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Eventually, maybe. MAYBE. But if so, why not ride that out until then?
I'm with dbreiden.. I can't imagine a scenario where you have three MVP level talents like Harden, Westbrook and Durant approaching their primes and having to share one basketball.. especially al being perimeter guys.. One of Harden or Westbrook had to go.
Eventually, maybe. MAYBE. But if so, why not ride that out until then?
Tell that to last year's Spurs.
I don't think its entirely OKC's fault. I'm pretty sure if Ginobili demanded the max in the Summer of '04 or Rique demanded it later on the Spurs Big 3 would've disbanded too. Not every team can get players under market value like the Spurs did tbh.
Also IIRC Abaka's contract was coming up around the the same time too.
The Spurs wouldn't have had the option of renouncing Nesterovich like the Thunder could have done with Perkins though.
Three max players is three max players though. Plus imagine they had another young, elite defensive big to take care of. Not sure how comfortable a small market team like the Spurs would feel filling out the roster on such a limited budget after those four got paid.
Due to his consistency and longevity to this point, I think it's quite a bit less often than that. I'm not disagreeing with your point, I'm simply saying he's even better than that. Maybe your math is correct, but it seems like if you had a one-in-three chance of getting a KD with the first pick in the draft, the league would be a lot better than it is. I'd go so far as to say he's a one in ten year type guy. In 20 years we may all agree that the Thunder had three ten year guys on the same team and screwed it up.
Not sure how good an idea it is to pay three max guys who all demand to be paid the max. Truth is, the Thunder could possibly have gotten all of their guys to take less if they'd done it right. Signing Perkins when they had Durant, Ibaka, Westbrook and Harden was extremely short-sighted on their part, and then giving Harden a hard timeline was just stupid.
Starting in 1987 with the Robinson draft, I can think of eleven players drafted who I'd consider in the same class of elite franchise player as Durant. So maybe every 2.5 years is a better approximation.
David Robinson 1987
Scottie Pippen 1987
Shaquille O'Neal 1993
Kevin Garnett 1995
Kobe Bryant 1996
Tim Duncan 1997
Dirk Nowitzki 1998
LeBron James 2003
Dwyane Wade 2003
Kevin Durant 2007
Anthony Davis 2012
I don't think CP3, Blake, Rose, Howard, Westbrook, Kidd, or Payton is comparable to any of these guys. Kind of funny how the elite talent seems to come in bursts in between really down blocks of years.
Last edited by baseline bum; 03-29-2015 at 05:42 PM.
That's a fair list. I figured you'd done the math. I think maybe you've been a bit generous, though I don't think any of the names on your list are bad choices. Certainly they're all franchise talents. I was thinking more of guys who were definite number one picks going into the draft, which would mean, Robinson, Duncan, Shaq, James, and Davis. I didn't remember Greg Oden when I posted above.
Damn, that sucks for the Thunder and their fans. A healthy OKC vs. Golden State in the first round would of been some fun basketball to watch. So many good match ups. Bummer.
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