Kevin Durant and Chris Paul (Photo : Twitter)
The sad loss of the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Golden State Warriors after leading the series 3-1 elicited some strong reactions.
As expected, First Take's Skip Bayless would not waste an opportunity to take a hit and his target was Russell Westbrook. He noted that Kevin Durant will not win a title as long as he is stuck with Russ. (h/t Sports Grid)
"I feel sorry for Kevin Durant," Bayless said about a guy who definitely hates him. "Because he's stuck with Russell Westbrook." Bayless declared. "This team will never win a championship with Russell Westbrook as the primary decision-maker. All I know is he led the playoffs once again in what's called usage rate - Russell Westbrook had the ball in his hands more than any player in all the playoffs, east or west - Russell Westbrook had the ball in his hands more than 34% of the time."
Bayless wasn't done. He continued his tirade on the All-NBA first team member.
"Conversely, Russell Westbrook in the Western Conference Finals turned it over 31 times," Bayless pointed out. "That's the most in the last 30 years or since stats were even kept in the Western Conference Finals. So that's as far back as the stats go. Try to get that through your head. He's the primary decision-maker and when you need him to have a feel for the game, to do the right thing at the right time, to get a 13-point lead home, what happens?"
With those shots fired, Bayless did have a valid point. The Thunder went full "hero ball" in the second half of Game 7 while in contrast, the Warriors got their groove as a team. When that happens, Golden State is almost unbeatable. Their all-time best regular season record proves that.
This is probably the best OKC Thunder team ever assembled (one could argue about when they had James Harden though) and they were also healthy. There are no excuses for them-or any other Western team except for the Spurs (who didn't get their shot).
Perhaps Durant needs to play with a more conventional, "pass-first" point guard. He does not have to look far-their conference rivals LA Clippers have Chris Paul. The Orange County Register explored the possibility of Durant and Paul chasing their elusive title together.
It's been a pipe dream for many fans-Durant joining Chris Paul while Blake Griffin goes back to Oklahoma.
The essentials of the narrative remain-the Clippers are one of the few teams that cannot sign Durant outright because of their salary cap. Durant can walk away but he respects Oklahoma so much (but not enough to stay with them) that he would cooperate in a sign and trade. Durant is the better player but OKC should be very grateful that Durant would not leave for nothing.
Another option would be the Clippers trading away Griffin to a team with ample cap room and there's an unprecedented number of teams that would qualify.
"If the Clippers could exchange one of their existing All-Stars for a package of low-salaried players and draft picks, they could create the cap room to sign Durant," Dan Woike of OCR wrote.
Chris Paul would still hold the ball and facilitate more, but he would look less to score by himself especially with an option like Durant. A Big Three of Durant, Paul and DeAndre Jordan could reach heights that the previous incarnation with Griffin could not-and that could include the NBA championship.
