How Much Blame Do The Spurs Get For Durant/Westbrook/(Harden) Thunder Not Becoming A Dynasty?

[Spurtacular]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvRY730Xmb0

[timtonymanu]

There were many other reasons for their failures. The Spurs were not one of them.

Miami and Golden State were always a tougher matchup for the Thunder while okc was always a matchup nightmare for us even when we beat them in 2014.

[exstatic]

Zero. The blame lies with Sam Presti, 100%. He was given a strict budget by ownership, AND DECIDED TO KEEP IBAKA OVER HARDEN. Jesus fucking Christ, what a fuck up. He didn’t even get anything for Harden. Oh, and he decided to pay career 5p/6r guy Kendrick Perkins $8M, about 4X the difference they had with Harden in negotiations. He could have been salary dumped, and then they could have paid Harden, but nooooo! Oh, they traded him the NEXT FUCKING YEAR, when Harden had already played a season in Houston.

[Dirks_Finale]

Ummm...they beat SA twice and lost once to them in the playoffs.

If anything it was the Warriors and also the unexpected boost in revenue/salary cap that killed it. Had Presti known what was gonna happen he would have kept Harden.

[CGD]

#HardenTrade

[KobesAchilles]

Refs screwed us twice against them. League did everything it could to make sure they advanced. KD being a beta and Westbrook being a crunch time idiot are to blame. That jump ball incident in the finals by Westbrook still stands out to me

[R. DeMurre]

It's hard as hell to win a championship, and even harder to win multiples. But I think the lesson I see with OKC is that no matter how many good to great players you have, you absolutely do not want a major piece who's an impediment to beating other great teams because of bad decision making, low efficiency, and over usage-- all the things that sum up Westbrook's approach to the game. If Presti could go back in time, I think there's little question that he trades Westbrook and keeps Harden. I put Westbrook in that strange & unique upper tier of being a guy who has incredible Hall of Fame stats and guarantees your team gets a certain amount of wins, and makes the playoffs, but almost also guarantees you don't win a championship.

[Fusternino]

Very little, these guys were our kryptonite. If they don't trade Harden, I don't think we get to the Finals in 2013 or 2014.

[pad300]

Why are you using the word "blame"; if we did fuck them up, it's to our credit.

[Spurtacular]

Why are you using the word "blame"; if we did fuck them up, it's to our credit.

Sure. Blame/Credit depending on one's p.o.v.

[Russ]

Ummm...they beat SA twice and lost once to them in the playoffs.



That's the point.

The Spurs were the gold standard back then and they beat the Spurs twice -- it was hubris, they thought they had a margin for error and then acted like it.

[Dex]

#HardenTrade

Bingo. This was the beginning of the end for that team.

Presti has definitely worked some miracles before, but how you commit to signing Perkins over Harden is a real mind boggler.

Then Durant made one of the weakest moves from a superstar in NBA history, and Westbrook continued to just be Westbrook, but now he is tanking Washington's chances for success.

[Joseph Kony]

:lol another classic shitty basketball take from the Jimmer lover

Spurs beat the Thunder in 1 series during that entire era. Why would the spurs get any credit for a team they only beat once not becoming a dynasty? :lmao fucking retard

[daslicer]

Very little, these guys were our kryptonite. If they don't trade Harden, I don't think we get to the Finals in 2013 or 2014.

Agreed. They were impossible to beat in 2013 with their trio. Even in 2014 with just Durant/Westbrook it took the Spurs playing the perfect game 6 to eliminate them. Manu/Duncan was super clutch in the 4th and OT of that game.

[Poolboy5623]

They can blame themselves...that's about it. Spurs had zero to do with it.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

The Thunder don't blow a 3-1 lead to the Warriors and history is rewritten. Durant doesn't walk if they won that one.

[Fusternino]

Agreed. They were impossible to beat in 2013 with their trio. Even in 2014 with just Durant/Westbrook it took the Spurs playing the perfect game 6 to eliminate them. Manu/Duncan was super clutch in the 4th and OT of that game.

And Ibaka as well was out the first two games in 2014 and we barely got through that series.

[daslicer]

And Ibaka as well was out the first two games in 2014 and we barely got through that series.

Ibaka going off always pissed me off since he would transform into an all-star when playing the Spurs.

[slick'81]

Presti in full rebuild now praying he can have a trio like durant,harden&westy again

[scott]

The Thunder had Harden on their team, one of the least clutch players in NBA history. They probably only have to blame themselves.

[SpursDynasty85]

Presti in full rebuild now praying he can have a trio like durant,harden&westy again

LOL, Its about as extreme of a rebuild project as I've ever seen. How many young guys can you fit into an NBA organization? It will be interesting how it plays out when you have 14 lottery-drafted prospects under the age of 26.

[cd98]

None. Our best series against them came after Hardin was traded. Before that, they were a scary good team and if they had not been screwed by the NBA rules at the time, they would have kept that team together and won 5 titles. I don't know that we could have beat them in 2014 if they could have kept that team.