Winners and losers in free agency
Star-laden Warriors get Durant, Cavs have LeBron and others get left behind
“Strength in numbers” was supposed to be a cute catchphrase denoting the team-oriented approach of the Golden State Warriors.
It has become a colossal understatement with the signing of superstar Kevin Durant. As far as the other 29 NBA teams go, it's also something of a misnomer.
The league is tilting toward the Warriors like a seesaw with Shaquille O'Neal on one end and an infant on the other.
The Eastern Conference has largely remained the same, with the Cleveland Cavaliers being pursued by a handful of challengers: the Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors.
The West is Golden State and 14 teams that can lock in their Caribbean vacations for June.
Blame the imbalance on a collective bargaining agreement that was supposed to put the Oklahoma City Thunders of the league on par with the big-market spenders but instead has created another super team with all its ugly trappings.
Who really has a chance against a Warriors starting lineup featuring three players who combined to average 80.4 points per game last season?
The number everyone will obsess about next season is 73. That was the Warriors' record-setting victory tally, which it will be expected to top after Durant, the summer's most coveted free agent, joined sharpshooters Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Golden State's practices could be more entertaining than its games. Andre Iguodala might be able to occasionally stop Durant, unlike most of the Warriors' rivals.
There always will be Warriors worriers, of course. Injuries happen, and there also will be the question of whose team is it, no matter how deferential Durant might have been during an introductory news conference when it's easy to say all the right things.
While everyone waits for the start of a season whose conclusion seems inevitable, here's a look at the free agency winners and losers not named the Warriors:
The biggest winners:
Plus, if the Cavaliers somehow beat the Warriors again, it will qualify as even more meaningful than the championship they just won.
But the elimination of the Thunder as contenders in the West removed one huge roadblock to that long-awaited breakthrough to the conference finals. Maybe the Clippers can finally get there by essentially remaining the same.
Those who panned Mike Conley's record five-year, $153 million contract don't realize that's simply the cost of doing business in this mad new NBA world, especially when it means retaining the league's most underappreciated point guard.
The biggest losers:
Luol Deng was a good get, but he's not going to elevate the Lakers into the playoffs with another mishmash of veterans and underdeveloped players. Luke Walton could wonder what he's gotten into by the middle of November.