Will Miami Heat’s PATIENCE Pay Off in FINALLY Getting Kevin Durant?
All right, let’s get to this report about Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets. This is from ESPN’s Tim McMahon. According to him, there is no urgency from the Rockets to get an extension done with Kevin Durant. Uh he gave this quote on NBA Today earlier this week. He said, quote, “Certainly, I think both sides want that to be more than a one-year window, but it’s not going to be a max extension. If that was the priority for Kevin Durant, it would have been done in conjunction with the trade, and he probably wouldn’t have ended up in Houston.” end quote. So, the idea here is that Kevin Durant has one year left on his contract, so he can always wait until next summer to test the market. Um, he is technically going to be a free agent next summer. I think people believe that he’s going to sign an extension at some point. There’s just not enough urgency right now to try to get something done at the max. But until something gets done, it ain’t done. So, I’m not putting out the whale call here, David. I want to make that very clear. I am not putting it out there, but I do think that this is interesting, right? It sounds like an the expectation is that an extension will happen at some point. There’s no guarantee that it will happen, which could pave the way for the Heat to potentially sign Kevin Durant outright as a free agent next summer. And if that were to happen, they could potentially look like geniuses for not having given up anything for him this summer. I I again I don’t want to go I don’t want to get too ahead of our skis here, but given the fact that this is the report, I think it’s at least worth monitoring. Or am I wrong on this? No, I think it’s worth monitoring. I just think this is ridiculous. I I don’t I’m not challenging Stein’s reporting, of course, but it also just feels um it just feels like the Rockets are playing a really dangerous game here. And I I can’t believe that that hasn’t been a discussion up to this point. And and I don’t know why you I don’t think how any party especially given KD’s age and injury history. I’m I feel almost certain that he’s made signing an extension a priority. And it feels more like the Rockets and Raphael Stone are just playing a very dangerous and risky game by not getting that done as soon as possible. And we talked about this in Lockdown NBA yesterday and I happen to be recording with Jackson Gatlin, the host of Lockdown Rockets. And his belief is that uh this could be uh something that really backfires on the Rockets because you did make a significant trade to acquire him. And my point of contention was why would you let this draw down the way it has like you want to go into media day everything being peaches and ice cream and in fact instead it just feels like it could be the exact opposite of that. And you don’t want a disgruntled KD worrying about his contract or having to, you know, concern himself with where his next stop is going to be. Uh Gatlin’s point was that uh KD probably this might be the last stop of his career, which I totally believe. At the same time, if that’s the case, like show him the love, like you made the trade for me. Pay me the money that I think is due. and that he also thinks that maybe they’re just trying to hold out on maybe paying him a little bit less. Like of the $60 million that he could potentially get on a max extension, they might want to get him down to like 50 or 55, something like that, just so that he can save them a little bit of money because they do have some financial things coming up in terms of Amen Thompson, some other players there. So, uh I don’t know. To me, it’s it feels a lot riskier than it should be. And if you couldn’t agree to this beforehand, I don’t know why you swing this deal unless you’re prepared to let him walk. And if that’s the case, then that seems that’s kind of where my mind goes, right? And and yeah, to your point about walking into media day with peaches and ice cream or something. Um, not with them. Not with them, but just the overall vibes be peaches. Oh, I see that. That’s a peach and ice cream vibe, but nobody actually gets it. Um, fortunately for the Rockets, Kevin Durant isn’t super sensitive and doesn’t hold grudges. Oh, wait, no, that’s not true. He is those things. Um, right. It’s a weird game to play with this particular figure. And the way that this is being reported is that the Houston the only reason they even traded for him was because the cost was so low. And if I’m Kevin Durant, I’m seeing this report. I’m like, what? The only reason you wanted me is because I basically came to you for free for Dylan Brooks and the 10th overall pick in a draft that you didn’t really care about. Jaylen Green, right? And Jaylen Green who they were like excited to move on from, right? So, it’s like it was like was I doing you guys a favor? Like, what what’s going on here? And um yeah, I look I I don’t think and when we when you hear max extension, does that also include the maximum amount of years or the maximum amount of annual value? Because max extension to me means both. You’re getting the max years and the max value. If you don’t want to sign to a max extension, I totally get that. I’m not giving Kevin Durant four years. I’m not doing that. But I’m giving I’m giving them like requisite. I’m not going to try to hold out to save $5 million and potentially risk unless that $5 million is the difference between like a second apron team and a first apron team. And that if that’s the case, are we why are we even having this conversation? That to me isn’t getting Kevin Durant at a discount, right? That’s not what that means. That’s basically a max extension. So relax on the wording of this. When I hear this, I’m like, what do you are you going to be just okay? Did you just get off the J Jaylen Green contract, you do a one-year run with Kevin Durant the way that Toronto had with Kawaii, and then you walk away from him, and you still got plenty of cap space with a super young team and all of this flexibility and a bunch of draft picks still moving forward? I wonder if they’re just cool with him walking away. The difference was that K uh Toronto was not like they wanted to resign Kawaii. They took a chance at getting a rental, but they wanted him to stay there. Uh whereas this is like, hey, we’re going to trade for you, but feel free to leave. And there’s the door. Don’t forget off of the D Rozan contract in that Kawaii trade. So, at the end of the day, they made the calculus of we want Kawaii back. But even if you were to walk away, financially, we’re in a way better spot. Um, let’s keep talking about this, but first, today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. 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Use the code locked on NBA atmononey.