It’s not necessarily a surprise that just a couple days after the 2015-16 NBA season officially ended, rumors are already starting to heat up regarding free agency.
It’s also not a surprise that the Golden State Warriors, who fell five points short of repeating as champions, is a team being bandied about a lot on the rumor mill.
Following their disheartening loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, the Warriors made it clear that they are going to be aggressive during the summer.
In this, the two-time defending Western Conference champions are now being mentioned as a preferred landing spot for former MVP Kevin Durant.
According to Frank Isola of the NY Daily News, Durant prefers joining the Warriors should he leave the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency.
“The one player who can change the balance of power in the NBA is expected to meet with prospective teams in Los Angeles when the free-agent recruiting period beings in July, according to a source,” Isola reported. “The same source maintains that if Durant doesn’t re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder he would prefer to join the Warriors.”
This comes on the heels of multiple reports over the past several months indicating that Durant would like to team up with the Splash Brothers in Oakland (more on that here).
It also comes at a time when Warriors players have openly wondered whether Durant would in fact join the team.
The Warriors will be as much as $18 million under the cap when free agency starts, a number that wouldn’t enable the team to offer Durant a max deal.
Though, Golden State’s ownership group has made it clear that it will do anything possible to continue the momentum that has seen the team post a 140-24 record over the past two regular seasons.
General manager Bob Myers also has the capability of being able to trade away a couple large contracts in order to make a Durant marriage work financially.
With starting small forward Harrison Barnes slated to become an unrestricted free agent and coming off a horrendous Finals appearance, the likelihood of the Warriors targeting Durant has increased in recent weeks.
It will surely be interesting to see how this turns out. If the Warriors are able to land Durant, they will continue to be the odds-on favorites in the ultra competitive Western Conference. That much is for sure.