THE WEST ISN'T LAYING DOWN FOR THE WARRIORS

THE WEST ISN'T LAYING DOWN FOR THE WARRIORS

THE WEST ISN'T LAYING DOWN FOR THE WARRIORS
NBA

THE WEST ISN'T LAYING DOWN FOR THE WARRIORS

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The question we had before us this summer was how the league would react to the Golden State Warriors. Would teams simply pack it in and keep their proverbial powder dry for another day, or meet the challenge head on and deal with it on its own terms?

We got our answer even before the NBA free agency bazaar opened for business, when Chris Paul surveyed the scene and engineered a trade to Houston. This was a savvy move by the Point God. Not only did he wind up in his preferred destination, he also brought his Bird Rights with him. That leaves open the possibility of a major extension in his new home, and that, my friends, is the personification of player power.

No doubt Paul could have re-upped with the Clippers for the max had he wanted, or found a full list of suitors in free agency. But look at the market he left behind. With few viable options, the deep point guard class of 2017 was left scrambling for jobs and favorable terms. The Spurs never entered into the bidding and if you think the president of the players’ union was taking a discount at this stage of his career … well, no. He wasn’t. Nor should he.

Instead, Paul leaves a situation that had grown stale for one that is ready to bloom. The Rockets were one of the few credible challengers the Warriors had in the West last season and now they’ve added the greatest point guard of his generation to pair with James Harden. With CP3 on board, the Rockets have two top-10 players on their roster and only the Warriors and maybe the Thunder can say the same.

This is a bold move even if it does come with a potential downside. Paul is 32 years old and missed 21 games last season with a thumb injury. He’ll be looking for a massive extension next summer, thanks to a new provision in the collective bargaining agreement that Paul helped negotiate. The Rockets could wind up paying a premium price for the latter stages of his career.

The fit with Harden is an interesting one because both players thrive with the ball in their hands. Both Paul and Harden are proud and stubborn and both are franchise players who run their respective offenses through their own unique games. Both are also smart as hell, and both will benefit from working with one of the game’s genius offensive minds in Mike D’Antoni.

There seems to be mutual respect and appreciation between Paul and Harden, and there all kinds of reasons why this should flourish. Paul fixes a hole in Houston’s offense by gobbling up mid-range opportunities and Harden no longer has to do everything when he’s on the court. They can both take over while the other one sits and keep one another fresh throughout the long season. Good luck coming up with a defense to stop them when they’re together.

There’s a chance it may not work, of course, but no one’s beating the Warriors without taking aggressive risks. This is Chris freaking Paul we’re talking about. The whole point of having assets and flexibility is to make bold moves when the time is right. The only thing crazier than challenging Golden State is trying to do so while maintaining the status quo.

The interesting thing about this summer is how many other teams loaded up on stars, and how many of those teams are in Golden State’s own backyard. Minnesota decided its youth movement had run its course and added Jimmy Butler. Oklahoma City swooped in and stole Paul George to pair with Russell Westbrook. The perpetually-rebuilding Nuggets anted up for Paul Millsap. Even the Clippers elected to stay in the game after losing Paul by re-signing Blake Griffin and adding Danilo Gallinari.

Not everyone jumped on board. The Spurs stayed out of the deep end of the free agent pool and landed Rudy Gay for a team-friendly sum. The Grizzlies said goodbye to their grit and their grind. The Jazz were dealt a blow when Gordon Hayward moved East. The rest of the conference was left to scramble for relevance or bide its time with youth movements.

We may be living in the Warriors’ universe, but all of these moves are better understood through a narrower lens. In that sense, it wasn’t the Warriors that drove their offseasons as much as local concerns.

The Wolves, for example, have a 12-year playoff drought hanging over their heads and looming contract extensions for their young core to factor into their accounting. In clearing out Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn in the Butler deal, the Wolves acknowledged that extensions for Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns will take priority.

