For Miami, in addition to Whiteside and Wade....Deng is a FA and they don't have his bird rights. And Joe Johnson is also a FA and they don't have his bird rights. Wade is not going to take a pay cut and his cap hold is large impacting their available cap room to add players (unless they renounce him, which they won't do). Miami has some decisions to make. Whiteside and Wade could eat up ALL of Miami's FA money.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kevin Durant on a one-year deal vs. a longer one: “It’s too soon, bro. I really haven’t thought about that."</p>— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/738040749883695104">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kevin Durant: "The two most important things for me is being around great people and playing great basketball."</p>— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/738039750951469056">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kevin Durant just said "I have no doubts we'll all come back better next year." Did the summer of Durant end before it began?</p>— Adam Klug (@Adam_Klug) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adam_Klug/status/738044290757070848">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Honestly there is one thing that for me just doesnt add up about the Durant thing and i think its just common sense. It has been clearly established how well Durant and Harden get along and that they are "friends", also that Beasley is pretty much one of Durant's best friends. One would think that these guys talk to him fairly regularly and that they could reasonably get a straight answer from their friend about his free agency intentions. Maybe Durant doesnt know what he wants to do yet and he wants to listen to offers, and he cannot tell his friends a definitive answer to the question at hand, but still Harden and Beasley should/could be able to at least get a feel for what he could be inclined to do. I think that given these personal connections with the man exist if we definitely had no shot whatsoever we would know by now. Durant doesnt need to say "NO thanks" to these guys so that they disregard him, a "i dont know let me see i will explore all options" could be enough to hint us that we are not in good position, especially if alleged biggest strengths to land him are these guys in the first place. I believe (or chose to believe) that Durant has probably spoken to them about this and has told them that he IS interested in the Rockets and that we do have a real shot but that perhaps the decision is not final yet. Otherwise i would think that we would have already backed off a bit about him
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ibaka on KD: "I have confidence. Where he going to go? Tell me. After what we did in the playoffs this year, where he going to go? Where?"</p>— Royce Young (@royceyoung) <a href="https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/738055962829819904">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Lol at people who think Durant is coming to Houston. Sure let's leave a team that just beat a historical spurs team, pushed the all time best regular season warriors team, to join the most disappointing team of 2015-16, be wise of harden and Beasley. Durant is more than likely staying in OKC next year and in the unlikely event he doesn't, I'm willing to bet you idiots he isn't joining the rockets.
Can't see why he would even consider leaving a team like OKC only to go join Boston. Even if you add Horford to that group, why go to Boston for that when you can have the same thing in Houston as well as James Harden. A big 3 of Thomas - Durant - Horford is just not good enough to get past LeBron. If I was him and really wanted to go East, I would choose Indiana.
Hmmm, let's see. Should he: 1) Bet on not making a rare mistake like that again; or 2) Go to a team that didn't even have the chance to make that mistake at that stage of the playoffs? Tough choice.
Why does everyone assume he will leave??? Money wise, OKC can offer him the most be it one year or 5 year deals. Talent wise, OKC still better team than boston, miami, washington and yes Rockets. All these teams need some trades/drafts to get better whereas OKC will be another year under Donovan and need minor trade to improve, is sure thing. Yes, East is easy path to Finals but don't forget you still have to go through Lebron and even you beat Lebron, you still need to beat the Warriors something you cant run away from.
This seems about right. Is WestBrook an unrestricted next year? If so . . . OKC will be in the lotto after next year unless they win a championship Rocket River
Its not a big 3, Boston has a lot of good, attractive pieces. Avery Bradley is an elite perimeter defender and good 3 point shooter. Jae Crowder is another very good defender, and a very good asset to matchup against Lebron/GS. Not to mention their 3 draft picks this year. Plus all the future draft picks. OKC is capped out forever if they try to hang onto their top 6 players. They'll never be able to get better, even with a rising cap. Durant's 1st year contract would be $35 million, scaling up to $45 million by year 5.
Not only Westbrook. Ibaka , Adams and Roberson are also FAs along with Durant and Waiters this year. Plus they are already $15M over the luxury tax threshold this season. It will be interesting to see what approach OKC takes and what that team looks like after next season. I can't imagine them going full Prokhorov and paying a $90M to $100M luxury tax bill.
Well, I mean, hypothetically it could happen this year....and let's hope it doesn't, oh no, don't want that.
