Two NBA teams dropped their pursuit to sign Kevin Durant because they were concerned about his torn Achilles tendon. Allegedly both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers have backed off of pursuing the Warrior's impending free agent according to Bleacher Report. Neither of the teams would want to spend more than $30 million on a maximum contract to have the 2014 NBA MVP to be resting the entire season as both teams think they have the potential to be serious title contenders.
The report says that, according to one of the executives of the league, at one point both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers were interested. However, both have backed off to concentrate on building off their success in the offseason. It appears, however, that all this time, Kevin Durant's options were between leaving his current team for New York (Brooklyn Nets or New York Knicks) and staying with the Golden State Warriors.
Perhaps, the news about these teams backing off is more of coming into terms that they had zero chance at the impending Warrior's free agent and the two-time NBA Finals MVP, and later realized to drop their bid and move on to other players. While these teams have decided to back off, the Brooklyn Nets, like the Golden State Warriors, and several other teams are not easily letting Kevin Durant go simply because of his Achilles injury.
New York Times reported that the Brooklyn Nets are doing their best effort to get Kevin Durant. The report claimed that the nets are working on getting DeAndre Jordan, Durant's close friend, on their team to make their offer more enticing to the Warrior's forward player. Last week, ESPN reported that the Brooklyn Nets are increasingly becoming confident that they can have Kevin Durant on their team and would like to pair him with another close friend, Kyrie Irving.
On ESPN’s The Jump, @WindhorstESPN says the Nets are “gaining confidence” that they’ll sign Kevin Durant.
Kendrick Perkins says the Nets are the front-runners to land KD.
Windy adds that Perkins is “not the only person involved in the NBA that has told me that.” pic.twitter.com/1svJgn5F6k — Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) June 21, 2019
On Monday, several news sites reported that Kevin Durant is not happy or no longer happy with the Golden State Warriors because of the way they handled his calf injury and his Achilles injury. This could mean that a stay in the Golden State Warrior might be less likely of a certainty. But Bleacher Report also stressed out that it is hard to predict what the two-time NBA Finals MVP may decide.
One league executive who has a long history with the NBA star was quoted saying that whatever Kevin Durant is planning he is going to change that 25 minutes before he finally does it.
