Front-Office Insider: Kevin Durant's options – Yahoo Sports
With LeBron James saying he’ll return to Cleveland, Kevin Durant remains the lone franchise player in this year’s free-agent class.
Here is a breakdown of the teams Durant is working to meet with starting July 1, including the challenge each team will face to create cap space and what a potential roster would look like if Durant were to sign.
Durant could also sign a one-year contract with Oklahoma City and enter free agency again in 2017. The free-agent meetings taking place this summer could lay the foundation for Durant’s free agency next year.
BACK HOME
Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City presents the strongest case for why Kevin Durant should re-sign.
The Thunder’s Russell Westbrook is a rare commodity: a franchise point guard. (AP)
The draft-night trade to acquire Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, and Domantas Sabonis should only strengthen the Thunder’s chances to keep Durant.
Oklahoma City, which fell one win short of the NBA Finals, improved in the short and long term with the deal. All three players bring different elements, could have an impact now and also have upside to improve.
The core of the Thunder’s roster is still in its 20s, features franchise point guard Russell Westbrook, and highlights a balanced roster filled with former first-round picks, including lottery selections Sabonis, Cameron Payne and Steve Adams.
The window for the Thunder would remain open for the foreseeable future.
Because Durant has full Bird rights, the Thunder can exceed the cap while also offering the most years (five) and larger annual percentage increases than any other teams.
THE COMPETITORS IN THE WEST
Golden State Warriors
The loss in the NBA Finals has Warriors management pondering a shakeup.
Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are likely untouchable, but the Warriors do have decisions to make on the value of cap space vs. their own free agents, and key rotational players Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut.
Golden State, currently with no cap space, would need to create room to land Durant.
When the Warriors meet with Durant, they will show him how room will be created and what the team will look like now and in the future.
The moves to fit Durant:
1. Renounce the unrestricted free-agent holds of Marreese Speights, Leandro Barbosa, Ian Clark, James McAdoo, Brandon Rush and Anderson Varejao.
2. Withdraw the qualifying offers and renounce the cap holds of Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli.
3. Trade Bogut’s contract to a team with cap space.
The moves would leave Golden State with $26.6 million in cap space to sign Durant to a max contract.
However, doing so would only leave the Warriors with the minimum and room mid-level ($2.9 million) to fill out their roster.
San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs showed last summer that cap space can always be created.
The Spurs acquired a big-time free agent last year in LaMarcus Aldridge. (AP)
The Spurs could create $22 million in cap space with these moves:
1. Renounce the cap holds of all free agents, including Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Boban Marjanovic.
2. Release the $2 million cap holds of former first-round picks Livio Jean-Charles and Nikola Milutinov.
3. Trade Boris Diaw to a team with room.
4. Waive the contract of Jonathon Simmons.
San Antonio could create additional room, but would need to sacrifice a player such as Danny Green or Patty Mills.
All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Aldridge would join Durant to form a formidable trio.
The Spurs would only have their room mid-level and minimum salaries to fill needs at backup power forward and center.
Los Angeles Clippers
The long shot of the group, the Clippers would need to do some major roster shuffling in order to create cap space.
Even if the Clippers renounced and traded every player on their roster outside of Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan, Los Angeles would still be short of Durant’s $26 million max salary. Los Angeles would have $22 million in cap space but would need to fill the remaining roster slots with minimums.
The most ideal scenario for Los Angeles would be to move Griffin to Oklahoma City in return for Durant in a sign-and-trade.
However there are challenges the Clippers would face:
1. Teams cannot acquire players in a sign-and-trade and go over the luxury-tax threshold. The Clippers would need to sign free agents Jeff Green, Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford at below-market contracts in order to stay under the $117 million tax threshold if Durant were added.
2. Durant would have base-year compensation if used in a sign-and-trade. The value of Durant’s contract for trade purposes would be $20 million (his contract from 2015-16), not his $26 million max salary for 2016-17. Because Griffin has a $5.8 million trade bonus, a Durant-for-Griffin trade would be short of the allowable 125 percent to match contracts.
