The Knicks were not prepared to present Kevin Durant will a full-max contract offer, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Owner Jim Dolan had concerns about Durant’s Achilles injury.
New York now has Julius Randle locked in on a three-year deal. The Knicks were long rumored to be the favorite for Durant’s services, though rumblings began to surface during the postseason that the Nets were contenders. Durant will take his talents to the other side of the Williamsburg Bridge.
[RELATED: Kevin Durant To Sign With Nets]
Durant and his business manager Rich Kleiman met with the Warriors GM Bob Myers today and delivered his decision to leave Golden State, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com relays via Twitter. The remainder of the contenders were informed later on in the day and Woj adds that the teams feel Durant handled the process well.
Durant’s deal with the Nets could end up being a sign-and-trade, Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
There’s no word on whether the Warriors would want a player back or simply to open up a $30MM trade exception (as CBA rules state the amount would be his previous salary). Golden State could then absorb a player in a trade without having to worry about matching salary. Such an arrangement would likely involve the Warriors including an asset, as the Nets could easily carve out the required cap room to sign Durant outright.
Knicks gonna Knicks
No doubt. Flat out absurd they wouldn’t offer him a max contract. They have so much cap space.
Exactly, enough for 2 max contracts but like he said, Knicks gonna Knicks. Id really hate to be a Knicks fan
Chris, what’s the latest on Klay ???
Klay is staying in GS!!! Already agreed on max terms
Bahahaha!!!!!
Insane. Knicks have money to burn, but won’t risk a max contract for Durant?!
My guess is that the Knicks didn’t want him without Irving. That’s the only logical basis for this stupid decision.
Wait, so is this insinuating the Knicks could have had Durant, of they offered max? If so…wow
I think he wanted to team up with Kyrie and Kyrie was going to the Nets all along so maybe there wasn’t really a chance ?
When you’ve been this dysfunctional you gotta offer the max just to justify KD coming there. I thought the Knicks were gonna fumble this free agency somehow but not because they didn’t put money on the table, sheesh.
So when you’re seen as dysfunctional, the remedy is offer a max deal to a guy who just tore his achilles and won’t even play this season, a guy who may never be at 100% again? Man, you Knicks haters are so ridiculous.
I understand the Knicks here. Sure most don’t agree with me but they’ve been burned by signing guys with injury history before or guys coming off injuries so didn’t want to risk him not ever coming back to himself after such a bad injury where it’s not even certain he comes back to being himself but I also think it was a bad move by then to at least not try. I understand it just don’t agree with is what I’m saying. Sure it’s easy when it’s not your money but they can’t throw that kind of money around then he doesn’t come back to being himself and have the backlash of another dud signing like the past. That’s just my opinion. Most people won’t agree but that’s fine lol. I think the Nets are taking a big risk. You got Irving who doesn’t do well with young teams or didn’t with the Celtics at least and then KD is out all year and you don’t even know if he comes back to being himself. That’s a major risk in my opinion. I’m pulling for them and hope it pays off but it’s still a major gamble I feel like.
I agree with you. The only thing I wonder about… if the Knicks were NOT prepared to offer a max contract, did they honestly think they had a shot at signing him?
I think they’d have to be crazy to think they had a shot at him while not offering him a max contract, unless they were offering something less of max money while he rehabbed but a talent like him there is no way he would go for less than max. I understand them being cautious but still think they made a mistake not going hard after him. I felt like he was theirs to lose.
You think they should have offered the max to Durant. That is not the unpopular opinion.
Likely BS. Mills is a PR guy (certainly not a BB guy), and likes floating stories to enhance his narratives, which serve only to cover for his incompetence. Just like with KP trade, they’ll be 3 or 4 explanations as to why what happened is good for the Knicks and they (the Stooges) did the right thing.
Reported for months that the Knicks didn’t want KI by himself (which I found difficult to imagine, but the stories were more credible).
So once again they are settling for the lower end players. They always blowing smoke up peoples ass lol
Count on Dolan to screw it up!
Chris Crouse, FYI, your Williamsburg Bridge reference makes no sense. Barclays is nowhere near that bridge. The other side of Manhattan or Brooklyn bridges would be more accurate.
This is why the Knicks have sucked under Dolan. Give money to some guys, who may deserve it, but not to stars that could alter the team in a positive way. James Dolan has never made a right move in 20 years of ownership. He should sell the team.
KD left a max deal of 221 mil over 4 years to go to the Mets. Doesn’t make sense got a 98% of going to the finals with GS and you leave when you and the warriors are upset by the Raptors.