It has been a popular parlor game among league executives all season: How good will the Golden State Warriors be if Kevin Durant leaves?
You can't draw a direct line from the 73-win Warriors -- the last pre-Durant version -- to the theoretical 2019-20 team. Harrison Barnes is gone. Andre Iguodala, dunking and stripping the ball and prancing all over these playoffs, is 35. Shaun Livingston is in the final stages of a wonderful career. Their low first-round picks haven't yielded much in the way of starter-level contributors -- the cost of greatness.