Durant Wants To Follow Nowitzki's Example
Thunder small forward Kevin Durant, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, sees some parallels between himself and Mavs big man Dirk Nowitzki regarding their importance to their respective franchises, Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman relays. “Dirk has been a model of how you should handle things,” Durant said. “I’m just trying to do things my way as well. There’s a lot that comes with it. Dirk has handled it about as good as anybody’s ever handled it in this league. I try to learn from guys like him, Kobe Bryant. From everybody that’s been in that position, handling the situation as being a franchise guy.”
While Oklahoma City’s fan base hopes that Durant remains as loyal to the Thunder as Nowitzki has been to Dallas, here’s more from out West:
Wizards Notes: Wall, Brooks, Durant, Porter
Wizards point guard John Wall insists that hiring Scott Brooks as the team’s new coach wasn’t a ploy to attract Kevin Durant, according to Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. The Wizards are expected to be among the teams pursuing Durant in free agency, and Brooks served as his coach for seven seasons in Oklahoma City. Wall said he is “very excited” to have Brooks on board and says the move is about the current team, not about getting Durant’s attention. “We didn’t sign Scotty Brooks to say, ‘Okay, Scotty, go get him. You got to bring us Kevin Durant,’” Wall said. “We got Scotty Brooks because we feel like he can help John Wall and make him a better player and make our team get to the next step. We didn’t get Scotty Brooks just to get Kevin Durant. That’s not what Scott is on board to do. And I hope everybody doesn’t expect just because we got Scotty Brooks, he’s automatically going to get K.D., he’s going to automatically jump.”
There’s more news from Washington:
- Durant said he’s happy to see Brooks get the opportunity in Washington, but he dismissed the idea that it will affect his free agency decision, tweets Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. “I’m not really into theories,” Durant said. “I’m focused on [the playoff series with] the Mavericks.”
- Otto Porter should continue to improve under Brooks, writes Ben Standig of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Standig expects Porter to be the clear starter at small forward entering next season and notes Brooks’ record of developing young players with the Thunder. Porter averaged 11.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game this season and is under contract to the Wizards through 2016/17.
- Dez Wells doesn’t seem likely to rejoin the Wizards as he tries to earn a spot in the NBA, according to J. Michael of CSNMid-Atlantic. Wells hooked up with Washington after going undrafted last summer but suffered a thumb injury in mini-camp before summer league play. He spent the season with Oklahoma City’s affiliate in the D-League and is expected to stay associated with the Thunder this offseason.
Additional Doubt Surrounds Durant-To-Wizards Scenario
- Brooks would still be coaching the Thunder if Durant really had his heart set on playing for him, one league source told Bontemps for the same piece. Some of Durant’s friends who spoke with Chris Mannix of The Vertical cast serious doubt on the idea of Durant playing for the Wizards.
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Latest On Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant is unlikely to sign with the Wizards this summer because he doesn’t want to deal with the pressure of being surrounded by family, friends and hangers-on from his native Washington, friends of his tell Chris Mannix of The Vertical. Instead, the Warriors and Spurs will be in the mix for him with the Celtics a darkhorse, Mannix writes, reiterating his report from March, when he also cited Golden State, San Antonio and Boston.
Durant’s lack of fondness for the Wizards doesn’t have to do with Scott Brooks, who’s reportedly agreed to become the team’s next coach, as Mannix details, and indeed, Durant made a point of praising the former Thunder coach last week. The one-time MVP has largely been mum over the years about the possibility of joining the Wizards, despite rampant speculation, and he downplayed the idea when asked about it in 2014, as Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman notes.
Still, the Wizards will encourage Brooks to retain assistant coach David Atkins, who was a high school assistant coach for Durant, as TNT’s David Aldridge hears (Twitter link), and they’ll nonetheless make their long-planned effort to sign Durant this summer, according to Mannix. The Warriors instead have appeared to be significant front-runners to land the four-time scoring champ should he decide to leave the Thunder, as The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported in February, though Mannix puts Golden State on equal footing with the Spurs in his latest report. It was widely believed the Celtics would move onto Durant’s radar, Mannix wrote last month, and the latest dispatch from the scribe who also works for CSN New England suggests that Boston would be Durant’s top Eastern Conference choice if he wants to escape the brutal competition atop the Western Conference.
People around the NBA sense that Durant is “very much in play” and that a decent chance exists he’ll leave Oklahoma City, as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck said recently, though Durant’s mother this week cited his loyalty to the Thunder, at least in terms of maintaining focus on the playoffs.
Kings Eye Monty Williams, Who Won't Be Back With Thunder
Sacramento has natural appeal to Brooks, who’s from the nearby city of French Camp, California, but Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported last week that he’s not interested in coaching the Kings, with the Wizards apparently the front-runner for the former Thunder head coach. Thibodeau and Van Gundy, apparent co-favorites for the Timberwolves job, don’t want to coach Sacramento either, according to Wojnarowski.
Williams is a Thunder assistant but has been away from the team since his wife died in February. He won’t rejoin the team for the playoffs and, as The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater hears, he’s not expected to return to Oklahoma City for next season, either. Top free agent Kevin Durant has a close bond with Williams, the former Pelicans head coach.
