Very few people expected Kevin Durant to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even fewer predicted he would sign with the Golden State Warriors.
Easily the biggest free agent to hit the market since LeBron James back in 2010, Durant shocked the NBA world by leaving Russell Westbrook and joining the Splash Brothers in Oakland.
Coming off a historic 73-win season, one which included a Western Conference Final victory over the Durant’s very own Thunder squad, the Warriors were the last team anyone expected to sign the 27-year-old.
Not even Warriors President and COO Rick Welts thought the Warriors had a chance, as he explained on CBS Sports Radio.
“Well, I think we had hope. We, like every other team, probably didn’t think it was going to happen, and I can assure you we had no indication it was going to happen until the phone rang at 7:30 in the morning in Bob Myers’ cabin on Lake Tahoe and Kevin called to give us his decision. I think there was a lot of screaming and yelling going on in the Myers’ cabin at that point in time.”
Welts continued to express his thoughts on Durant’s contract – a concerning matter since it’s only a one-year deal with a player option for the 2017/18 season.
“There’s no commitment from Kevin,” Welts said. “He signed a one-year contract with a player option. So I think the hope and expectation is there’s a business reason for doing that more than there is a basketball reason for doing that. We’ve got to be a place that is as good as he thought it was when he selected the Warriors over the other options that he had. I think we’re going through a really interesting time in our league. We’re all trying to figure out what the new world is going to look like.”
Financially speaking, Durant would’ve been better off staying with the Thunder and signing a similar deal.
If Durant signed the same two-year contract with OKC then resigned for another five years, he would have made substantially more money than he would have with any other team.
Not only could the Thunder have offered an extra year, they could’ve given Durant the absolute max contract available. The only other person to sign such a lucrative contract? Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies and while he is certainly an above-average player, he’s nowhere near the level of Durant.
$153 million USD over five years is a lot of money.
But hindsight is 20/20 and what’s done is done.
The Warriors are surely favourites to win the title this season, despite losing Harrison Barnes, Marreese Speights, Leandro Barbosa and Andrew Bogut just to name a few.
With the newly named Splash Family leading the charge, it’s hard to imagine the Warriors not making it to the NBA Finals for the third year running.
Steph Curry led the league in scoring with 30.1 points per game, while Durant wasn’t far behind with a scoring average of 28.2.
Add in Klay Thompson’s ability to get hot at any given moment and you’ve got an offensive juggernaut like no other.
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