Durant may not have had it in him

[walker834]

KG was ring chasing.  You say that like that's a bad thing.   He came here to win a ring.

That's good we were in position to do that.  We need to do that again. Minny wasn't.

[celtics2030]

The equivalent would have been Garnett somehow going to the Spurs that year

[walker834]

pierce even said he would have left if that didn't happen. Yeah there is a difference between just going to the front runner every single time.  Durant didn't do that though. He stayed in OKC a long time.  KG stayed in minny too.  Durant will probably stay in GS for a long time too. I'm not saying he isn't loyal or KG.  But it's just true.  Yes Durant is taking it a step further but it's also the state of the nba with the rising cap where teams like GS can get rid of a guy like bogut and barnes and do that.

We couldnt do that with kg.  we ended up trading Perk for Jeff Green.  West basically dumped Bogut and Barnes for Durant.

They are playing within the rules of the cap.  So were we at the time.  It's more difficult for us to land free agents that way.

If KG was a free agent he may have just signed with the spurs if they had cap space.  That wasn't how it was then.  The cap has risen and Durant was a free agent.. He did nothing wrong.

[saltlover]

KG was ring chasing.  You say that like that's a bad thing.   He came here to win a ring.

That's good we were in position to do that.  We need to do that again. Minny wasn't.

KG was traded.  Yes, he had a no-trade clause that he waived, but he never asked for a trade, much less left in free agency.  It isn't remotely the same thing. 

[jpotter33]

Durant is no different than Russell or KG is what I'm saying in that regard.  He went west. It happens. They have some good teams out there.

KG was in the same situation and came here.  He waived his no trade clause once we got Ray and we traded him Al J.
...

So waiving a no-trade clause to let your team trade you to a team that has won nothing and didn't make the playoff the year before is the same as Durant choosing to join the team that is 1-1 in the last two finals and just set the record for most regular season wins?

You are taking the apologetics too far.

I have nothing against Durant's choice or any player's choice when they decide they would rather work somewhere else. But the KG trade is nothing like this Durant move. KG wasn't trying to leave Minny. KG wan't ring chasing. He would have continue to lay it all out there in Minny if they didn't trade him. Minny wanted to get value while they still could.

If you really want to compare the situations to say they did pretty much the same thing, put KG in Durant's shoes and situation. Do you think there would have been any possibility where he would've left a true contender to join the team that just took him out of the  playoffs, especially a record-breaking team with the two-time MVP? Hell to the no! KG was loyal to a fault, and he certainly wasn't going to bandwagon his way to a title with someone that just took him out in the playoffs.

[walker834]

Minny was going to lose KG.  Why they traded him to us for Al J before it even got to free agency.  He was at the end of his contract. They were going to lose him.  We signed him to a huge extension when we traded for him.

That was the whole reason we got him because rather than lose him for nothing Minny took Al J.

KG agreed to come here once we got Ray Allen.

[walker834]

People are living in a fantasy world. There is no Santa either. I'm joking but  yeah.  There is a Santa but he isn't what you thought. It's all what you do and what people "make believe".

[Kuberski33]

We live in a free country and Durant going to GSW was well within the rules so if that's what he wants, who's to argue?  He did kind of hedge his bet with the player option for year 2 so he controls the process.

That being said, maybe this shows the guy just isn't a natural leader and is more of a follower. 

I'm fine with the Celtics not getting him.  Sucks for league competitiveness though at least for the short term.

[walker834]

I think athletes in general are just people. How they choose to lead might not be how i do it etc.  People put too much on these guys in general of what they expect them to be.   I just enjoy watching them  play and the fun of it.

I'm not even apoligizing for Durant either but all these guys aren't exactly the perfect rolemodels.

It's no different than woj or any of these guys.  His print business was failing and some people will do whatever it takes to get to where they are.  Others are more secure in themselves and dont need to do that.   

It's just people.  I just think we need to do what we need to do to compete with that.  That was more my point.

Wasting our time on Durant at this point does us no good.

My point more was what can we do to get our team in position to win.

What society defines as leaders in general is weird. What I define as that may be very different than you.

[walker834]

Rozier basically just said the same things.  I love Rozier.  He's a leader. Maybe not as talented as durant but how many players are.  Rozier is a really solid player and guy though.

My main thrust ehre though is I don't want to end up like jerry west the player here though. I want the celtics to make the right moves to put us in position to win championships.

We can do that if we are smart here. 

