Thursday Bolts – 5.7.15

Joe Goodman of the Miami Herald: “Think convincing Durant to stay in a place he loves (Oklahoma City) and play for max money is going to be a tough sell for Donovan and Thunder general manager Sam Presti? In the spring of 2006, Donovan got Noah, the kid who grew up in New York with an internationally famous pedigree, to forgo millions of dollars to stay in north-central Florida, and play for free after he already won a title. What did Noah have left to prove? Nothing, of course. He just stayed put for the love of the game and won back-to-back titles. And then he danced.”

John Schuhmann of NBA.com on how many more MVPs Curry will win: “It’s certainly possible that he can win one or two more, but if I had to guess, the answer would be zero. Curry is ridiculous and the Warriors will be a great team for at least a few more years, but it was a crowded MVP field this year. LeBron James and Chris Paul each have one or two more MVP-esque years in them (and Paul will be more appreciated by the voters after this postseason). Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook each have a few more great seasons left in them. Kawhi Leonard is only 23 years old and Anthony Davis is only 22. It’s not about Curry, but about how many other options there will be every season.”

Kind of neat: A real life NBA gameplan.

Nice column from Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com on the Cavs re-recruiting Kevin Love: “It was the unofficial start to the Cavs’ re-recruitment of Love, and it was a good one. While the Los Angeles Lakers made misstep after misstep when faced with a similar situation several years ago to try to keep Dwight Howard — from erecting “STAY” billboards that came off as pressuring rather than endearing, to having a pitch meeting when Kobe Bryant challenged whether Howard was even worth chasing in the first place — the best asset that Cleveland has to offer was on display for Love to see on Wednesday: LeBron James.”

(The parallel there: OKC’s best recruiting device for KD wears No. 0.)

Rick Pitino on Billy Donovan on Jim Rome’s show: “I think Billy the Kid and I have spoken about it over 30 or 40 times. He’s very inquisitive and a very humble person and he’ll ask a lot of questions. I said, ‘Look, Billy, I really loved the coaching of the New York Knicks, and the reason I loved it is we won. I really did not like my Boston Celtic experience because we lost. Just don’t go into a situation where you’re hoping on the ping-pong balls falling your way. Go into a situation where you know you have players. Sort of like what Phil Jackson and Pat Riley have done in their career. Don’t leave college unless you can do that.’ He went into the perfect situation, perfect organization because of Durant, Westbrook and the rest of those guys are all, very, very young basketball team. Billy Donovan is one of the best coaches and finest people I’ve ever encountered in my life so I know he’s going to do great.”

Tom Ziller of SB Nation on Hack-A-Whoever: “Free throws are a part of the game only by necessity. No one likes them. Players who are good at shooting them and capable of drawing them use their existence strategically. When players are bad at shooting them, opponents use their existence strategically. Frankly, reducing free throws to zero should be a goal of the NBA. It can never happen, but the NBA should look for policy fixes to reduce how many free throws we have to watch and how much time they waste.”