D'Angelo Russell Says He, Devin Booker, And Karl-Anthony Towns Will One Day All Be On The Same Team
SLAM put out this pretty interesting piece about KAT, Devin Booker, and D'Angelo Russell which I highly recommend, but the point of this blog is this portion right here
Three of the NBA’s youngest, brightest stars are friends for real. Not the hi-bye type of stuff. The “What-are-you-doing-after-this-photoshoot?” type of energy, like Booker asked Towns after they spent an entire afternoon together at a studio in midtown Manhattan. The all-day, all-night texting kind of friendship. The laugh at and fight about memories flow. The know-each-other-so-well-that-they-can-make-each-other-get-emotional level of camaraderie.
Booker, Towns and Russell are the League’s newest, coolest family. And they know it.
“We gotta do this again, when we’re all on the same team,” Russell jokes toward the end of the day. “Nah, don’t cut it,” he says to our rolling cameras. “Y’all got it on footage. When we’re all on the same team—I ain’t gonna tell you which team because I don’t know—we’re gonna do this again.”
Now this is what I'm talking about. Just to set the stage here we first need to get on the same page in terms of each of these guy's contract situation
KAT: In Year 1 of a 5 year max extension, becomes an UFA in 2024
Devin Booker: In Year 1 of a 5 year max extension, becomes an UFA in 2024
D'Angelo Russell: In Year 1 of a 4 year max extension, becomes a UFA in 2023
So while we do have a little bit of time here, you have to factor in that we're starting to see star players demand their way to new teams well before they officially hit the open market. Sometimes with as much as 2 years left on their deal. It's anyone's guess who by this time will have the cap space by 2023/2024 but it's clear these guys are already talking about teaming up. That would scare me if I was a Timberwolves and Suns fan because I'm going to guess neither of those locations are where all three end up.
I'd also rule out GS, because chances are Russell doesn't even finish the season there and there's no way they have the cap space after the Klay/Curry/Draymond extensions. That means some team out there could be the next superteam if these guys continue to develop and seeing as how they'll all be in their age 27-28 seasons, you could argue it'll be the thick of their primes.
But....would that team be any good? I mean defensively most definitely not, all three are pretty much sieves on that end and most likely barring something crazy that's always going to be the case. Offensively though, holy shit would they have firepower. Especially if Russell continues to take a leap like we just saw in BKN. We already know KAT (when he's actually getting shots) and Booker are offensive flamethrowers so you have to admit in that regard this trio would be fun as hell. Plus by that time LeBron might be on his last legs, Durant is in his mid 30s, Kawhi will be in his early to mid 30s, they could very well be a team that's one of the marquee groups in the next phase of the NBA.
As we know, players talk. They form plans to one day join forces. And if you're good enough and have that type of power, more often than not these trios/dynamic duos end up happening. The LeBron Heat, the Durant Warriors, the Kawhi Clippers, this is not exactly a new concept that we've seen be successful before.
I'm all for it. While it would suck for MIN/PHX to potentially lose their franchise cornerstones, I'm also interested in seeing those awesome talents actually have competitive seasons. I don't want to sound mean but the Wolves and Suns are sort of wasting these generational talents and that's not fair for the rest of us who just want to see them play in the playoffs.
So how good go you think that trio would be? Would you want to see this happen?
