The 2016 Offseason thread

[Barolt]

Because it's detrimental to the people who take the financial risks in the business and most importantly it's detrimental to the customers. Who gains from Durant joining the Warriors? Warriors ownership and their fans. Everyone else loses. All other teams lose and the people pumping money into the league lose. It hurts the integrity of the game.

I don't think Durant joining the Warriors is harmful to the league at all, really.

People are going to watch the shit out of that team.

[Apollo]

I always bring it back to simple employer/employee relationships when such discussions happen. Forget the money, forget the fame, imagine if your employer FORBID YOU from leaving your job even after your contract with them was done. It's madness that any place allows such a thing.

It protects the teams and the customers. It's a mechanism that helps protect the business. You're not talking about real life here, you're talking about grown men who probably never had a hard days work in their life getting paid millions to play a game. If that's so tough then they could go work with the people paying for the tickets and all the merchandise and taste the real world.

[ogi]

I always bring it back to simple employer/employee relationships when such discussions happen. Forget the money, forget the fame, imagine if your employer FORBID YOU from leaving your job even after your contract with them was done. It's madness that any place allows such a thing.

I see your point but at the same time this is sports. In other jobs the best companies usually get the best people and end up performing better than the rest consistently. The company's performance is exclusively what generates revenue. In sports revenue mainly comes based on how entertaining your product is, and if you have one or two teams obliterating everyone else, that eventually becomes lower entertainment value than a more competitive league with more parity.
If this trend continues, it wouldn't be surprising to see interest in the NBA dip, leading to less money for everyone.

[slaw]

I don't see anything wrong with that part of it. You can't stop that, how would you even accomplish it? It's not fair to the players to institute something like the highest bid gets the player and the player has no say.

What the league can do it penalize teams who steal stars. In this case maybe the Warriors would owe the Thunder one or two first rounders as compensation. Or another idea is a franchise tag which can be applied to the same player twice. If there were a franchise tag Durant would be going nowhere and then the Thunder could work a trade with the Warriors.

I like the idea of tying draft picks to free agents but the players will fight that tooth and nail.

[ball4life]

Or he said he wanted to win championships?

It looks bad on KD from a competitive stand point.
Whats the difference between David West and Kevin Durant now?

I'm sure it was a forced deal by Nike to take the shine away from Under Armour. Nike is heavily invested in KD.

[ogi]

I don't think Durant joining the Warriors is harmful to the league at all, really.

People are going to watch the shit out of that team.

They will for sure next year. But complete domination becomes boring after a while. Constant competition doesn't.

[MixxAOR]

It protects the team's and the customers. It's a mechanism that helps protect the business. You're not talking about real life here, you're talking about grown men who probably never had a hard days work in their life getting paid millions to play a game. If that's so tough then they could go work with the people paying for the tickets and all the merchandise and taste the real world.

Who retire at age of 40 (if they are lucky) and risk injury throughout their careers. They can do what they want.

[Apollo]

I don't think Durant joining the Warriors is harmful to the league at all, really.

People are going to watch the shit out of that team.

Sure it is. Scan this thread immediately after the news came out. It knocked all the wind out of our sails. In Oklahoma they're fucked. That hurts all their fans. They're going to lose Westbrook now because of this. The ownership there did nothing wrong, in fact they almost made the finals. They just fleeced the Magic in an awesome trade. This is their reward? This is acopalyptic for the Thunder.

Think back to the shitty taste in our mouths when Bosh pulled this or worse yet, McGrady? This is a problem in the league. We the fans don't benefit from this stuff the players do and so it's beyond me they some of us defend it. Only a handful of teams benefit from it and the other 24 get fucked over and over and over again.

[Barolt]

It protects the teams and the customers. It's a mechanism that helps protect the business. You're not talking about real life here, you're talking about grown men who probably never had a hard days work in their life getting paid millions to play a game. If that's so tough then they could go work with the people paying for the tickets and all the merchandise and taste the real world.

What?

Being a professional athlete is probably more work than any job any of us will work in our lives. These guys have their diets, their workout routines, their lifestyles required to fit into their career even during the offseason. Their careers can be ended by one wrong step.

I suspect between workouts, practices, games, film sessions and media appearances that these guys have days that are often very, very busy. It's easy to look at game day and think it's an easy job, but that's not where the work starts or ends for pro athletes.

[Barolt]

Sure it is. Scan this thread immediately after the news came out. It knocked all the wind out of our sails. In Oklahoma they're fucked. That hurts all their fans. They're going to lose Westbrook now because of this. The ownership there did nothing wrong, in fact they almost made the finals. They just fleeced the Magic in an awesome trade. This is their reward? This is acopalyptic for the Thunder.

People said the same thing when the Heatles got together. Guess what? People watched.

[ogi]

They'd be practically giving him away but they're going down next year anyway. There's a loser in the FA market who might bite.

Yeah that's true. It would make sense to try and get something out of the situation.

[Letter N]

It protects the team's and the customers. It's a mechanism that helps protect the business. You're not talking about real life here, you're talking about grown men who probably never had a hard days work in their life getting paid millions to play a game.

Irrelevant.

We're also talking about billionaires who are handing out millions to these men to play a game.

Just as in another industry a billionaire is handing out millions to employees to type code, or to design buildings or to write reviews for mobile apps, it's all still employees and employers, all working as hard as necessary to make a living. Just because the dollar figure gets high doesn't mean they lose the rights that everyone else should have.

This is one of the problems with sports, we see the millionaire athlete and their contracts thrown in our faces day in and day out that we start sympathizing with the billionaire owners who are usually way worse human beings and more likely to screw us all over at the drop of a hat. Last thing they need is more power.

[Simplicity]

This is literally "if you cant beat them, join them" with zaza, chalmers and west joining them for minimum

[DogeLover1234]

We wonder what if Carter and McGrady stayed with Raps. Can't imagine what it's like for Thunder fans

Not sympathetic at all. They got a team with 3(!) players who ended up being all-nba players plus a DPOY.

Durant had the choice between a contending team or making one of the best teams ever. He wants to win so much he is willing to put aside his individual accolades.

[Apollo]

Who retire at age of 40 (if they are lucky) and risk injury throughout their careers. They can do what they want.

1. Even the "bad" players who hang on for a couple seasons make more during that time than most of us will ever make in our lifetimes.
2. They're all insured and if they get hurt they still get paid a lot of money.