This Is Why The Warriors Dynasty Is NOT Over Ft NBA Free Agency Durant Klays Injuries Finals
by MJ2KALLDAY
The Raptors beat the Warriors and won the NBA Finals, becoming champions. But with Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson’s injuries and free agency, is their dynasty over? #NBA #Warriors
Check out my Twitch- https://www.twitch.tv/mjallday2k
Instagram- @MJ2K_ALLDAY
Twitter- @mj2kallday
The Raptors just won the championship. Wow, the events of yesterday really hasn’t sunk in yet. I wanna congratulate the players, the organization, the fans, and all of Canada, cause no matter what happened, at the end of the day, your champions. Kawhi, you’re just a dog man. Every move, all the hard work, all the players, everyone in the NBA are working for the championship and the Larry O’Brien. All the videos I make are different takes and breakdowns, but it’s ultimately with the goal to see if a team or player is good enough to win a championship. Usually I don’t make these Where does this team or player go from here, but with Klay Thompson’s torn ACL being added on Kevin Durant’s ruptured achilles, the dynasty that stood at the stop for years is crumbling and what happens now could change a large part of the next decade. Yes, Klay and Durant were going to be free agents regardless of what happened, but these major injuries have changed what was once just a question on whether they will stay or leave the Warriors, so let’s talk about it.
Klay tore his ACL, meaning he’s out till February at the earliest, Props to Klay, he was tryna return back to the game with an ACL tear, that’s wow. KD is out for the entire season next year. If you sign both of these guys to max contracts, that’s $70M of your cap gone in players that are out for most of the season and you damn well can’t sign any good role players with the cap being $114M. But why would that be an issue right? You still got KD and Klay for years to come with Steph. Well, keep in mind Steph Curry is 30 years old and in his prime. Not only are you throwing away next season in mediocrity with Curry, Green, and Iguodala, there’s really no certainty of the future. There are a handful of players to comeback strong from an ACL tear and because Klay never relied on athleticism, I believe he will be close to what he was, but his lateral movements might be hindered which might not make him the same defensively or the same off-ball player. KD is trying to comeback from an achilles injury at the age of 30 that only one star in NBA history has comeback to be the same player and that’s Dominique Wilkins. Every other player has returned a shell of themselves like Kobe.
For one, I think that this injury actually increases the likelihood of Kevin Durant staying. The Warriors lost the finals this year which was highlighted by the team just not being the Warriors we have seen for the past 2 years without KD. Could the Warriors have won the championship without KD, but with a healthy Klay? Maybe, but that’s a what-if. Bottom-line, KD wanted to have his rings mean something in the public eye and now if he stays and wins with the Warriors, they are going to mean something because the narrative is that they couldn’t win without him. On top of that, he’s returning from an achilles tear which is no joke and so the Warriors would be a great team to return back to with that type of injury. He will have got his bag and have security no matter what happens to him in the future.
Now there are two situations that come out of this that make the Warriors just unfair again assuming the fact that KD comes back even 75% of who he was. If KD opts in and elects to resign with the Warriors next year for a supermax, the Warriors, who can see how he’s doing in rehab, can make the call on whether Durant, who would be 31 at that time, and be 36 years old at the end of the contract, they can make the call on whether he is worth that. If he is, then the Warriors could keep Curry, Klay, Green, and KD because they would have bird rights on KD and Green meaning they could sign both over the cap. This would create an insane amount of luxury tax, I believe it would be somewhere along the lines of over $100M of luxury tax, but hey you get these 4 staying together. The other situation is that KD decides to sign the supermax right now. Now if you think Green isn’t worth the max and he decides to go elsewhere, you sign maybe one roll player for $10-12M and sign KD.
So the dynasty isn’t close to being over which is crazy to say about a team that has made 5 straight finals and is coming off of major injuries. In fact, they might be more poised to keep those 4 together. You are committing to those 4 till they get old which at that point, it would be time to rebuild, but it’s a gamble. The gamble is KD’s health, but even then, your worst case scenario is that you are stuck with Curry, Klay, and Green all in their primes which to me is not that bad. But what do you think? Will KD re-sign? Will the Warriors get back to the Finals within the next 2 years?
