Disagree with ESPN superstar system used by Stephen Smith Commentary

[fairweatherfan]

And it needs to be emphasized that as much as LeBron was looking for an easy way out by creating a super team in Miami, he was trying to build something new.  Durant is flatly trying to bandwagon his way to a ring with someone else's team.

Mike

Yep. It's a sad, sad day when Celtics fans are having to line up to defend Lebron's actions.

I always thought LeBron took too much flak for that.  To me it's more impressive to build your own team than to just luck into a front office skilled enough to do it for you.  The only thing I really disliked was telling his home region he was leaving via a big self-celebratory TV special. 

Durant doesn't come across as arrogant like LeBron did; just the opposite really.  He's showing he doesn't believe in his own abilities and needs to jump on board a team that's already accomplished just about everything without him.  Takes a lot of pressure off to know your new squad is capable of winning 70+ and a ring with literally 0 contribution from you.  At least until they start to struggle and all the fingers naturally point at you.

[CelticsBR]

Curry and Thompson are probably the best shooters of all time, while one is a great ballhandler and the other a fantastic one-on-one defender. The duo + Green + Iguodala (who could have been an all star for longer) is no doubt better than KD + Westbrook.


And I don't think GSW is much better than its part. They have been able to assemble a team vastly underpaid (their merit), in which 2 all stars (Iguodala and David Lee accepted a lesser role while they could still produce more in other teams). Their bench guards were on low contracts because they had serious injuries that holded them back: Livingston had terrible injuries before playing one good season in Brooklyn and Barbosa had 2 season-ending injuries with Boston and Phoenix

[guava_wrench]

Keep in mind that Curry will be a FA next season. So both Curry and Durant will have their salaries jump next season.

Livingston will be a FA. He will already be 31, but it is likely he will go where the money is because he lost his prime to his injuries. Iguodala is a FA next season, as is Bogut.

They have Klay under contract for 3 more years and Green for 4, so both will be bargains. That means that they should be able to keep that 4 together for 3 years if Durant and Curry re-sign next season. If the cap hits 108m, we can assume Curry will get around 32m (30% of cap as designated player) and Durant will get similar based on years of service. No other player has guaranteed money past next season.

It will be interesting to see how they fill their bench. Middling players are getting big contracts now and like still will next season with cap space that needs filling. This year and next will be the hardest years to fill a bench with decent contracts. We are actually fortunate to have to many picks because they are cost controlled in a time of exploding contracts. If we draft more developed guys, we could use the draft to get our role players without paying out the nose until salaries normalize as people fill their empty cap space.

The easiest approach for GS is to use Bird rights to retain their own players and to just take the luxury tax hit. They will also likely be in the market for minimum contract vets looking for easy rings.