Durant's Mother Says He Is Loyal To Thunder
- Kevin Durant is arguably the top available prize available in the free agent market this summer, and while he has yet to make up his mind about next season, Wanda Pratt, Durant’s mother, says he’s loyal to the Thunder organization, Ben Standig of CSN Mid-Atlantic.com relays. “I don’t know what his ultimate decision will be,” Pratt said of her son. “Where he’s going to end [up] playing has still not been decided by him. He’s still playing in the playoffs as everyone knows. I don’t know [his plans] so don’t say Mama Durant said [he’s coming to Washington] because I didn’t say that. He’s focused on the playoffs right now and he’s pretty loyal to the Thunder with regards to that. When the time comes, he’ll make a decision best for him.“
Western Notes: Morey, McHale, Howard, Mavericks
Early losses to nonplayoff teams doomed coach Kevin McHale in Houston, Rockets GM Daryl Morey explained in a Quora post. Morey said lopsided defeats at home influenced the decision to get rid of McHale. The GM didn’t cite the exact games, but he is probably referring to a 20-point loss to the Nuggets on opening night and an eight-point loss to the Nets on November 11th, both at the Toyota Center. “I believed that if we waited until what would be considered a normal timetable to make a change that it would likely be too late,” Morey wrote. “Our only focus is on winning and I felt a material change was necessary.” McHale led the Rockets to a division title and a spot in the Western Conference finals last season, but was dismissed on November 18th with a 4-7 record.
There’s more tonight from the Western Conference:
- Rockets center Dwight Howard doesn’t plan to demand the ball more in Game 2 of the series with the Warriors, writes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. Frustration over his declining role in the offense is one of the reasons that Howard is expected to opt out of his contract this summer. Howard had 14 points on 10 shots in the Game 1 loss, and Watkins notes that he hasn’t registered double-digit shot attempts in back-to-back games since early March. “As a competitor, I’m going to get the job done, no matter what it takes,” Howard said. “If I get the ball, if I don’t get the ball, if I score two points or I score 30 points. I got to go out there and play as hard as I can as long as I’m on the floor. That’s all that really matters.”
- The Mavericks have problems that reach far beyond their Game 1 embarrassment against the Thunder, contends Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News. He says the team is looking at a “dismal future” that includes no first-round pick this June, hardly any young talent to build around and a desire to commit $96MM over four years to Chandler Parsons, who has finished the last two seasons needing knee surgery.
- Thunder coach Billy Donovan noticed the difference in intensity during his first playoff game, relays Erik Horne of The Oklahoman. Donovan won two NCAA titles at Florida but is in his first NBA season. “There was a different vibe when you walked in there in terms of the enthusiasm, the excitement and energy,” he said. “I really thought our environment was terrific last night.”
Durant Back Among NBA's Elite
- Kevin Durant managed to prevent his impending free agency from becoming a distraction as he re-established his place among’s the NBA’s top players, writes Michael Lee of The Vertical. The Thunder star kept reminding himself of his elite status as he worked his way back from a broken bone in his right foot that limited him to 27 games last season. “Yeah, I wasn’t around,” Durant said. “And there are two or three players that they kind of talk about as the best. They didn’t really talk about me. It’s not that I was mad or anything like that. I just tried to use all that stuff as extra fuel and I tried to push myself higher.” Durant bounced back to average 28.2 points and 8.2 rebounds this season and will be the top name on the free agent market.
Kanter Sixth Man Candidate; Time For Huestis?
- Thunder center Enes Kanter has become a contender for the Sixth Man of the Year award, writes Sam Amick of USA Today. Oklahoma City raised some eyebrows this offseason when it matched a four-year, $70MM offer to keep the restricted free agent, but Kanter has done his best to live up to that contract. He brings 12.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game off the bench in just 20.8 minutes of action and is shooting 58% from the floor, fourth best in the NBA. “To be honest, I don’t look at my stats – not this year, not last year,” Kanter said. “If I do, I feel like I’m going to stress about it, so I don’t even look at my point average, [or] what’s my rebound average? I think the only thing I’m doing is I’m going out there to play my game.”
- Josh Huestis has only played three NBA games, but the Thunder are hurting so much for an effective backup wing player that he might become an option, writes Anthony Slater of the Oklahoman. “I’m not going to say we know for sure we’re gonna all of a sudden throw him in there the last three games a lot of minutes,” said OKC coach Billy Donovan. “But it’s good to see him progressing the way he has.”
Troy Weaver Draws Mention As Possible Replacement For Ernie Grunfeld With Wizards
Conflicting reports have emerged about the job security of Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld, as two people with knowledge of the situation told J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic recently that his position is safe while league sources told Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops that Grunfeld is no lock to return. The 60-year-old executive is under contract through next season, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post revealed this week, but people around the league have for the past few months brought up Danny Ferry‘s name as a possible replacement, according to Scotto. Thunder assistant GM Troy Weaver has also drawn mention as a potential candidate, Scotto writes.
Ferry’s name has emerged frequently in recent months following the buyout deal that ended his tenure as GM of the Hawks, as he’s reportedly been a candidate for GM vacancies with the Nets and Sixers, in spite of the controversy regarding the racially charged remarks he read from a scouting report in 2014. Weaver has been with the Thunder since the 2008/09 season, helping build Oklahoma City into a perennial title contender.