9:59pm: The Heat are still alive in the race for Durant, according to a tweet from InsideHoops.com. A source says the theory that Durant is deciding between the Thunder and Warriors is untrue.
8:43pm: Durant was impressed by the Celtics’ presentation on Saturday and is still “seriously considering” signing with Boston, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.
7:55pm: Durant is not expected to make an announcement before Monday, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. The final decision will come down to the Thunder and Warriors, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com (Twitter link). A source close to the Warriors told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated that Golden State pitched “culture, dynasty, style of play” to Durant, but the source wouldn’t be surprised if he stays in Oklahoma City (Twitter link).
3:25pm: Durant spoke over the phone with Warriors executive Jerry West yesterday, Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News tweets. A source told Kawakami that Durant likes the Warriors, but is unsure about leaving the Thunder (Twitter link). Nevertheless, Durant is strongly considering the Warriors and his decision will be released on the Players’ Tribune, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweets.
9:05am: Kevin Durant plans to make a decision tonight or Monday, but that’s the only certainty as he prepares to meet his fifth and final suitor, writes Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. Heat representatives will get the last chance to woo Durant this afternoon, following the Celtics and Spurs, who met with him Saturday, and the Warriors and Clippers, who had meetings Friday. The Thunder have requested a final session with Durant, but he and his representatives have not decided whether to grant that.
Officials from the four teams that have talked with Durant so far haven’t been able to determine whether he is leaning toward any of them, Broussard reports. He speculates that the Clippers may have taken themselves out of the running Saturday night by using a big chunk of their cap space on the three-year, $35MM deal they gave to Austin Rivers.
The Celtics may have improved their bargaining position with Saturday’s commitment by Al Horford, according to Broussard. Durant’s agent, Rich Kleiman, had been trying to convince Horford to join Durant in Oklahoma City, and there may be incentive now to team them up in Boston. However, a source told Broussard that while the Horford addition may enter into Durant’s decision, it won’t be a major factor.
Miami will send owner Micky Arison, chief exective officer Nick Arison, team president Pat Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra, GM Andy Elisburg and executive Alonzo Mourning into today’s session with Durant, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Meeting Durant so close to his deadline puts the Heat in a difficult position, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel, who says Riley’s main goal may be to dissuade Durant from choosing the Celtics.
Jackson says the Heat consider themselves an underdog for Durant, but they have several strategies to take on his $26.5MM first-year salary if he does choose Miami. The easiest would be to trade Goran Dragic and Josh McRoberts without taking salary back, start Hassan Whiteside‘s contract at $20MM rather than $22MM and try to convince Dwyane Wade to accept the approximately $16MM still left.
Durant reportedly flew to Boston on Friday to visit the city, then made a return flight with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, according to a report from CSNNE. The Celtics were happy with the active role that Brady played in the Durant presentation, writes Rob Bradford of WEEI. Brady joined the Celtics’ contingent along with co-owner Steve Pagliuca, president Danny Ainge and players Marcus Smart and Kelly Olynyk.
Surprise team lakers will land him
They signed Deng at SF just to sign Durant? Yeah that sounds incredibly unlikely but sure, keep rolling with that.
He wants to join a winning team. Someone says he’s going to the Lakers, who suck, and you point to Luol Deng.
Your dreaming….. It’s not going to happen
Yeaaaa, it’s just you
They wouldn’t have to convince Wade to take less as they have his Bird rights. It’s like people are purposely misreporting this to create more of a controversy when one doesn’t exist.
Wade will likely come back to Miami but getting rid of Dragic isn’t the way to do it. One issue is they don’t have a buyer and two, they wouldn’t have an adequate replacement making the Heat effectively much worse than last year even if they did add Durant.
I would surprised if Durant signed there but pretending like the Heat are in any jeopardy to lose Wade or that they couldn’t max him out is wrong.
If the Heat trade Dragic, which they could as his salary is a lot more reasonable under this cap, Richardson, Tyler Johnson, and Briante Weber would share PG duties. They would go over the cap to match on tyler johnson in that situation
It sounds like you are arguing the same point I am. They wouldn’t trade a player just to turn around and pay a lesser player who has never played that position and loses the luster of making so much less than the guy he is replacing. Even checking their per 36 stats you can’t justify it. If that’s what you are arguing, it doesn’t make sense.
You obviously evaluate Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson a lot differently than everyone else then….
With OKC not getting Horford it all but it’s over for them and Durant.
