Kevin Durant Not Ruling Out Boston Celtics
There will be a number of teams pushing for Kevin Durant‘s services this summer, but do the Boston Celtics have the best situation for his liking?
Tuesday night, NBC Sports’ Dan Feldman reported that Kevin Durant‘s agent had spoken to the Boston Celtics and informed them what would be necessary to lure Durant to come to Boston.
The Celtics are among a plethora of teams that are expected to pursue Durant this offseason once he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
Butch Stearns of WEEI chimed in:
"“I have this on pretty good authority. The Celtics have sat with his agent and other representatives of Durant. The Celtics do know — I don’t know who it is — but they do know who he would prefer to be brought here in a LeBron-Chris Bosh–Dwyane Wade-like way. Because that’s how it works in the NBA. You need to know who the guy or guys that that guy wants, which would be a factor.Now, I don’t know if Durant’s told them that. But the Celtics know. They know. They’ve been told what group of guys he would want to come here.”"
Besides the Golden State Warriors, who have been included in the list of teams that could realistically land Durant this summer, Boston could be the best situation for him to form a surrounding cast to build a championship contender.
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The Celtics will have eight picks in this year’s draft. The chances of them keeping all of them is slim, especially if they can trade a pick or two for some quality role players or package a current player with one of those picks in return for a bigger-named star.
Durant isn’t going to leave what he has established with the Oklahoma City Thunder to join a young Boston team that may take another year or two to truly be considered as a championship contender.
Trading picks, waiving players such as Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko and possibly moving some players who are currently on the roster could be enough to score another superstar and solid role-playing veterans.
The good thing for Boston is they have one All-Star in Isaiah Thomas to pair Durant with. Although he is not on the same level as Russell Westbrook, the growth and development in Thomas’ game leaves room to assume that he could become one of the best guards in the NBA.
Durant wants to win now, and in that sense, the Celtics are behind of teams such as the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, but what they do offer is more wiggle room for Durant to have a say in how the team is formed.
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Durant hasn’t shown to have that type of dominant personality, but the years are starting to stack against him, and maybe it’s time he start controlling his own destiny.