane shooting night from Klay, the Thunder would be in the Finals right now. They need at worst one or two more small pieces to be the team to beat out West, this isn't the Cavs when LeBron left where they clearly were not even close. If he does leave, Golden State and San Antonio are his top two destinations, with the Wizards still the likely destination if he heads East.

[killer_carlson]

If Durant goes to San Antonio....wow...

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

If Durant goes to San Antonio....wow...

You can hand the West to Spurs or Warriors for the next decade then.

Durant/Leonard/Aldridge vs Curry/Thompson/Green. Good luck to any up and coming teams like Twolves.

They should have two playoff brackets.

Lebron's team/Warriors/Spurs/Thunder (if Durant stays). These teams play a best of 11 semi-final lol. Then Best of 15 Finals. Of course, a team can be moved down to the 2nd bracket and a new powerhouse moved up.

Rest of the NBA plays the regular division II championship playoffs.

[Senator Clay Davis]

TWolves have a pretty nice future if they can keep it together. Their window isn't for 2 years anyways and San Antonio is probably finally done as an elite top team by then unless they can add another big piece, but they'll always be attractive with Pop and Kawhi there. Warriors will decline as well, but still likely be the best team. Also Westbrook becomes a FA after next year so obviously depending on what Durant does he becomes the kind of piece that could change an entire conference, depending where he goes.

[killer_carlson]

Kawhi, Aldridge and Durant? Hell, I could join those three on the starting 5 and they'd still win 60 games.

If Durant goes to San Antonio then I can see Parker, Manu and Duncan playing for fun as the 2nd unit for the next 10 years. Playing 15 minutes a game as a bunch of angry veterans bent on winning at any cost.

It would be awesome to watch.

[St. Pats]

To me one of the most interesting names out there is Demarcus Cousins. They would have to give up everything and the kitchen sink to get him but there is a legitimate carry a team star. What a waste of talent he is sitting on a team going nowhere in the talent laden West. Go get him MU!

[octothorp]

In his end-of-season presser, Ujiri gave surprisingly strong signs of trying to retain Biyombo this year. Surprising because they don't have the cap space to sign him or any exceptions to use on him. Talked about how with the emergence of both JV and BB, they needed to be more creative in finding a solution at the 4 (reading between the lines, does that mean playing both of them together more? Something we saw for a few minutes in the end of the Cleveland series, but had never been done all season.) It would probably take trading Ross for spare parts to create the room to resign Biyombo. Ross was one of the only players that Ujiri did not name in the press conference, for what it's worth.

[calgaryblood]

Durant has said he always wanted to play for the Raptors....they were his favorite team growing up. Would be sweet if they could somehow get him.

[Frequitude]

Money lines seem to be roughly

GSW -330
OKC +290

At those odds I like OKC for value. They're just so much longer and Westbrook is so good that I just have to believe they have better than a ~25% chance of winning.

[Senator Clay Davis]

It's all about where OKC is at mentally. If they've dropped game 6 from their memory, they've still outplayed Golden State for the majority of this series and still have two of the top three players in the series which always matters in the NBA. It should be a toss up game, even in Oakland. If OKC can't get over game 6 then this game will probably be over in the first 10 minutes.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Durant has said he always wanted to play for the Raptors....they were his favorite team growing up. Would be sweet if they could somehow get him.

He's also friends with Drake.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Durant coming to the Raptors would be one of the most shocking moments in Canadian sports history. End of the day I just seriously doubt he comes East for anywhere but DC. It's nice to think having Drake and him cheering for the Raps growing up matters, but it doesn't matter like going home matters, or finishing what he started in OKC. If he wants the shortcut obviously San Antonio and Golden State offer the clearer path to glory. I still strongly believe he's in OKC next year anyways.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Great start for the Thunder, Warriors shooting poorly again but mostly from good OKC defense.