Durant will pick Golden State Tonight…
Wade will stay in Miami…
He will pick Orlando because Ibaka their and have young guys like Gordon,Payton and so on.
STFU
I only say spurs because it’ll be the last hurrah for Duncan, and then it’ll be Durants team ( as it was Duncan’s when robinson retired)
It’s Pop’s team. That’s a shadow that you can’t get out of. Is he playing center? Aldridge and Leonard are two pretty good forwards.
They could play Leonard at the 2, so it could work.
Since Alridge doesn’t seem to want to play the 5 (since that was a sticking point in his meeting with the Knicks last offseason), the Spurs would probably slide Leonard to the 2. Although the positions wouldn’t matter too much since Leonard would probably end up guarding the better wing player.
Aldridge ended up playing 5 a lot for the Spurs anyway, and his improvement defensively was very encouraging. Assuming Duncan comes back, he could easily slide into the backup rim protector role or as you said, they would play a big lineup
Heat consider themselves the underdog, but literally seem to have put everything on Durant this offseason, as everyone comes off the board, D Wade having to wait and be disrespected again, and finally, all of their own players are gone…
It’s hard to imagine the Heat as players in the Durant sweepstakes considering the way they treated one of their own – Wade.
seems more like the Heat are trying to either get Durant or keep flexibility for next year
KD, Splash Bros, Draymond, Iggy, Dirk, Matt Barnes, Livingston, Barbosa = we out here
Matt Barnes? Uh no thanks. Better off with empty roster slot.
that is actually really good framework of a team, but obviously there wouldnt be Dirk, and you’d replace that with certain bigs. Damian Jones would probably replace Ezili when he comes back from the pectoral injury…That being said, I’d expect Barnes and Barbosa to be able to get himself some money somewhere
Is it just me or does it strike any non Celtics fans that the Celtics squad is so unappealing that they had to resort to using a football player to sell their basketball team?
not really. I think they’re going to be really good next year, regardless of if they get Durant, though obviously they become a legit title contender with him
It’s just you
Celtics are going to be really good no matter what like formerlyz said. And they had Brady there because Brady is one of the best sports stars Boston has ever seen.
Please name for me ONE HOF Legend that Oakland or OKC could have brought to their meeting, to show what Durant would become by playing in that city? He wins a chip in OKC, everyone forgets about it two weeks later. He wins one in Boston, Legend.
Well the Warriors could’ve brought Jerry West who has a position within the Warrior’s organization. And Jerry West is definetly more of a legend than Tom Brady considering he IS the NBA logo…
When those tweets came out, the entire internet cried lol. The anticipation is so much right now. We’ve been hearing a lot about connection to the Warriors all day. This could be a legit situation
Miami because Bosh and if resign Wade have won more championships then Curry,Thompson have. Then Miami can challenge the CAVS.
as a Heat fan, I wish I had the optimism you do, though I do find it curious that the only meeting we havent heard anything about was Durant’s meeting with the Heat. I havent found any details other than the 2 hours it took. I’m not saying it means anything, but it is a little odd. I still think it seems like OKC, GS, Boston are all ahead of Miami on the pecking order, and I still lean towards him returning to OKC until I see him leave. For what its worth, I’ve speculated about GS for more than 2 years, so I wont be surprised to see him go there
I mean you’re right that Bosh/Wade have won more championships…but let’s not just completely throw out the Splash Brothers’ ring and back-to-back finals appearance. If anything, Wade’s first ring, where he carried the Heat to a championship over the Mavs, will mean more than Bosh/Wade winning two rings together. I mean the Warriors can throw the fact that they made two straight finals appearances (with one win) without him (Durant) so imagine what they could do with him. The Heat, meanwhile, can’t really cite their finals appearances since LeBron was a major result of that and that they haven’t had as much success since he left (which, admittedly, is more of a result of Bosh being out the past two postseasons).
not just Bosh either. The Heat have had horrible luck with injuries these last 2 years.
Bosh has been the main one though. Without Bosh, the Heat get to the second round at best. With Bosh, that team can easily challenge the Cavs for the Eastern Conference.
As long as Boston doesn’t offer Sullinger crazy money, Boston should have another chance at Durant next year. This is assuming Durant makes the smart decision of signing a deal with an opt out next offseason.
