How will Durant fit with the Dubs?

Ahead of Tuesday's kick-off of the NBA season, TSN.ca looks at the big question facing each of the 30 clubs.

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How will KD fit with the Warriors?

The 3-1 lead shaped last spring’s NBA playoffs and it shaped free agency. It was a 3-1 lead that the Oklahoma City Thunder blew in the Western Conference final against the Golden State Warriors. Those same 73-win Warriors then went to the NBA Finals and blew a 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers, failing to defend their NBA Title.

The common denominator in the fallout of those two blown leads is Kevin Durant. For Durant, the Thunder had gone as far as they could with him. Though the team reached the 2012 NBA Finals, the chances of reaching another died with that 3-1 lead. The answer for Durant and the team that came within a game of a second straight championship was each other. Durant joined the Warriors — something that the player admits wouldn’t have happened if the Dubs had held off the Cavs.

The assembly of a “super team” is nothing new for a league that learned anything was possible when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen became Boston Celtics and saw LeBron James and Chris Bosh take their talents to South Beach with the Miami Heat. Durant’s Warriors are the latest nWo-like club for the rest of the league to cheer against (I’m not sure who Durant’s nWo equivalent is…Draymond Green is Scott Norton, though) and hope to watch fail. But there’s a pretty good chance they might not.

Simply put, a starting five that includes all-stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Green and Durant is the league’s most talented (Zaza Pachulia is the likely starting centre) and features almost unfathomable offensive depth in a four-time scoring champion and the league’s best shooter. If egos were a problem with this club, then you might worry about everybody getting a satisfactory number of touches, but that’s never been an issue with the Dubs and shouldn’t be this year. This is a team-first group of guys that will punish you on both sides of the ball.

As good as this team can be when it comes to scoring, their commitment to defence is second to none, with a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Green and Andre Iguodala off the bench. Steve Kerr’s team can and will be smothering.  And that probably will result in a lot of rotation for his stars. It won’t be a shock to see Curry or Durant given a night off in a back-to-back or turn to the bench early in (what should be a lot of) blowouts.

The biggest potential weakness for this team appears to be floundering under expectations. But there’s no reason to think that will happen. This is a team of battle-tested pros — losing two or three straight will not jar them. Yes, their bench is weakened in losing Harrison Barnes, Mo Speights, Festus Ezeli and Andrew Bogut, but the likes of JaVale McGee and David West are more than serviceable.

Still, an NBA title is the minimum expectation for this team. Seventy-four wins would be nice, but meaningless. It’s Larry O’Brien Trophy or bust.

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Is the status quo good enough for the Clippers?

There’s going to be a power vacuum in the Western Conference this season right underneath the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, with the Oklahoma City Thunder no longer the powerhouse they once were with the departure of Durant. The Clippers are the obvious beneficiaries of this and should slot comfortably into the third seed in the conference, but what’s that worth?

The Clippers are what you think they are (RIP Denny Green). They’re a team of three superstars (I know it sounds improbable, but Chris Paul is still underrated) surrounded by good enough talent to win 50-plus games and maybe a round or two in the playoffs, where they’ve never seemed able to take that next step.

Two years ago, a hard-fought victory in a classic seven-game series over the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs was followed up by blowing a 3-1 lead against the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semis. Last year, Doc Rivers’ club bowed out to a very beatable Portland Trail Blazers when Paul and Blake Griffin were felled by injury.

Almost everybody is back. Free agents Jamal Crawford (a very good sixth man) and Austin Rivers (uh, not as good) got big deals in part because of the dearth of market and also because the Clips are up against when it comes to the cap. The legendary Paul Pierce returns for a final season. The new additions (the likes of Marreese Speights and Brandon Bass) are frontcourt rotation guys because the Clippers somehow finished 29^th in opposition rebounding (25^th overall) even with DeAndre Jordan and Griffin, but they’re less inspiring options than the departed Cole Aldrich.

What does it all mean? The educated guess is that this is the final kick at the can for the Clippers in this form with no guarantees that a facelift won’t come before the trade deadline. The obvious candidate to be shipped out is Griffin, who looks to bounce back from a year of injuries that featured a much-publicized physical altercation with a team attendant. Still only 27, Griffin remains among the top tier of power forwards and would be a hot commodity if made available (The Toronto Raptors were reportedly among a number of teams who checked in on him before last season’s deadline).

So until a shake-up comes (if it were to happen at all), expect more of the same from these Clippers. For some franchises, that would be good enough, but there is the growing sense that it just isn’t for this team.

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Is the worst over for the Lakers?

The good news for Los Angeles Lakers fans is that the hard part of the rebuild is likely over. They’ve been a Western Conference punching bag for three years and reached their nadir last season with a franchise-worst 65 losses during the Kobe Bryant Retirement Tour™. 

The bad news is that the Showtime Lakers aren’t going to return overnight. This team will once again take its lumps and lose more often than it will win, but the club is on the upswing with a solid core of young talent accrued and improving.

They might not admit it, but having Kobe as the focal point of a terrible season did wonders for the club last year by giving the likes of Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle a shield from media scrutiny on many nights. For a young player, having your first years of professional experience come on a team where adversity was the rule and not the exception can be punishing mentally. There were more than a few nights where this team struggled mightily, but were buoyed by the fact that the spotlight remained on the legendary Bryant.

