Los Angeles Clippers coach and president Doc Rivers supports Kevin Durant’s right to play for the Golden State Warriors.
But that doesn’t mean he has to like the idea.
Doc Rivers made this distinction while speaking about superteams on ESPN’s Mike & Mike (as relayed to us by the Sporting News’ Jordan Heck):
“It is tough when you see a guy join a team — in Durant’s case what he did this year. That was tough for anybody, anybody’s that’s competitive, to watch. He lost, and then he joined. Having said that, it was his choice, I have no problem with him, but it’s something from a competitive standpoint, you would think you wouldn’t do.
“I have no problem with him doing it, it’s just something from a competitive point, for me, I guess when I played it would have been tough for me to join Detroit. Having said that, he has the ability to do it, guys are doing it, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
This is a pretty good take. Free agency exists for a reason. It gives the players an opportunity, at some point, to choose their own destiny. We cannot get mad at them for exercising that right.
But seeing a top-five player like Durant join a 73-win core is no doubt tough to stomach from parity’s perspective. The Warriors felt like Finals formalities, again, before he signed. After he put pen to paper on his deal, it was even more of a foregone conclusion, as if that were possible. There is now even a sense of an inevitability entering the NBA Finals. Do the Cleveland Cavaliers really have a chance? We’d like to think yes, because LeBron James exists, but the Warriors nearly dispatched them in five games without Durant last season. What happens when they hit their stride with him this time around?
Personally, yours truly is fine with superteams. Yes, they can throw off the league’s competitive landscape, but it’s so very interesting to see how the rest of the league responds to such a seismic shift. For all those who delay their title windows because of the existence of others, there will always be those willing to try going toe-to-toe with the most obvious juggernauts. And that’s something to hold on to as we navigate the NBA’s current playground, which is owned by the Warriors, but sometimes sublet out to the Cavaliers: There will always be an unexpected rise from some team somewhere, perhaps when we least expect it.
