Kevin Durant has agreed to sign a two-year deal with the Golden State Warriors, altering the NBA landscape for years to come.
The marquee free agent of 2016 free agency has made his decision: Kevin Durant has chosen the Golden State Warriors.
As first announced by Durant himself on The Player’s Tribune, the former Oklahoma City Thunder star will be joining forces with the back-to-back reigning MVP Stephen Curry, his All-NBA backcourt companion Klay Thompson, and the league’s biggest hate-him-or-love-him player, Draymond Green.
Coming off a historic 73-win season and a disappointing seven-game loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, the Warriors have quickly retooled for another championship run in 2016-17, adding another former MVP to their ranks in a power move that catapults them to the next stratosphere of the NBA ladder.
Blue Man Hoop
According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Durant has agreed to a two-year, $54.3 million deal with the Dubs and has a player option for the second year. This gives him the power to play the year out with the Warriors and rejoin free agency next summer, when the salary cap jumps once again to a projected $110 million.
This is the most favorable financial outcome for Durant among non-OKC destinations, giving him the option to sign another max deal next summer. Though he won’t make as much as if he had signed a similar “1 + 1” deal with the Thunder, KD now as the freedom to re-sign with the Dubs next season or join another team if the most dynamic super-team in NBA history somehow fails in its goal to return the Larry O’Brien trophy to the Bay.
With a core of Curry, Thompson, KD, Green, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, the Warriors can unleash the most terrifying small-ball unit the league has ever seen, but sacrifices will need to be made to their bench depth in order to fill out the roster.
The first order of business will be trading Andrew Bogut and shedding his $11 million salary. The next will be renouncing Harrison Barnes, making him an unrestricted free agent and allowing the Dallas Mavericks to make their max contract offer.
Sources say Dallas, furthermore, has emerged as a strong potential trade destination for Andrew Bogut, who the Warriors must now move.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 4, 2016
Fellow restricted free agent Festus Ezeli will need to be renounced as well, and key bench players like Marreese Speights and Leandro Barbosa could be gone unless they’re willing to forego a well-earned pay raise and re-sign for the veteran minimum.
Luckily for the Dubs, they now have the most terrifying four-man core in the NBA and that should be fairly attractive to the remaining free agents still on the market. The Warriors still need a starting-caliber center and they need to rebuild their bench depth, but this obviously makes the Dubs the biggest winners of the offseason.
In meeting, Bob Myers told Durant: Without you, we can another title or two. Without us, you might win too. Together? We'll win a bunch.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 4, 2016
Moving forward, there will be an adjustment period for Kevin Durant and the Warriors. Curry and Durant both need the ball in their hands to be successful, and there still need to be shots to go around for Klay Thompson as well.
However, the Dubs have assembled the closest thing to a Dream Team that’s possible under the current CBA, and there’s no question that KD will benefit from all the open three-point looks that Barnes enjoyed last season.
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Barnes shot 38.3 percent from three-point range before falling apart in the last three games of the Finals; good luck expecting the same thing to happen with Durant on the wing. In the event the Splash Brothers start missing all their shots again, Golden State now has a bail-out option with yet another player who can completely take over a game.
This move is a true dagger for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who did everything in their power to retain the greatest player in their franchise’s history. However, OKC is not completely down and out following the Serge Ibaka trade, and their Russell Westbrook–Victor Oladipo backcourt could be dominant for years to come — assuming Westbrook does not leave in free agency next summer as well.
With a Westbrook-Oladipo-Steven Adams core, OKC still has plenty of young talent to rebuild around. But without KD, this OKC squad tops out as a second round playoff team.
KD’s decision may come at the expense of competition around the league, but it is a basketball decision, and like LeBron James back in 2010, the public scorn and scrutiny from the assembling of a new super-team will die down as soon as the Warriors start winning titles.
More hoops habit: Kevin Durant's Free Agency Destination Power Rankings
For Curry, Thompson, Green and Durant, the pressure is on for 2016-17. It’s championship or bust once again.