I'm not saying we have to be bad people to do that either. Quite the opposite. The celtics have a certain something as far as a brotherhood goes and playing for each other. We need to use that and our hard work in our favor.  We need talent too.  We need enough to compete with teams like that where our hard work outdoes theirs.

[Scintan]

Those grapes sure are sour.

[walker834]

I honestly don't think it's as big a deal as it was made out to be.  When we get players that really feel right it feels right.  I feel  like we are right actually.  Pretty happy today surprisingly.

I just think we have to be aware what West is trying to do and what we need to build to compete with that.

I've never really liked the star chasing too much except on certain guys.  i was really for KG happening and it felt right when it happened. 

When it doesn't does it really matter?

[saltlover]

Minny was going to lose KG.  Why they traded him to us for Al J before it even got to free agency.  He was at the end of his contract. They were going to lose him.  We signed him to a huge extension when we traded for him.

That was the whole reason we got him because rather than lose him for nothing Minny took Al J.

KG agreed to come here once we got Ray Allen.

I mean this politely, but do you know what you're talking about?  KG had two years left on his Minny deal.  They weren't losing him to free agency any time soon.

It isn't remotely similar.  At all.  You can apologize and excuse KD all you want.  He made the decision he thought was best for him.  But IT IS NOTHING LIKE the KG situation.  The only thing in common is their first name.  That's it.

[walker834]

Minny was going to lose KG.  Why they traded him to us for Al J before it even got to free agency.  He was at the end of his contract. They were going to lose him.  We signed him to a huge extension when we traded for him.

That was the whole reason we got him because rather than lose him for nothing Minny took Al J.

KG agreed to come here once we got Ray Allen.

I mean this politely, but do you know what you're talking about?  KG had two years left on his Minny deal.  They weren't losing him to free agency any time soon.

It isn't remotely similar.  At all.  You can apologize and excuse KD all you want.  He made the decision he thought was best for him.  But IT IS NOTHING LIKE the KG situation.  The only thing in common is their first name.  That's it.

Yes I do because that was part of why they were possibly going to move him at that time.  We jumped ahead of the curve is why we were able to get him.  We also signed him to an extension when we traded for him.  He was not willing to do that with Minny at that point.

I'm not saying he would have left but most of this stuff people are complaining abut with durant is just sour grapes.

Some situations go our way.  Some don't.  The west coast won this one.

Different time.  Different players.

The whole reason KG was available was because he was coming up on the end of his contract and Minny was possibly going to lose him. I remember it well.  We were able to trade for him because we jumped ahead of the curve instead of it getting to that point.

[jpotter33]

Minny was going to lose KG.  Why they traded him to us for Al J before it even got to free agency.  He was at the end of his contract. They were going to lose him.  We signed him to a huge extension when we traded for him.

That was the whole reason we got him because rather than lose him for nothing Minny took Al J.

KG agreed to come here once we got Ray Allen.

I mean this politely, but do you know what you're talking about?  KG had two years left on his Minny deal.  They weren't losing him to free agency any time soon.

It isn't remotely similar.  At all.  You can apologize and excuse KD all you want.  He made the decision he thought was best for him.  But IT IS NOTHING LIKE the KG situation.  The only thing in common is their first name.  That's it.

Yes I do because that was part of why they were possibly going to move him at that time.  We jumped ahead of the curve is why we were able to get him.  We also signed him to an extension when we traded for him.  He was not willing to do that with Minny at that point.

I'm not saying he would have left but most of this stuff people are complaining abut with durant is just sour grapes.

Some situations go our way.  Some don't.  The west coast won this one.

Different time.  Different players.

People who are saying that this is just "sour grapes" either don't know what the concept "sour grapes" means or they're ignorant of the KD dialogue on this blog for the past two to three months.

This isn't him going to San Antonio or staying in OKC and us complaining about it. That would be a legit "sour grapes" scenario. Rather, it's been clearly and explicitly stated, in a near unanimous way, I might add, that GS would be the only destination for him that would make people upset due to him joining an already established, record-breaking, title contender, which would essentially be a cop-out from someone like KD. This has literally, not figuratively - literally, been the popular sentiment on here for the last several months of KD speculation. And I know this for a fact, because I was one of the leading voices of the KD/GS dialogue making no sense whatsoever.

So to sit here and partake in revisionist history and claim that this is just a "sour grapes" scenario is asinine and ignorant of the context of the blog over the last several months.