I dont expect them to resign Sullinger. It looks like they’re going to probably keep Amir Johnson for that expiring contract and some rim protection. I am curious to see what happens with Tyler Zeller, b/c it could go either way, but I would probably expect them to let him walk as well, to retain that flexibility. That leaves Olynik and Mickey on the bench as depth behind Horford and Johnson
That makes the most sense and is their best play. You never know how a team will react after losing out on a game changer like Durant. I just hope they don’t overpay for Sully. If they want him back, maybe a deal with a mutual option for next year like Rondo’s deal.
I always forget Jerebko…ALWAYS lol. He would be let go in that scenario as well
Why would they drop Jerebko? He’s on an expiring deal at a now very reasonable $5 million.
From everything that is being reported, it seems like that whoever Durant signs with this offseason will be the team he signs with next offseason. That’s because the team he signs with can give him the most money next offseason. If he doesn’t sign with Boston this offseason, I don’t see him signing with them next offseason.
Gasol – Green – Durant – Thompson – Curry
Iggy – Livingston – Barbosa – McAdoo – Rush – Clark – Jones – Looney
= 2017, 2018, 2019 NBA Champions
….See you tomorrow Kevin……
In Boston number one option. Maybe CAVS swoop in and sign him by Trading Love to Celtics,
Barbosa, Rush, Clark, McCadoo are all free agents. I’m not aware of whats happened with Looney’s hip issue, Then, obviously Gasol would have to take league minimum, which I dont see him doing, and I think they’d prefer a better defensive option. Regardless, if Durant goes there, thats a really, really scary team
To get KD, they have to get rid of Iggy and Bogut. Also, McAdoo, Rush, Clark, and Barbosa are RFA, which they’ll have to renounce rights are all of them. Also, they will not have space to get Gasol, unless you think he’ll take the minimum; he won’t. To me Boston is a better play then GSW.
Actually they just have to lose Bogut. They can keep Iguodala (though he only has 1 year left on his deal). Finally, those guys are simply unrestricted free agents. They arent restricted
Bugs me that durant hasn’t really considered the Spurs more. He said he’d base his decision purely on basketball, which the Spurs gave, but then hardly considers them. Why? Probably because it’s not just basketball but where he lives and San Antonio just isn’t the bigger market where he’d play. The only way he’d leave OKC, also a small market, is if a bigger market was there. I’m not saying basketball isn’t a factor, but it isn’t just a basketball decision like he said.
And Mikey…
You really need to look at how rigid the bugs are in SA now.
I can’t see KD ever gaining a rhythm with the current players.
No knock on POP
I mean you are right, but the Thunder did beat the Spurs and the Warriors seem to be in a better position long term. But hey, at least they got a meeting…his hometown Wizards didn’t even get one.
From a purely basketball area, why would the Spurs be a better fit? He would be part of a younger movement in SA that hasn’t had success so it doesn’t make sense. If he were to go there he would be playing at the four or pushing Leonard, a very successful 3 in the NBA to another position. That makes no basketball sense though I’m sure the Spurs made a solid presentation of how it would work.
As of now they don’t offer something currently over the Thunder or GS. Then you have the Celtics and Heat who are the clearer path to the NBA Finals. From a basketball perspective, they are the fifth best option. That isn’t a knock against them either. It just has to do with how it fits. Every team ahead of them has him fitting without moving players sans Miami who is again only a good fit because they are in the East.
I call bs.
The Heat just want to appear relevant and they want to be considered a top residence for top 10 players.
Yea there are bugs in SA.
Bigs
If I were the Thunder, I’d be worried that he’s gonna announce his decision on Independence day…
Haha
If he were to go anywhere else it should be to Boston they have major upside plus their in the eastern conference which should be an easier path to conference finals at least.
You’re right about the upside and a presumbly easier path to the finals in the Eastern Conference…but for those same reasons…wouldn’t GS be the best choice outside of OKC? They made the finals twice (and won once) without him and have their core signed long term (let’s just assume Curry is going to be resigned because I doubt GS let’s him walk…if Curry leaves its probably to Charlotte and it won’t be a money or championship issue). That team is basically being regarded as a potential dynasty (I don’t think they are there yet, but you can’t deny the possibility of them eventually getting there) without Durant…they are definetly a dynasty team with him.
The argument could be made that Boston is in the best position of all of them. GS would obviously have the better featured guys, and the first year, they would have a pretty good amazing 6 person core, but Boston would have the better depth moving forward, and they have more assets to play with
Yeah, but Brooklyn is looking better with some of these moves so far… It has me concerned.
I mean I’ll take a core of Curry/Klay/KD/Draymond over Isaiah Thomas/KD/Horford/depth or fourth star.