With the Warriors and Kings set to play a preseason game in Seattle this Friday, Kevin Durant – who began his NBA career with the SuperSonics – suggested this week that he’d like to see the NBA bring a team back to the city, as Nick Friedell of ESPN.com writes.
“Most definitely,” Durant said. “It’s a basketball city. It’s a sports town. … They have a good representation of basketball in the NBA from Seattle-born players, Washington state-born players. And I feel like that whole brand deserves an NBA team. Just like the Golden State Warriors deserve a team or the Los Angeles Lakers deserve a team, Seattle is that same way.”
While the city of Seattle would almost certainly be next in line if the NBA decides to add a new team, the league has shown little desire to expand beyond 30 franchises, and none of those 30 clubs appears to be in any danger of being relocated in the near future. As such, it remains to be seen when we might see the SuperSonics return to the NBA.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The introduction of the two-way contract was one of the major changes in the NBA’s most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement, and so far it has been a relative success, creating job opportunities for 60 additional players, as Michael Scotto of The Athletic observes in a deep dive on the subject. However, some agents would like to see the system tweaked a little, suggesting that multiyear two-way deals shouldn’t be permitted and that there should be a limit to the number of two-way contracts a team can sign in a given league year.
- Dan Feldman of NBC Sports identifies five top candidates to be traded during the 2018/19 league year, ranging from the obvious candidates (Jimmy Butler) to some under-the-radar ones (Dewayne Dedmon).
- Former Celtics and Cavaliers power forward Luke Harangody continues to play professionally overseas, having signed this week with Spanish team Joventut Badalona, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The former second-round pick has now played overseas for several years, last appearing in the NBA in 2012.
Won’t Seattle have it’s arena ready in 2 years?
Yep.
Of the 5 players, Kyle Korver almost retired last summer. Should the Cavs decide to replace Tyron Lue in the future, I think Korver would make a excellent coach. The Cavs are already using him as a shooting coach.