With LeBron James' very timely and convincing declaration that he loves Cleveland and will stay there, Kevin Durant has the summer all to himself.
Now the unquestionable top free agent of 2016 has to choose-with more than half of the NBA knocking on his door.
Durant has already declared that his free agency will be based on a "basketball decision" as rumors swirled on how he would sign with a big market to team to boost his shoe sales emerged (as previously reported here).
This is why the latest report from Marc Stein of ESPN makes a whole lot of sense. Durant and his camp are already working on his itinerary and there are three teams that have already made the initial cut.
"The Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and incumbent Oklahoma City Thunder are the first three known teams to secure face-to-face meetings with free agent-to-be Kevin Durant, starting next weekend, according to league sources," Stein reported.
From a basketball standpoint, those teams are the best choices (except for the Cleveland Cavaliers) and at least for now, any intelligent discussion involving Kevin Durant should be confined to these three teams, unless they schedule more meetings with other teams-which is expected.
For the Oklahoma City Thunder, they just executed a trade that sent Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic. That could be a factor but whether it's for or against is another question. While the discussion centered on Durant's contract and how signing a one year-deal with a player option will bring him the most money, the "basketball reasons" trump that. OKC has to present themselves as a title-worthy team.
Both the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors are of the few teams that don't have the cap space to sign Durant outright. The Spurs are discussed here and Tim Kawakami of Mercury News discussed the Warriors side extensively.
After breaking down their salary cap, Kawakami concluded that they should trade Andrew Bogut in a salary dump type deal.
"Renounce all or almost all of the free agents and dump Bogut. That's the price, right there, to get max space, and the Warriors have known this for more than a year. They're ready to do it if they can line up Durant or Horford (but likely for Durant)."
It should be noted that the Warriors picked center Damian Jones of Texas, a center in yesterday's draft.