Former NBA MVP Kevin Durant could be playing his final couple months with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The seven-time All-Star is slated to become a free agent this summer and has been linked to multiple teams over the past several months.
Now comes this report from New Orleans Pelicans broadcaster Joel Myers, a respected and long-time play-by-play man around the NBA, indicating that Durant will indeed move on should the Thunder not earn a trip to the Finals this season:
“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,” Myers told SiriusXM NBA Radio on Monday (h/t The Oklahoman). “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.”
We have all read the reports linking Durant to the defending champs. On the surface, a marriage there does seem to make some sense. Though, there’s absolutely no way Durant will be considered “the man” with Stephen Curry firmly entrenched in as the face of the Warriors franchise (and the NBA for that matter).
In this, Myers does have a solid ground to stand on when it comes to his report.
Despite boasting two of the top-10 players in the NBA with Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Thunder remain stuck behind both the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs as a second-tier conference title contender.
It remains to be seen if the team can actually get to the summit with the two coexisting on the court together.
As The Oklahoman indicated, any report that doesn’t come from Durant’s camp should be taken with a grain of salt. With that said, there seems to be a whole heck of a lot going on here.
Durant was seen chatting it up with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr during the Thunder’s most recent loss to Golden State last week. We can go ahead and also take that with a grain of salt, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Durant has also been linked to his home-town Washington Wizards in the past. Though, there hasn’t been any indications recently that they remain a top-end option for the MVP’s services.