Kevin Durant (Photo : YouTube/BBadll)
With an impending win over the San Antonio Spurs and a ticket to the Western Conference Finals, has the OKC Thunder solved their bigger offseason problem?
Kevin Durant is the glittering prize of the NBA free agency and with over 20 teams having cap space, KD will most likely elicit a circus from all his suitors. But now that the Thunder has beaten the second best team in the league, is it enough to call off the meetings?
It should be recalled that last March, Joel Meyers, a New Orleans Pelicans announcer claimed that he had inside info on the former MVP's possible plans. This was reported by NewsOK.
Meyers statement in full: "I made some calls over the weekend, Vinny. If they don't, I'm told if they don't at least get to the NBA Finals, Durant's gone. Simple as that. And to the point where he may want his own team. So everybody's talking about Golden State. There may be other teams coming into the equation for Kevin Durant. He's the principle. He's going to be the guy. So from what I've been told, it may not be Golden State after all. Everybody thought it was, like, 'Well, maybe he can slide in there, and they won't match whoever makes an offer to Harrison Barnes. So it frees up that cap space that they would have given to Harrison Barnes.' But the calls I took, and some of the people I talked to over the weekend being in the building, it's not such a deadlock. As much as we all love Kevin Durant with Russell Westbrook, watch it now, because there's a real strong possibility it's their last season together in OKC."
This claim has been interpreted in so many ways and used to justify speculation for Durant's possible destinations-like the Lakers where he'll be "the guy." However, the basic premise was that the Thunder needs to reach the Conference Finals to retain Durant. Now that they have, what would be the implication now?
That was explored by The Big Lead before Game 6 of the Conference Semi-Finals.
"The guess here is Westbrook just kept Durant in OKC for at least one more year. A 2nd round ouster would have certainly sent him to the market and another franchise," TBL stated.
Westbrook carried the team in Game 5 after Durant helmed a heroic comeback in Game 4. This placed them in position to end the series today.
This team does not deserve to be broken up yet as the big men (Enes Kanter and Steven Adams) are starting to gel and Coach Billy Donovan is starting to figure out the right rotations.
