Kevin Durant plans to to participate in USA Basketball’s workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday during its minicamp in Las Vegas, Durant’s agent Rich Kleiman of Roc Nation Sports, and manager Charlie Bell informed Sam Amick of USA Today. Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony could also participate in Tuesday’s workout, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Durant will not participate in the team’s showcase game on Thursday, Amick adds. Thunder GM Sam Presti released a statement on Monday night saying that Durant had reached the stage where he could participate in non-contact drills, according to ESPN.com’s Royce Young (Twitter link). Durant played just 27 games last season because of a fracture in his right foot which required three surgical procedures. Anthony was limited to 40 games because of a knee injury.
In other news around the Western Conference:
- Not many people think Mike Conley will leave next summer, when he’s set to hit free agency, according to TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Marc Gasol hinted last month that Conley assured him he’ll be just as committed to the Grizzlies as Gasol was during his free agency process this year.
- Former Clippers owner Donald Sterling has filed a lawsuit against V. Stiviano and the website TMZ over the infamous recording made by Stiviano that led to the sale of the team, Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reports. Sterling and his attorneys maintain the recording in which Sterling made racist remarks was obtained illegally and without his knowledge, Woike adds. Sterling has also filed a $1 billion federal suit against the league.
- The league has pushed back its schedule release from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).
If Conley becomes next year’s version of Marc Gasol, next year’s free agent class would take a serious hit. There aren’t too many big names outside of Kevin Durant, unless LeBron decides to truly put himself in play, which is a long shot.