With Kobe gone, the team hands the reins over to another former Laker in Luke Walton. Steve Kerr might have won the NBA Coach of the Year Award for the 73-win performance of the Golden State Warriors, but make no mistake – much of that award should belong to Walton. With Kerr laid up after back surgery, Walton led the team to a 39-4 start.

While Walton learned much under Kerr, it would be insane to think he’s going to be able to flip a switch with the Lakers and turn them into a lesser version of the Dubs overnight. But that doesn’t mean Walton won’t make an immediate impact. Look no further than a rejuvenated Russell, who appears to have put the Nick Young videotaping incident behind him, regained his teammates’ trust and begun to thrive under Walton’s up-tempo offence. In the preseason, Russell has found his shot from beyond the arc (.370 shooting) and averaged 18.2 points a night. Sure, it’s preseason, but the Lakers will like what they see from the second-year point guard.

While the 36-year-old Walton should be able to closely relate to his youthful charges, the team has brought in some cagey veterans for help. Jose Calderon will be an asset for his young backcourt, while Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov add experience among the bigs (No, you still can’t justify the amount of money they paid for the latter two, though). This trio will help to shoulder the load when this young team falls into the bad habits they’re bound to experience.

Because there’s no pressure to win now for Walton, his usage of the second overall pick, Brandon Ingram, will be interesting to watch. Though he’ll start on the bench behind Deng, the Duke product will get his minutes this season. Lanky with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, general manager Mitch Kupchak liked Ingram more than he did Ben Simmons and expects the late bloomer to grow into his frame. While his jump shot certainly appears polished, Ingram is going to need time to become NBA-ready.

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How far away are the playoffs for the Suns?

The Phoenix Suns have won 40 games twice in the last six seasons. But they’ve missed the playoffs in all of them, including a very respectable 48-win campaign three seasons ago. Coming off of only 23 wins last year, the Suns are still in rebuild mode, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be a lot of fun and maybe surprise.

Earl Watson – who assumed the coaching mantle midway through last season upon the firing of Jeff Hornacek – takes over on a full-time basis and has at his disposal a team with a good backcourt, some supremely raw talent and veteran role players. The building blocks are here for something good, but it remains to be seen how far down the line that might come.

Like seemingly every Suns team of recent vintage, this club once again has three guards who could start in Devin Booker, Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe. The explosive Bledsoe was limited to just 31 games last season with a knee injury, but was putting up elite point guard numbers prior to going down (20.4 points, 6.1 assists and 2.0 steals a night – all career bests). With Knight an injury risk as well, guard rotation could end up by committee and second-year man Booker shouldering more of a load after an impressive rookie campaign.

While neither of the Suns’ two rookies this season might have the impact that Booker did a year ago, the team might have hit long-term home runs with the selections of Dragan Bender (fourth overall) and Marquese Chriss (eighth overall). Patience, though, will be required because these two kids are the greenest of green. Bender is a legit seven-footer, capable of putting time in at both the three and four, but needs polish virtually everywhere and has to fill out into his frame. Chriss, who shot up the board in the days prior to the draft, possesses tremendous natural talent tempered by the fact he’s only been playing competitive basketball for a short period of time and has no defensive game yet of which to speak. Still, as far as projects go, this pair might be the league’s most intriguing.

Improvement upon last season should be the base goal set for the Suns this season and the likes of Tyson Chandler, Jared Dudley and Leandro Barbosa will ensure an honest effort from their younger teammates. Though contention might still be far away on the horizon, there’s no reason why definite strides towards respectability can’t be made in 2016-17. 

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Can Dave Joerger bring stability to Sacto?

“Dysfunctional” might be a charitable adjective to describe the way the Sacramento Kings have been run during the three-plus years under owner Vivek Ranadive. “Gong Show” might be a more accurate descriptor, though.

Dave Joerger becomes the fourth coach of the Ranadive era and, ideally, will become the first to actually stick around for more than a season. While Mike Malone was beloved by his players, George Karl was not. The fact that Ranadive and GM Vlade Divac actually contemplated keeping Karl over superstar centre DeMarcus Cousins tells you all you need to know about how this team has been run.

Joerger’s mandate will be to improve the Kings on the defensive side of the ball (Matt Barnes, one of Joerger’s charges in Memphis, has been brought in to help him out). While his track record with the Memphis Grizzlies suggests he’s up to the task, it will be an uphill battle to do anything with a team that was seventh-worst in shooting defence, eighth-worst in efficiency and simply does not seem to have the horses to be much better.

He knows what Boogie – arguably the best centre in the NBA at this juncture – brings to the table and he might have something in Willie Cauley-Stein. The Kentucky product started 39 games in his rookie season behind the potentially disgruntled Rudy Gay and could see more time if the mercurial Gay is moved at some point. Cauley-Stein showed his defensive mettle a year ago and looks to expand his offensive game this season and has been working with Kings legend Peja Stojakovic on his jumper.

The biggest issue with the Kings is that you get the sense that there’s little permanence here. Nobody on this roster is untouchable – perhaps, not even Cousins – and the chances that the team that takes the floor in late October looks like the one that finishes the season are pretty slim. There’s also the chance that Divac looks to hit a job-saving home run at some point, but it’s unclear what that would even look like - Perhaps Cousins for an elite point guard?

The Kings open the brand new Golden 1 Center this season. By all accounts, it’s a state-of-the-art facility. Unfortunately, it’s also probably going to be the highlight of the year for Kings fans.