So, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green got in a bit of a kerfuffle the other night. Apparently, these dudes do not like each other very much right now. All the reporting from all the most plugged-in Warriors reporters suggests that this is a serious issue that has the potential to linger throughout the rest of the season, and perhaps even break up the Warriors’ budding dynasty by the end of the year.
Here’s The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson:
"Divides have been created that now must be repaired. The relationship between Green and Durant is rubble and needs to be rebuilt. The relationship between Green and management seems to be similarly in shambles, but it has been before and perhaps can be spared again. Then there is the relationship between the Warriors and Durant, who is probably sour on the whole Warriors experience now, and how that impacts the rest of the season.This isn’t a situation that will just blow over. Teammates are at odds and, forced to or not, management appears to have chosen a side. The only answer is another championship.One player is certain Durant and Green can co-exist because neither wants to be the reason they don’t win. The Warriors just might have enough talent to overcome resentment and bitterness in their midst.The question is whether anyone has words powerful enough to bridge chasms now permanent."
So … that does not sound great!
But the not-great-ness of it all got us thinking: what are the different ways this can all play out, both in the near future and in the long-term? In my mind, there are basically three potential outcomes here — all fittingly best-described using classifications from the bright-and-shiniest moral philosophy class on TV: The Good Place.
(Please allow this parenthetical to serve as a SPOILER WARNING.)
Scenario 1: Everything is great!
Scenario 1: Everything is great! is the most boring possible outcome. This essentially involves the entire ordeal blowing over and getting reduced to a humorous footnote over the next few weeks and the Warriors kicking butt and taking names throughout the rest of the regular season before romping their way to their third consecutive championship, having restored their collective joy and friendship along the way, and then bringing the entire band back for another run at things as they open their shiny new San Francisco arena next season.
Scenario 2: Everything is fine!
Scenario 2: Everything is fine! largely tracks with Season 1 of the actual show.
The Warriors hum along through the rest of the season, win 60-odd games, and coast through most of their playoff run. But along the way, something just seems … off. The Warriors are still dominant, but things don’t seem all that great. Rumors continue to swirl about Durant and Green’s relationship and especially about Durant’s free agency. There are anonymously-sourced reports about how the Warriors don’t just expect Durant to leave this summer, but some of them actually welcome the prospect of his playing elsewhere.
Along the way, there are a few too many late-game plays broken so Durant can isolate his defender. Green fires off some cryptic tweets or Instagram stories or Snapchats, LeBron James-style. Shaun Livingston gives some vague quotes about the “stuff” going on in the locker room. Steve Kerr even avoids his usual self-deprecating jokes during a few terse press conferences. Klay Thompson raises his voice in the locker room. Bob Meyers punts a dog into the sun.
The Warriors skate through the Western Conference playoffs for the most part, but again get a run for their money in the Western Conference Finals before advancing in six games. They get a moderate challenge from the Raptors/Bucks/Celtics/76ers in the Finals but prevail in a gentleman’s sweep, four games to one.
And that’s when things start to get interesting.
Green’s extension negotiations get slightly contentious as he wants a full, five-year super-max deal and so does Klay Thompson. Klay eventually gets it because he’s Klay and Dray’s not. Green settles for quite a bit less a year from now because his agent puts out the feelers and doesn’t think the max is out there from a team that is good enough to ensure Green’s talents continue to shine at the level he’s used to — but he’s not happy about it and he makes that known through back channels.
Meanwhile, the Knicks trade Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr. on draft night in order to open up two maximum salary slots and pitch Durant on joining up with one of the other free-agent stars in New York. The Clippers do the same with Danilo Gallinari and give Durant the same pitch but in LA and with Steve Ballmer instead of James Dolan. LeBron Instagrams some stuff with the number 35 in it as part of the Lakers’ pitch. The Nets have Durant’s friend Caris LeVert (now fully recovered from his dislocated foot and fresh off averaging 20-5-5 in March and April) text KD from the parking lot of Barclays Center (which doesn’t exist but we’ll pretend it does for the sake of symmetry) and tell Durant that he’s the missing piece and they need him … to get out of the lottery. The Raptors leak that they’re prepared to do everything possible to clear every non-Kawhi player off their books in order to have him and Durant on the same team. The Wizards pretend they don’t hate each other for approximately four minutes and try to put together a pitch of their own. Danny Ainge even indicates that he’d part with Terry Rozier if the Warriors throw him a first-round pick as well as Durant.
Durant signs … somewhere. Not Golden State.
Scenario 3: Everything is … bonzer!
Let’s get weird!
The Warriors can’t manage to shake the stink of the controversy, which hounds them all season. Durant and Green argue on the court repeatedly, and one or both of them is shadow-suspended by the team for a game but this time they refuse to acknowledge it publicly because they don’t want to be perceived as falling apart. After being scolded by Durant, Green stages an on-court strike in one game by completely refusing to shoot. Durant responds by shooting zero times in the first quarter of the following game before abandoning the plan because everyone else is shooting and it seems like fun and he’s just a hooper.
Kerr’s press conferences get heated as he becomes fed up with questions about KD and Draymond’s relationship. The Warriors hold an actual practice the day after Curry’s birthday party, but mysteriously, not the day after Green’s. Meyers answers a question at an All-Star Weekend media availability that makes it seem like the team doesn’t even want KD back next year. Mysterious burner accounts soon pop up on Twitter to repeatedly point out that the Warriors never beat the full-strength Cavs until Durant came around and saved them. Klay Thompson raises his voice in the locker room.
The Warriors win 58 games and finish with the No. 2 offense and No. 7 defense. They lose a game in the first round for the first time in years, coast through round two but need seven games to defend their Western Conference title against the Clippers, whose mid-November victory over the Warriors started all this mess in the first place. The Warriors go up 3-1 in the Finals against the Raptor/Bucks/Celtics/76ers but Green gets thrown out of Game 5 (which he watches from a canoe outside the Giants’ AT&T Park) and the Warriors lose Game 6 as a Durant isolation step-back buzzer-beater clangs off the rim.
This all sets up a do or die Game 7 and things look really, really bad for a while but then Klay gives an impassioned locker room speech at the half, breaks his own record by scoring 38 points in the third quarter, and the Warriors seal their third straight title. Instead of celebrating, everybody just goes home so they don’t have to hear Durant and Draymond argue over who gets credit.
At the end of the season, Livingston and Andre Iguodala announce their respective retirements, fed up with everything that went on throughout the year and just mentally worn down from Draymond texting them and Durant tweeting at them. Thompson quietly re-signs on a five-year max deal but when Green’s extension negotiations get contentious, he seeks out a max offer from the Mavericks and signs up to play in Dallas.
DeMarcus Cousins signs with the Clippers on the first day of free agency and tries to recruit Durant to LA so they can take on LeBron. The Knicks get the No. 1 pick and pitch Durant on joining Zion Williamson, Kristaps Porzingis, and Allonzo Trier. The Wizards hire Rich Kleiman and announce plans to sign anyone who ever lived in the DMV area. The Nets rebrand themselves as the Brooklyn Real Hoopers and make their logo a big “KD.” Durant spurns them all to sign with the Kings, who were the aforementioned team that stole a game from the Warriors in the first round.