The Los Angeles Lakers should be the first option for Kevin Durant when he becomes a free-agent in the summer of 2016, a veteran NBA writer stated in a recent interview.
Durant, who current contract will expire two seasons from now, has been mentioned in several scenarios, pre-dominantly a potential return to Washington DC as a member of the Wizards.
However, according to New York Post columnist Peter Vecsey, the Lakers should be a more attractive destination for Durant than the Wizards because of the franchise ability to give a more lucrative deal for the reigning NBA MVP, not to mention the vast opportunity to earn more money off the court in Hollywood.
"I say if Durant goes anywhere I look for him to go to the Lakers because they're going to have a tremendous amount of money to give him," Vecsey said in an interview on CLNS Radio.
With Kobe's massive two-year, $48.5 million deal expiring at the end of the 2015-16 season, the Lakers will have a ton of cap room to spend for max contract players in that year.
"Kobe will be on the way out at that point and they won't have anybody. A guy like him might want to start with the Lakers, or maybe he might want to go a team where he can win a championship."
Vecsey was not the first one who shared an opinion about the Lakers being a major force in signing Durant in 2016. Veteran NBA writer Chris Sheridan, the founder and editor-in-chief of Sheridan Hoops, also believed the purple-and-gold franchise is very much in the mix for Durant, despite a strong pitch to play home with the Washington Wizards.
"I don't think you can really say that," Sheridan said of two-team race between the Wizards and Thunder. "Look, the Los Angeles Lakers is going to have a ton of cap room when Kobe Bryant's contract expires after the 2015-16 season. So you're not going to know the NBA landscape two years from now, much less one year from now."
Durant bagged his first career NBA MVP award after averaing 32.0 points, 5.5 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game. With Russell Westbrook sidelined for most of the season with injuries, Durant carried the Thunder to the second best record in the Western Conference before they were eliminated in the conference finals by the eventual NBA champion the San Antonio Spurs in six games.
Meanwhile, the Lakers are on a hard rebuild. They acquired Carlos Boozer, Jeremy Lin and Ed Davis and drafted Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson to join Bryant, Steve Nash and several holdovers from the 2013-14 season.
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