Kevin Durant's list of suitors in 2016 reportedly will include the Houston Rockets, the Dallas Mavericks and the Washington Wizards. While the speculation continues to heat up about where Durant will sign as a free agent in two years, the Oklahoma City Thunder star has been mum about his future plans.
Any team who thinks they have a chance of landing Durant will make a run at him in 2016. The earliest indications seem to suggest Durant will land in Washington if he doesn't re-sign with Oklahoma City. While Durant hasn't tipped his hat one way or the other, Grantland's Zach Lowe believes Dallas and Houston could toss their names into the sweepstakes.
Per Lowe:
"The Texas teams will take their shot if they hear the right intel, and Durant's hometown Wizards are biding their time in the easier conference. That intel is all over the place, by the way. Some teams are optimistic it will be open season, and others have heard rumblings that Durant has already made it known it will come down to the Thunder and Wizards. Nobody really knows.
"There is also the wild-card possibility that Durant signs a one-year deal so he can enter free agency again in the summer of 2017 - when he'll have 10 years of experience, and thus be eligible for a larger max contract."
ESPN's Marc Stein also reported Houston would pursue Durant as a free agent.
Durant, who's been out all season with an injured foot, has mostly shrugged off the speculation. His latest remarks on his impending free agency indicated the Thunder are still very much in the runner to re-sign him.
"I really haven't thought about that, to be honest. I hear it a lot," Durant said Tuesday of potentially signing with Washington in 2016, via ESPN. "But I think I can make an impact on the community I grew up in from anywhere. So I think I'm doing a good job of that in Oklahoma. My friends, my family, the kids in my neighborhood are seeing that. I'm inspiring them from Oklahoma City.
"I really haven't thought about it. I love where I am. I know that sounds cliché and the answer everybody gives, but that's really true from my side of it. I'm sure everybody's watching from afar."
