Lowe’s Latest: Warriors, Celtics, Heat, Hayward

In the wake of the Warriors‘ second championship in three years, Zach Lowe of ESPN.com details the scene in the team’s locker room a year ago, following Golden State’s Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers in the 2016 Finals. As Lowe describes it, Andre Iguodala told his teammates that if the Warriors responded the right way, they could put themselves in position to chase several titles.

According to Lowe, Kevin Durant‘s name wasn’t mentioned, and Iguodala never said anything about free agency, but there were some glances at Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut, who would be the expendable pieces if Durant came to Golden State. A couple weeks later, Durant was a Warrior, and a year later, he has captured the first title of his career, as well as being named Finals MVP.

Here’s more from Lowe’s latest piece for ESPN.com:

  • There are some team executives around the NBA who believe the league should have pushed harder to avoid last year’s cap spike after the union rejected the NBA’s cap-smoothing proposal, according to Lowe. That spike helped make the Warriors‘ signing of Durant possible.
  • While some executives who have talked to Lowe believe there may be fewer “win-now” transactions made by teams looking to knock off the Warriors and Cavaliers, several teams won’t change their approach to roster-building, including the Rockets and Spurs. “They are not unbeatable,” Rockets GM Daryl Morey said of the Warriors. “There have been bigger upsets in sports history. We are going to keep improving our roster.”
  • Celtics GM Danny Ainge expressed a similar sentiment, though he acknowledged that his club isn’t looking to give up key assets for small improvements either. “We are definitely not in punt mode,” Ainge said. “But trading away picks and promising young players for a veteran who might be 5 percent better is not in our plans, either.”
  • The Heat aren’t shying away from win-now moves either. League sources confirm to Lowe that Miami is “loading up” to pursue Gordon Hayward in free agency.
  • The Warriors have traded their first- and second-round picks for 2017, but are trying to buy their way back into this year’s draft, according to Lowe.
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