Pacific Notes: Durant, Green, Rivers

The Lakers may not be a real contender to sign Kevin Durant should he decide to leave Oklahoma City in free agency due to the lack of talent on their roster, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports in a session on Fox Sports Radio (h/t to Adrian Hasenmayer of Fox Sports). Wojnarowski adds that the Warriors have Durant’s attention and they remain a threat to steal him away from the Thunder, supplementing an earlier report that the Warriors would be “significant” front-runners to sign Durant should he leave the team.

Big-name free agents, including Durant, don’t care about whether a team has high-value assets such as top draft picks or young prospects because those are not going to help a team win a championship right away. If Durant is going to leave Oklahoma City, it’s going to be for a place that can win a championship and part of his criteria will be whether the destination is good enough to beat top teams, like the Warriors, with him on it, sources tell Wojnarowski.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

• Executive/coach Doc Rivers believes the addition of Jeff Green gives the Clippers a fighting chance against the top teams in the Western Conference, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes. “When you look at the teams we have to beat, we need to get longer, more athletic, and we need to increase our shooting,” Rivers said. “And I think with Jeff we did all three of those things.
• The Clippers could get Austin Rivers, who has been sidelined with a broken left hand, back on the court in less than two weeks, Dan Woike of the Orange County Register tweets.
• With Markieff Morris out of the picture, the Suns can finally start to build for the future, Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic argues. Bickley believes the Suns should acquire players who resonate with the community, similar to how other professional franchises in Phoenix have done.