I think it makes sense if you imagine it from his perspective. He could rehab with the pressure of knowing that his entire future depends on how well the rehab goes (and that if he re-injures the Achilles while he’s rehabbing, he may well never sign another contract), or he could rehab knowing he’s already secure for… Read more

If Durant were interested in taking a one-year deal to get paid while he rehabs and hit free-agency next summer, he would have just opted into the $31.5 million one-year option on his Warriors contract. There’s no reason he’d prefer to rehab as a member of the Knicks, for less money. Read more

There’s a cap on what percentage of a team’s salary cap a max player is eligible to receive. So if Durant gave up money during the first year of the contract, there’s no practical way he could make it up later in the contract, unless you think he’d be making less than the max in any other year, which seems extremely un… Read more

They absolutely have to offer him the most the CBA allows them to offer him. It would be malpractice not to. Read more

If the Knicks can get him, they would be insane not to get him. Read more

Honestly, here is how bummy and broken the Wizards are: For them, this scenario is wishful thinking. They’ve got roughly $96 million in salary committed to just six players next season, against what’s estimated to be a $109 million salary cap. They literally couldn’t afford to have Kyrie come destroy their chemistry,… Read more

We don’t permit reaction GIFs in our comments. Also I’m banning anyone who uses this space to insult the people who actually work at this website. Read more

Considering Dirk Nowitzki was broadly “a tall spot-up shooter who can’t really move” during his athletic prime, including when he was the best player on a championship squad, I’d say it’s a pretty excellent thing to be. Read more

He’s gonna get maxed out, one way or another, whether with the Nets or somebody else. I’d just prefer it not be the Nets. Read more

You’re wrong on all counts. Read more

It’s a terrible injury, but it’s no longer a guaranteed career death sentence, especially for players who are reasonably young, and who have skills in place that go beyond their raw athletic ability. Rudy Gay, who was never remotely as good as Durant to begin with, recovered from a full rupture of his Achilles pretty… Read more

C’mon, man, you’ve been here entirely too long to think we tolerate reaction GIFs. Please don’t do this again. Read more

Who would have figured that “BostonBeliever” thinks the Boston Celtics are easy to like and that disliking them doesn’t make sense. Read more

Eh, it’s not championship or bust for them. Giving their fans a solid extra month of competitive, high-stakes games in each of the next couple springs, with the modest but real hope that stuff might break their way and get them into the Finals, is a fine goal. A good two-thirds of the fanbases in the league would be… Read more

Nobody’s mad about it! I’m not even criticizing the Grizzlies; there’s a whole paragraph about how they probably couldn’t ask for more. The purpose of this post is just to note the oddity of a player as good as Conley changing teams for so little. He’s really good, and for various reasons the Grizzlies couldn’t get… Read more

Right, I get that they’re going in the tank, and thus wouldn’t want any actual good players back in the deal, but even the abstract assets they got here seem pretty shitty. As I said in the article, I’m not sure they could have done better, but it’s a bummer anyway. Conley’s still really good! Read more

Aw man, Lawson’s amazingly good, and I think she’s already on track to land at either ESPN or TNT. She’s aces at every part of the job: informed, knowledgeable, terrific at communicating the X-and-O shit she’s seeing, credible on the playing-experience shit, charming, quick-witted, the works. She rules. Read more

You could be totally right about this. It has nothing whatsoever to do with this discussion. He requested a trade; the team that held his rights elected to hold onto him out of spite and self-interest and so it (and its voluntary courtiers in the press and [ahem] in various internet comment sections) could wage a… Read more

“The Lakers’ best offer” refers, in general terms, to whatever the absolute most the Lakers would be willing to offer was at the time. There’s nothing they included in this deal that they wouldn’t have been willing to offer in February. The lottery moved them up to 4th in the interval, sure, but that’s a(n abstract)… Read more

Even you aren’t stupid or dishonest enough to claim with a straight face that the Pelicans couldn’t have gotten this exact same deal, or more, if they’d been willing to make the trade in February, when the Lakers might still have viewed Davis as a potential springboard to the playoffs. Or are you? Read more