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It finally happened. After months of speculation, Kevin Durant’s free agency destination has been cemented. According to Durant, who announced his decision via The Boardroom’s Instagram account, he will sign with the Brooklyn Nets, which was reported earlier by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
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The signing will be for four years, $164 million on a max contract, according to Wojnarowski. The Warriors offered Durant the full $221 million supermax offer as soon as free agency opened, but he declined the offer (more on that below).
The Warriors will officially offer a five-year, $221 million max deal TO Kevin Durant at 6 PM ET tonight … and Golden State now knows it will get Durant's decision tonight
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 30, 2019
Durant’s decision comes after he ruptured his right Achilles in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, which almost certainly rules him out for all of next season. While there were other reported parties interested in signing Durant at the start of the seasons, the Warriors, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers were frontrunners.
According to Wojnarowski, he and his business manager Rich Kleiman informed Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers on Sunday of Durant’s decision:
Kevin Durant and his business manager Rich Kleiman met with Warriors GM Bob Myers Sunday in New York and delivered him the news on the decision to leave Golden State, league sources tell ESPN. Rest of teams were informed later this today. Teams thought process was forthright.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019
It is impossible to tell what type of player Durant will be once he recovers from the injury, but it has often been a devastating one for NBA players, as we examined here. The one major outlier, and a player with comparable size, age and ability to Durant, was Dominique Wilkins, who at age 32, tore his Achilles with the Atlanta Hawks in the 1991-92 season, only to return to be an All-Star in the following two seasons.
Despite the injury, teams were willing to bet on Durant, a 30-year-old who turns 31 in September – and career 26-point (52 percent from field, 35.3 percent from 3-pt, 88.5 percent from FT), 6.4-rebound, 5.9-assist per game player – having a likely higher floor after his return than many NBA players’ ceilings.
