Doyel: Spineless Kevin Durant move shows plight of Pacers, others

It’s charming, what the Indiana Pacers have done this offseason. They trade for Jeff Teague and Thaddeus Young. Sign Al Jefferson as a free agent. Use the 50th overall pick in the NBA draft to add cerebral, versatile, athletically limited Georges Niang.

Pleasing, right?

Meanwhile Kevin Durant makes an ugly move that shows how much harder it is for the Pacers and franchises like them – which is to say, 20 or more teams around the league – to compete. Durant on Monday left the franchise that drafted him nine years ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder, to join the franchise that eliminated the Thunder in the Western Conference finals.

In a move that for sheer spinelessness challenges the LeBron James decision in 2010 to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, Kevin Durant surveyed the land for the easiest possible path to an NBA title and found it in Golden State.

Pacers President Larry Bird is plugging away here in Indianapolis, building the only way he can: humbly, as cleverly as he can while hoping to get some luck along the way. Paul George becoming the best overall player from the 2010 NBA draft after falling to the Pacers with the 10th pick? That took some serious foresight by Bird, absolutely, but it also took a little luck. Nine teams had to miss on George.

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See, the spinelessness of Kevin Durant shows just how hard it will be for the Pacers to challenge for a title in today’s NBA, even for a spot in the Eastern Conference finals, until they get lucky again. Maybe Niang will become the 2016 draft’s version of Draymond Green, the overlooked Michigan State senior who fell into the second round in 2012 and has become an MVP candidate in Golden State …

… where he is the third-best player on the roster, behind two guys who won the past three MVPs – Stephen Curry (2015 and ’16) and Durant (2014). And Green might be the fourth-best player on the Warriors, also behind Klay Thompson and his 22.1 points per game.

Durant is merely the latest and most dramatic example of today’s spineless NBA star and what that means for franchises like the Pacers. Until now the Warriors did it humbly – drafting Curry seventh in 2009, Thompson 11th in 2011 and Green 35th in 2012. They won the 2015 title and reached the 2016 NBA Finals after winning a regular-season record 73 games.

But then Durant pulled a LeBron, only worse, not joining forces with two buddies to form a Big Three – but joining an existing Big Three that was dominating the NBA without him. The addition of Durant gives Golden State the best Big Four since John, Paul, George and Ringo.

And like I was saying, this goes beyond Durant and Golden State. LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh gamed the system in 2010 to form a team that reached four NBA Finals in four years, winning twice. Last season LaMarcus Aldridge of Portland signed with the San Antonio Spurs to join Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and whatever was left of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. This year we’ve seen Durant choose Steph Curry’s Warriors. And Pau Gasol pick the Spurs.

What we have in the NBA are a handful of super-teams – Golden State, San Antonio, Cleveland – and everybody else. Those three teams now have five of the top seven players in the 2016 All-NBA vote: Curry (first in votes received), James (second), Leonard (fourth), Durant (sixth) and Green (seventh).

Of the 15 players on the top three All-NBA teams this season, nearly half – seven – play for the Warriors, Cavs or Spurs: the above five, plus Aldridge (third team) and Thompson (third).

The rest of the league is fighting fire with flashlights.

Here in Indianapolis, Larry Bird wasn’t ever going to sign a big-time free agent – though the #KevINDYrant movement on social media was fun – so he had to go smaller. He signed Al Jefferson, hoping the downward slide of a 31-year-old, 289-pound man with bad knees doesn’t accelerate.

Earlier Bird hoodwinked two teams to get Jeff Teague in a three-team deal. Utah received George Hill and Atlanta chose Taurean Prince of Baylor with the first-round pick the Hawks acquired from Utah.

One day later Bird flat out stole from the Brooklyn Nets, giving them the uncertainty of the 20th pick – the Nets took Caris LeVert of Michigan – in exchange for the certainty of power forward Thaddeus Young, who averaged 15.1 points and 9.0 rebounds this past season.

Did Bird mine another gem out of the draft in Georges Niang? Probably not, though Niang’s first two games in the Orlando summer league are encouraging: 11.5 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals. In two games he’s 9-for-14 from the floor overall, 3-for-4 on 3-pointers. A long way to go – but so far, so good.

Bird also is revisiting one of his finest moments in scouting, current free agent Lance Stephenson; a league source telling IndyStar’s Nate Taylor on Monday that the two sides have a mutual interest in a reunion after two years apart. His immaturity on the Pacers became a burden, but Stephenson – the No. 40 overall pick in 2010 – was another Bird heist, one of the top 20 or so players in that draft pool.

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But the offseason of 2018 looms. Still developing superstar Paul George has three years left on his contract but can opt out after the 2017-18 season – and you’d better prepare for him to do that. His salary in 2018-19 currently stands at $20.7 million, barely half of what he could get from another team if he opts out and goes elsewhere.

George also could return to the Pacers at a much higher salary, though that’s not what NBA stars of his stature are doing these days.

All Larry Bird can do is keep trying to make the Pacers stronger. But in the NBA’s sea of spineless superstars, he’s going against the current.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.