Kevin Durant’s Free Agent Meetings
Kevin Durant has narrowed down his suitors to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. Where is the best fit and most likely destination of the three?
According to recent reports Kevin Durant has agreed to his first free agent meetings with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. The report notes that this list may grow but these are Durant’s first picks.
The general consensus is that Durant signs a LeBron James-style deal that allows flexibility next summer to choose a destination with Russell Westbrook. Durant, 27, has spent his entire nine-year career with the Sonics/Thunder and you can sense the loyalty he has to the franchise and the city through the way he speaks and his charity work in Oklahoma.
Durant is fresh off a trip to the Western Conference Finals, although his team came up short against the Golden State Warriors.
The Thunder recently traded power forward Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic in exchange for guard Victor Oladipo in the reported belief that Ibaka wouldn’t re-sign with the team in free agency next summer. Included in the trade was Ersan Ilyasova, with reports the Thunder will pick up his contract option, providing some additional outside shooting.
Worryingly for Oklahoma, this continues a trend of star players that seem to struggle in a role alongside Durant and Westbrook. Ibaka joins James Harden and Reggie Jackson as a star who was reportedly disgruntled with his role on the team.
It’s very unlikely the Thunder make this trade without consent (or a strong indication) from Durant, but it has to be concerning for Durant that the franchise cannot seem to manage its third star. Watching the Thunder with Ibaka and the Cleveland Cavaliers with Kevin Love makes it easier and easier to appreciate how valuable Chris Bosh is, as a personality and player.
Will Durant put these struggles down to the coaches or management? Ibaka has a year under his belt with Billy Donovan as his coach so perhaps the issue is deeper rooted with management and trying to perform alongside Durant and Westbrook. Will Durant decide that the advancement of Steven Adams and the upgrade to Oladipo is enough to stay? Quite frankly, the thought of Westbrook and Oladipo in the backcourt is scary. They’ll run the fast-break to a ton of points and some reckless highlights.
The second free agency team is the Golden State Warriors. Still very fresh off their Finals defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers the Warriors have some decisions to make this summer. Is Festus Ezeli worth a big contract? He’ll surely command one with other teams, but he’s probably not worth it to the Warriors.
Is Harrison Barnes a max player? His versatility defending helps makes the Warriors small-ball lineups work and his three-point shooting (38.3 percent) continues to help space the floor. However, does the locker room benefit from having Barnes, arguably the team’s fourth, fifth or sixth best player (depending on how you look at it), as its highest paid player?
Free agents aside, Durant must look across and see a very well run organization with a great coach and great culture, led by its stars. And alongside those stars, Durant could flourish. His addition to the Warriors would combine three of the best shooters in NBA history.
Durant and Curry are already members of the 50-40-90 club (denoted by averaging more than 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three-point range and 90 percent from the foul line), Durant during the 2012-13 season and Curry last season.
Klay Thompson is not far from joining them, last season he was 47-42-87 and provided some true heat check performances, including an NBA record 11 three-pointers against Durant in the conference finals. Durant’s versatility and shooting could take the death lineup to new levels of death!
If the Warriors have a great coach and great culture then they must have borrowed some concepts from the NBA blueprint for consistent success, the San Antonio Spurs – Durant’s other agreed meeting in free agency.
Durant is often regarded as a quiet and well-spoken superstar, sound familiar? Okay, perhaps he is not as stone-faced as Tim Duncan but the idea of Durant playing out his career in San Antonio is not much of a stretch for the imagination.
We can virtually guarantee a team that will win a minimum 50 games each season (17 years in a row now), having made the playoffs in 24 of the last 25 seasons!
Durant could also pave the way for Gregg Popovich to extend his coaching career and we know Popovich will help Durant maximize his ability whilst providing a steady team culture and a supporting cast that buys into the plan. Has there ever been a time when a third string star voiced their dissatisfaction or demanded a trade from the Spurs?
With the Spurs’ ability to constantly re-tool and never seem to be rebuilding, you can almost guarantee they’ll find ways to surround Durant with talent. LaMarcus Aldridge will continue to provide steady production in the post as Kawhi Leonard continues to grow into a superstar. Both players are relatively low-key in today’s game and Durant may see that steadiness as a big enough reason to leave the Thunder.
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It’s no coincidence that Durant’s first meetings will be with his own team and the last two teams he faced during the postseason. None of these destinations will be a bad choice for Durant – it will be an exciting summer in NBA free agency!