3. Players acquired via sign-and-trade must sign a contract for a minimum of three years. The three-year minimum would nullify Durant signing a two-year contract (with a player option) to become a free agent in 2017.
4. There is no incentive for the Thunder to trade Durant to a competitor in the West.
5. The Clippers do not have any draft picks to throw into a trade. Los Angeles owes Toronto a first in 2017 and Boston a first in 2019.
In order for the Clippers to sign Durant outright, the following steps would need to occur for Los Angeles:
1. Trade Blake Griffin to a team with cap space for draft picks.
2. Renounce the free-agent holds of all free agents. The Clippers could leave the cap hold of Austin Rivers on the books and still have room.
With Paul, Durant, Jordan and their first-round pick, the Clippers would need to be creative in finding a power forward and retooling the bench with only the room mid-level ($2.9 million) and minimum-salary players.
Although the Clippers would have room in 2017 to sign Durant to the $35 million price tag, Los Angeles would have little room to add more free-agent help even with the cap approaching $107 million.
HEADING EAST
Boston Celtics
Outside of re-signing with Oklahoma City, the Celtics offer perhaps the most appealing destination for Durant.
Coach Brad Stevens and Boston could be an appealing destination for Durant. (AP)
1. Boston, unlike Golden State, San Antonio, Miami and the Clippers, would not need to gut its team to create cap space.
2. The Celtics have room to improve in the future with likely lottery picks from Brooklyn in 2017 and 2018, along with the Grizzlies’ and Clippers’ first-round picks in 2019.
3. Boston has cap space flexibility going forward to sign players to complement Durant.
4. New extensions for president Danny Ainge and coach Brad Stevens mean continued stability.
5. Although the NBA champs are in the East, Durant would not have to face the likes of San Antonio, Golden State, Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trailblazers in his pursuit of a championship.
The Celtics would have to make minor cap moves in order to create the necessary cap space.
Already with $16 million in room, Boston could retain its core nucleus with these moves:
1. Renounce the cap hold of Evan Turner.
2. Waive the non-guaranteed contract of John Holland.
3. Release the first-round cap holds of Ante Zizic and Guerschon Yabusele.
The Celtics do have the non-guaranteed contracts of Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko and the restricted cap holds of Jared Sullinger and Tyler Zeller to create additional cap space if needed.
Miami Heat
Give credit to president Pat Riley and the Heat for getting their foot in the door to meet with Durant.
Miami, currently with no cap space, has a list of free-agent priorities, including their own in Dwyane Wade and Hassan Whiteside.
Heat management, however, has shown the ability to create necessary space.
The challenge for Miami is selling Durant on a team that faces uncertainty with the status of All-Star Chris Bosh.
Cap space can be created, but it would come at the cost of Wade and Whiteside making financial sacrifices.
Here’s how the Heat can create cap space:
1. Renounce the free-agent cap holds of Luol Deng, Udonis Haslem, Amaré Stoudemire, Gerald Green, Joe Johnson and Dorell Wright.
2. Sign Wade to a one-year, $8 million contract. Wade would have full Bird rights next summer to recoup lost wages.
3. Sign Whiteside to a one-year, $10 million contract. Whiteside would have full Bird rights in 2017, with Miami having the ability to sign him to a max contract next summer.
4. Stretch the Josh McRoberts contract.
The Heat would still have early Bird rights with Tyler Johnson and would have to fill out the roster with minimum contracts along with the room mid-level ($2.9 million).
The more drastic measure is if Miami determines that Bosh has a career-ending injury. The Heat could stretch the remaining $76 million owed to Bosh over seven years and incur a $10 million cap hit for 2016-17.
The Heat could then petition the league to remove the remaining six years of Bosh’s stretched salary off their cap, but they couldn’t do so until February.
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