That’s the problem with having so many lottery picks on your roster. Eventually, they all need to be paid and those deals will eat into cap space. It wasn’t a now-or-never scenario as much as now was a pretty good time to strike.

Adding Butler was a no-brainer, while locking down Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson means the Wolves really are Tom Thibodeau’s creation now. They will be big, they will be tough, and they will be talented. How far they go still depends on Towns’ and Wiggins’ development. That’s their margin to be special and their window is just now opening. In the interim, they figure to be really good and a playoff team at long last.

In Oklahoma City, GM Sam Presti now has a clear vision to convince Westbrook to stick around. PG and Russ should work extremely well together and they give the Thunder a viable chance to remain competitive in the West. If it clicks and both players sign on for the long haul, then Presti will have preserved Westbrook’s career in Oklahoma.

The clock will be ticking loudly. George is in the final year of his contract and the Lakers have cap space waiting for him. Westbrook has one year left before an opt-out and an extension to consider. Presti couldn’t let another MVP go without a fight and so while this is a swing for the fences move, the potential rewards far outweigh the risks. Those are the choices you have to make with a top-5 player.

Shedding Victor Oladipo’s burdensome contract in the process was already a win in terms of roster construction, and securing the ultra-useful Patrick Patterson on the cheap was slick. Defensive ace Andre Roberson looks a lot better on the wing with two premium All-Stars around him. The Thunder have gone from a middle-of-the-pack playoff team to one with a puncher’s chance against anyone in the West.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, have been looking to make a big splash for years. They’ve been a stalking horse for several major players in recent years, but haven’t been able to close the deal. They went after Dwyane Wade in free agency last summer and worked their way into discussions on a George trade.

In the end, they got Millsap to team with Nikola Jokic and it looks like a fantastic fit on paper. Millsap is a rugged, defensive-minded four whose all-around game should pair beautifully with Jokic. That Millsap has local connections to the area doesn’t hurt either.

Denver has a host of intriguing young players, but years of 30-win seasons has left the once-proud basketball city flat. The Nuggets also need to start making progress as Jokic’s dirt-cheap deal comes due in a few years. Warriors or no Warriors, Denver needed to make a move toward viability.

Then there are the Clippers, who could have folded their tent and cleared the way for an extensive overhaul once Paul left. Instead, they re-upped Griffin for the max, swung a sign-and-trade for Gallinari, and smartly scooped up EuroLeague veteran Milos Teodosic to help run the point.

Even their haul from the Paul trade was solid. Pat Beverley and Lou Williams are terrific role players, Sam Dekker has some bounce to fill that gaping hole at small forward, and Montrezl Harrell looks like a keeper as a rotation big man.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Clippers at this point, but tearing down good teams is harder than the internet chorus makes it seem. Griffin and Jordan are homegrown All-Stars. You don’t just turn them away in their prime to try and draft them again in four years. Put it another way: Steve Ballmer didn’t pay $2 billion to tank.

What we’re left with is a far more competitive landscape out West than existed previously. The specter of the Warriors hangs over everything, but that doesn’t mean teams can simply mark time and wait for their run to be over. There are challenges and expectations to be met in every market and contractual realities to address that are unique to every situation.

Player movement is a zero-sum game and while the West geared up, the East hemorrhaged talent. The Celtics were the only team to swing a major move when they signed Hayward in free agency, while the Raptors and Wizards elected to bring back their respective cores at a substantial cost. The Cavs lost their GM, but not their standing as presumptive favorites.

The top of the East will look a lot like it did last season, leaving an opening for teams like Miami, Milwaukee, and maybe even Philly to make inroads. The rest of it is wide open, if fairly uninspiring.

That presents an uncomfortable balance in a two-conference league, but ultimately, ambition is good in any form. Superteams are great, but competition is even better. With so many stars now concentrated on fewer teams, it may not be the player sharing system the league envisioned years ago, but it should make for a more engaging season. At least in the West. After the season we had, we’ll take what we can get.