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on NBA. Um, speaking of Kevin Durant, so let’s just say they were willing to let him walk, right? First, if there’s no extension done, I don’t know when the deadline on this extension is, but it sounds like it might be in the season. Yeah. Like could he get traded before the trade deadline? if if the trade isn’t going the way that Houston wants, I can’t really see that happening. But no, he’ll be a free agent potentially next summer. And if that’s the case, Miami doesn’t have max money ability next summer unless they trade a a pretty big player off the roster. Um, which obviously they’re not willing to do that kind of thing for Kevin Durant because they weren’t willing to do it this summer. But Kevin Durant at that age not getting the max extension already kind of the market setting its value form for him. He had Miami on his list. Would he come to Miami on a quote unquote discount or whatever I guess his market value is at the time? You think so? I do. I think at that point then it would just be like he knows the team has gone after him on multiple occasions that whether they went all in or not. like even when he was I forgot what he exactly was doing when when the trade was uh announced like he found out he was being traded in the middle of I think a boardroom kind of thing or whatever it was it was a uh yeah it was like a boardroom event like there was people there like it was some sort of live event right so he’s sitting there and I I get it like maybe you don’t expect to find out about the trade I gotta be honest with you I don’t think he looked particularly happy about it and maybe that’s just KD and I don’t want to read into it or anything like that So at the same time like I I I would think that at that point after pursuing friendship and uh you know he was pursued a title in the first place. He left Oklahoma City. He pursued a title at Golden State. Then he went and followed after friendship by joining Brooklyn. Then he forced that trade to Phoenix for another chance at a championship etc. And now he went and forced his hand again. It’s like it keeps working out not working out for him uh to a certain extent you know because he’s still getting paid a lot of he’s still very good, but why not join a team that actually has wanted you to play for them for a long time now? And I think he would feel uh some sort of reciprocal way about it, like you know what, these guys have been pursuing me for a long time now. I think it would be better if I just go ahead and join a team. I don’t know. Media Day quotes would be amazing. It would be like it would be exactly that. You know, this was this was the partnership that was always meant to be, but we never were able to make it happen and blah blah blah blah blah. Um, yeah. Look, I I think it makes a lot of sense and if I’m Miami, I’m definitely pursuing it, right? We already we’ve done the conversation about Luca Donic, Jiren Jackson Jr., these guys signing their extensions, right? Um, who were uh able to be free agents next summer who aren’t going to be free agents anymore. And you look at the free agent market next year and it’s Trey Young, potentially LeBron James, and maybe Kevin Durant if he’s a free agent. And you know, I think LeBron makes some sense. I think Trey Young makes some sense. I think all three of those guys make some sense. But if you want to go like Kevin Durant makes sense. You know, I think that if you added him to a roster with Bam and Tyler, I think the Heat liked the idea of doing that. I don’t think they didn’t trade for Kevin Durant because they didn’t like Kevin Durant. I just they didn’t want to trade all the stuff that it was going to take and Houston had a 10th overall pick that Miami couldn’t match. at the end of the day, Phoenix needed something like that and Miami just didn’t have anything like that on their on their on the books, right? So, um the 20th 20th pick wasn’t gonna make that happen. So, yeah, if if they end up getting him next summer, just signing him outright and keeping all their young players and all this stuff, they are going to look like geniuses. Yeah. And look, I I will say a couple things about it because I know that already I can hear the push back from the the same fans that were like, why would we want KD in the first place? I I still think he’s going to be a very good player next year. We We’re seeing this with LeBron James. Do you remember where you had him ranked? Sorry, but do you remember where you had him ranked in your top 100 for lockdown? Uh I do not I do not. Still a top 15 player, I think. You know. Yeah, keep going. I’ll tell you where I had him because I have it somewhere over here. Um I I just He’s still a very good player. He would still contribute. He would still fit a need. And if you can get him for a slight discount or whatever, I still think it would be great. Uh, and I think it just would make a lot of sense for that team and and still even at that point in time to have a player of that caliber. So, I mean, going young doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything. Adding KD even at his age and still being the player that he was last season and which I expect him to be this season, I don’t see why it would be a problem at all. I think it would be a huge boost for Miami’s offense. Whose minutes is he taking that’s going to be a problem? Hi, Yovic’s. Those guys are going to play anyway. Yeah. Like they’re not going to play. Haywood High Heismith. Like, you know, they’re all going to play. Haywood’s a free agent, too. Um I had him ranked 13. Yeah. So, I don’t know if he drops it. Let’s say he drops seven spots, you know, like guys like Kade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, like they all You can make a case that they’re already better than him, right? Um but he falls below those guys and maybe he’s somewhere closer. It’s still a very good player to add. He’s not going to fall out of the top 50, right? No, I don’t think so. I don’t I mean barring any any never hope to have if it’s any kind of catastrophic injury. But um all right. So just again a situation worth monitoring. He could totally sign an extension at any point and then all of this is moot. But uh we thought we should get ahead of it here and at least uh discuss it. But that’ll do it for us today. That does it for the week here on Locked on Heat. Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. We’ll be back next week as we continue our 25 of 25 series um and whatever else news uh drops between now and then. Thanks for listening.
Kevin Durant is unlikely to sign a max extension with the Houston Rockets. Could that open the door for the Miami Heat to sign him as a free agent next summer? Wes Goldberg and David Ramil talk about the possibility of Durant to Miami (again).
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