By Jordan Hansen
The NBA is in a very strange spot as a league.
Like other professional leagues, the NBA has a salary cap, which determines the maximum amount of money a team is allowed to pay its players. However, unlike the NFL and NHL, it’s what is considered a “soft cap,” meaning there are certain situations in which a team can go over, though they have to pay a tax per dollar, called a luxury tax.
This season, the NBA is headed into the first year of a new nine-year, $24 billion TV deal with Turner Sports and Disney. A direct result of this deal is a huge increase in money to teams and a larger salary cap.
Right now, the NBA salary cap is $70 million. In two days, this number will balloon to an expected $94 million. In 2018, it’s expected to jump again to $107 million.
Players in the league who are entering a contract year will be in for a huge amount of cash. The leader of that pack, of course, is Thunder forward Kevin Durant.
Durant is the unanimous No. 1 free agent in the class and is reported to be considering six different teams: Boston, Golden State, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami, San Antonio, and the Thunder.
Oklahoma City has Durant’s Bird Rights and will be able to pay him more than any other team. He has several options, the first of which is to sign with the Thunder for another season and then test free agency once again. He can do this by signing a two-year deal, with a player opt-out clause after one season.
This seems to be the most likely scenario for this round of free agency, as it also allows him to wait until fellow Thunder All-Star Russell Westbrook gets into the free agency market next summer.
He then would be able to take advantage of the salary cap rising once again. If he signs another full-max contract with the Thunder, he could potentially net $229.5 million.
Durant was also a member of a team that pushed Golden State to the brink in the Western Conference Finals last season. There’s undoubtedly talent on the roster, starting with Westbrook. The Thunder also made a draft-day trade last week that netted them former Orlando guard Victor Oladipo.
It shipped off Durant’s longtime teammate Serge Ibaka, but the emergence of center Steven Adams will likely negate his departure.
However, there’s no guarantee Durant will stay with Oklahoma City, and he is obviously willing to listen to pitches from other teams.
Any team he chooses will instantly be a title contender, though whether he gets to that point will depend on what else the team’s general manager decides to do.
It seems strange, but the team he pushed to the brink in the Western Conference Finals — Golden State — could also potentially be his new home. The Warriors would have to ship off several of their players to make room, but they would be able to keep the core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
Add Durant into the mix, and that’s a truly dangerous team. Both the Clippers and Spurs are in a similar situation, because they’ve both Western Conference rivals of the Thunder.
The Clippers would have to do some major moving to make the space, but it’s possible. However, that Los Angeles would have to gut its roster a bit might be a knock against it when it comes to Durant’s final decision.
The Spurs definitely have room for Durant in their plans, but the team also has two other large forwards in Kawhi Leonard and LeMarcus Aldridge. Playing time might start to be smaller, and it would be interesting to watch how that team would unfold.
Boston and Miami both reside in the Eastern Conference, which would be a completely different dynamic for Durant, who has played in the Western Conference for all of his nine years in the league.
The path to the Eastern Conference finals is considered “easier” than the path in the Western Conference by many pundits and could be a selling point by each team’s presentation. However, LeBron James likely waits at the end of the road in the Eastern Conference for the foreseeable future.
There’s also the issue of coaching and the people in the management of each team. Durant reportedly has a deep amount of respect for the Celtic’s executive Larry Bird, and Boston also offers an excellent coach in Brad Stevens.
Meanwhile, the Heat have team president Pat Riley, a man with nine NBA rings — one as a player, five as a coach, and three as an executive. It’s an incredibly impressive résumé and was part of the reason LeBron James decided to sign there in 2010.
All of this, plus a thousand other smaller things, will weigh on Durant over the next week or so. He’s said he’ll make his decision by July 9, and it’s likely he will stick to that deadline.
Snagging Durant is any executive’s dream, and his decision has the potential to change the balance of power of the NBA.
Strange times indeed.