A little bit of serendipity, along with two key hires, has the Washington Wizards looking like a more attractive option for Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant to consider in free agency 2016.
The Wizards are Durant's home town team, and they're expected to go all-out for the reigning MVP in the summer of 2016. More and more, D.C. appears to be becoming a more attractive destination for him. The latest thing to make Washington more appealing to Durant, as pointed out by BulletsForever.com, was the Redskins' reported signing of defensive tackle Terrance Knighton. Although the move had nothing to do with Durant, it does bode well for the Wizards: Knighton and Durant are close friends.
"We instantly clicked, and for me, I'm not used to just clicking with someone that easily," Durant told the Denver Post in December. "So I could tell he was a special person. Everything he's doing right now, he deserves it, so I'm happy for him."
The Post reported Durant and Knighton often exchange text messages, and Knighton even visited Durant last season in Oklahoma City and ended up playing a one-on-one game with him.
One of Durant's close friends now likely living in D.C. - at least for one season - was pure serendipity for the Wizards, who already seem to be making moves in preparation to lure Durant in free agency. The Wizards have a competitive team with a talented young backcourt in John Wall and Bradley Beal, and the Washington Post reported in February the team already had an eye to Durant's free agency and was only making roster moves that'd keep enough cap space open in 2016 to sign him.
The Wizards also hired rapper Wale, another one of Durant's friends, in October as the team's "creative liaison." They also hired one of Durant's former high school coaches, David Atkins, as a player development assistant in July. According to ESPN's Jeff Goodman, Durant and Atkins are very close.
Durant hasn't given any indication of what he plans to do in 2016, neither ruling out nor committing to re-signing with Oklahoma City.
