Not surprised only a single first rounder after he torched his trade value.
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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Shockingly he exits like a tool after not providing them the lift they need. Durant has always been a floor raiser, never a ceiling raiser. He's never wanted to be the guy, the leader. Hope rockets aren't hoping for much out of him. We're at "Scottie Pippen in Portland" time.
Good on Phoenix for moving on, I'm sure they'd move Beal as well if NJ hadn't given him a no trade clause lol...PHX still screwed.
Durant has always been a floor raiser, never a ceiling raiser
I think you got it the other way around…
No. He hasn't made a good team win yet. He's played on a bunch of good teams and hasn't taken them to a chip. He rode coattails in GS on a multi-time champion of course, and then bailed to do nothing with the nets, nothing with phoenix and will do nothing with the rockets.
Thus, he may raise the floor of a team, but won't raise their upper limit of potential to winning it all, hence not a ceiling raiser.
I think you have a different definition of ceiling/floor raiser than everyone else. It’s not just about winning.
To me, and most of the other people I’ve seen define those terms, a floor raiser elevates their entire team and makes their teammates better. So someone like Jokic or CP3.
A ceiling raiser is someone who has the potential to make an already good team even better. KD is the ultimate example of that. He can’t lead and carry a team, he can only add to an already good team that can do without him, with the Warriors as an example. He failed in Brooklyn because he was supposed to be the leader and he clearly is not one. He failed in Phoenix because that honestly was a poorly constructed team (redundant SGs, no PGs, stars are all iso scorers, and no depth), and Booker who technically is the leader isn’t a floor raiser either. KD is basically the lipstick on the pig. The success of his stint with the Rockets is not dependent on him, but how well their core does next season.
Curry and Kawhi are outliers in that they can be both. With Curry’s skillset and playstyle, you can plug him into any team and he raises your ceiling. At the same time, his sheer gravity gives his teammates the space to play well, which is why KD had all the space in the world with GS, because everyone was busy trying to stop Curry. Kawhi is a ceiling raiser by definition, but he was so good in his prime that he could carry an entire team on his back even without raising the floor of his teammates (i.e. Toronto). And to be fair, that was a well constructed team around him (Lowry, Siakam, Gasol, Green, and Ibaka).
Seems risky trading away 2 starters (combined 35 pts per game) for a vet who has played more than 75 games only once in the last decade. Especially considering how young the core group is. I imagine they were only getting better.