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With the Rockets knocking at the door of the championship and the Lakers seemingly within reach of a super team led by LeBron, this summer the NBA was supposed to be bridging the gap between the Warriors and the few teams in to threaten them. Instead, in the early hours of the free agency period of 2018, this gap has widened somewhat.
First, Kevin Durant signed a new agreement with Golden State for a $ 61.5 million contract over two years. Obviously, the Warriors getting Durant is a win, but this part was expected. Perhaps we did not expect Durant, once again, to take a pay cut to help the Warriors, already rich in filth. Under his new deal, Durant will make $ 30 million next season. He was eligible for $ 35.7 million
So, what is $ 5.7 million to some billionaires in Silicon Valley? Not much in real life. But this makes the Warriors' life easier for Warriors, who can now effectively use the same amount to compensate for the addition of the mid-level taxpayer exception player like, for example, Jamal Crawford or maybe to be even Avery Bradley. Thus, Golden State gets the second best player in the world to get a discount, probably saves nearly $ 20 million in tax penalties and potentially positions itself to add a significant bench player for good measure.
It was the first victory of the night
From there, it was learned that Paul George was returning to the Thunder, who is now sitting with a tax bill that could smother a hippo by returning to the same team that could not. t come out of the first round last year. This is not to diminish the importance of this move for the Thunder, who took the risk of trading for George last summer when they knew it could be a rental deal. One year. But Thunder, as it is currently built, is not a realistic threat to Warriors.
George went to the Lakers, who remains the leader of the club to sign LeBron James? Now it would have been a threat. Throw Kawhi Leonard next to them, and now you look at a team that could be favored to beat Golden State. Now, there is no such superteam to worry about.
Note: all is not lost for the Lakers, who might well get LeBron, and maybe even Kawhi, and maybe even end up with DeMarcus Cousins as the market dries up for his services. They can still come out with a very good team. But nothing that they could or could not put in place will be as good as a LeBron-George-Kawhi triumvirate would have been. That's the trio that would have really scared the Warriors, who really were really scared by a team there is a season: The Rockets.
Oh, yeah, about these rockets.
Trevor Ariza left Houston to sign a $ 15 million contract with the Suns. Ariza is not a name as bady as LeBron or Paul George, and as such, we will not talk much about this move over the next few days. But Ariza was a major and major reason why the Rockets were able to push the Warriors as far as in the conference finals. Chris Paul and James Harden are the headliners, but the real reason why Houston has given so much trouble to Golden State was his defense. Specifically, his ability to pbad all screens against all Golden State shooters with tall, tough and athletic defenders like PJ Tucker and TREVOR ARIZA!
Seriously, Ariza was the perfect player in this Houston system – a spot-up A versatile defenseman who can defend multiple positions and at least makes things difficult on a guy like Kevin Durant. It is there that it really hurts the Rockets – specifically against the Warriors, which must be defended in a certain way. The Rockets could be good, more or less, without Ariza through the regular season. But they do not care about the regular season. The only thing that interests them is to beat the Warriors. And their chances of doing that are much slimmer without Ariza.
I'm sure other news will come out about how the Rockets let Ariza go, but whatever it was, it was not smart. The Suns only gave him a one year contract for shouting out loud. It is not like they had launched $ 60 million on it. They gave him $ 15 million. Maybe it's a bit more than Houston thought it was worth it, but you're going to seriously begrudge about a few million dollars while you're already spending the GDP of a small country on your listing?
The Thunder, you remember, just signed up for the biggest tax bill in history to bring back a team that lost in the first round. You can not waste a few million dollars to bring back the team that was potentially a Chris Paul pulled hamstring to win a title? Did not Daryl Morey say that Houston was "obsessed" with beating Golden State? Apparently not so obsessed.
So, to recap: The Warriors had Kevin Durant with a discount; the Lakers, who were supposed to build a superteam to overthrow the Warriors, hit Paul George; and the Rockets, the only team that was still far from competing with the Warriors last year, got worse.
Just another day in the life of the rich becoming richer.
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