The Golden State Warriors likely can’t get much better, but that shouldn’t stop them from trying.
The rest of the teams in the NBA are already having nightmares trying to figure out the Rubik’s Cube that is Golden State, but imagine how ridiculous the defending champions would be if they added Kevin Durant.
As unfathomable as it sounds, the Warriors are apparently the overwhelming frontrunners to sign Durant if he leaves the Oklahoma City Thunder, as reported by Yahoo! Sports Tuesday in a bomb that must have sent shivers down backs across the league.
First off, the big ‘if’ is whetherDurant would even leave the Thunder – the team he’s spent his entire career with.
From what we’ve seen, Durant is extremely loyal to his team-mates and the city he plays for. He’s also in a winning situation, sharing the court with his friend Russell Westbrook, who also happens to be a
The only reason for Durant to leave is his thirst to get a ring as soon as possible.
It wouldn’t be without a lot of sacrifice though as Durant would be giving up some money, see his scoring
surely fall and endure the narrative that he’s joining Steph Curry’s team and no longer ‘the man’. Basically,
similar noise to what LeBron James heard when he jumped from Cleveland to Miami.
Just as it didn’t stop LeBron from succeeding, being forced to sacrifice wouldn’t be a problem for Durant, whose repeatedly proved his unselfishness simply by encouraging Westbrook to be as assertive as he is.
But, and this is crazy to say, there is a possibility that Durant joining Golden State could actually hurt the
team. That risk has little to do with Durant.
There could be speculation of the Warriors adding any star player and the theoretical question of whether
or not it makes them better would be mostly unchanged.
It’s impossible to be perfect in sport, which means there’s always room to get better, even if it’s a transcendent
team improving incrementally.
But if Golden State repeat as champions – there’s a chance they break the single-season win total of 72 victories in the process – then there’s nothing worth getting better for.
What’s the upshot, winning every single game?
That said, if you can sign Durant, you do it. It will mean less depth.
It will mean the loss of some key role players to clear cap space. It will mean potentially disrupting chemistry.
But at the end of the day, you’ve become a more talented team and thus have a higher ceiling.
With as easy as the Warriors are making it look right now, maybe they’re hoping for a challenge.
