Where will Durant go?

WILL Kevin Durant be the next NBA star to visit Manila following retired Kobe Bryant’s “Mamba Mentality” tour held here over the weekend?
Durant, who has donned the colors of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the past nine seasons (starting in 2007-08 with the Seattle SuperSonics, the harbinger of OKC) will embark on a Far East tour on July 9.
The 6-9, 27-year-old Durant, who visited Manila along with other NBA stars visited Manila in 2011 during an NBA lockout to play against the Philippine national team bound for the FIBA Asia Championship, is eligible for unrestricted free agency on July 1, meaning he can sign elsewhere without the Thunder getting any compensation.
The Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, OKC’s top rivals in the West, are his most ardent suitors although the Washington, D.C. native is expected to re-sign a two-year deal with the Thunder with an opt-out clause after one season, enabling him again to become a free agent in 2017 where he can realign with OKC teammate Russell Westbrook (who himself becomes a free agent in the summer of 2017) for any NBA destination they desire.
From $70 million this season, the NBA salary cap will skyrocket to $94 million (higher than the earlier estimates) per team in 2016-17 when the NBA’s national television deals worth $24 billion over nine years kick in.
There’s more money for a team to dip its hands in the free-agent market and players also want to have a slice of the monstrous NBA financial pie.
If some players decide to opt out of the final year of their contracts with their current teams to become free agents this summer, it does not necessarily mean that money has become “everything” to them, the quest for an NBA title ring has been abandoned or they no longer have any love for their current employers.
The opt-outs are simply salary-cap tactics to enhance a player’s chances of getting a bigger contract this summer.
Those who have declined a player option in the final year of their contracts (or plan to do so) before June 30 include LeBron James (who is certain to turn down the $24 million option on his two-year, $47-million deal to get a long-term, more lucrative agreement with the Cavaliers) and J.R. Smith (confirmed, declining to pick up $5.3 million option that is only partially guaranteed) of Cleveland, Tim Duncan (who is expected to forfeit the $5.4 million in the second year of his two-year, $10.4-million deal), Manu Ginobili (confirmed, giving up final year worth $2.9 million) and David West of San Antonio, Dirk Nowitzki (confirmed, giving up the final year of his three-year, $24-million pact worth $8.7 million) of Dallas, DeMar DeRozan (confirmed of Toronto, and Dwight Howard (confirmed, giving up the final year of his four-year deal worth $23.2 million) of Houston.
Durant, Miami’s Hassan Whiteside and Dwyane Wade, Dallas’s Chandler Parsons, Memphis’s Mike Conley, Charlotte’s Nicolas Batum, Al Jefferson and Jeremy Lin, Toronto’s Bismack Biyombo and DeMar DeRozan, the LA Lakers’ Roy Hibbert,Chicago’s Pau Gasol and Joachim Noah, New orleans’ s Ryan Anderson (who missed the Pelicans’ final 14 games in 2015-16) and Sacramento’s Rajon Rondo are the prominent free agents whose contracts are to expire on June 30.
Restricted free agents whose contracts expire on June 30 include Golden State’s Harrison Barnes, Detroit’s Andre Drummond, Washington’s Bradley Beal and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jordan Clarkson.
Restricted free agents can sign an offer sheet with other teams but their current employer can match the offer in five days under the right-of-first-refusal rule and retain their services.
From $70 million this past season, the NBA salary cap will skyrocket to $94 million per team in 2016-17 and around $110 million in 2017-18 due to the NBA’s new national television deals totaling $24 billion over nine years.
No fewer than 15 teams are expected to have at least $20 million in salary-cap space as the first year of inflated salary caps fueled by the revenues from the new TV deals takes effect.
The Los Angeles Lakers have as much as $60 million in cap room to offer maximum contracts to a pair of top-level free agents following the retirement of Kobe Bryant and the extinguishment of his monstrous two-year, $48.5-million pact off the team’s cap books.
Last campaign, the 37-year-old Bryant bankrolled a guaranteed $25 million – the sixth consecutive year that he topped the NBA on the salary charts.
According to Forbes Magazine, Bryant made $680 million in career earnings from product endorsements and NBA salary with the Lakers from 1996-97 to 2015-16 that gave him the distinction of being the first and only player in NBA annals to play 20 straight seasons with one team during an entire career.
The 40-year-old Tim Duncan will join Kobe on that list if he returns to the San Antonio Spurs in 2016-17 for a 20th season with the Alamo City outfit. The 38-year-old German Dirk Nowitzki also is on track to play a 19th straight season with the Dallas Mavericks in October.
Forbes said that Bryant’s “total earnings is the most ever by a team athlete during their playing career.”
Without Howard, the Houston Rockets have $45 million in cap money while the Boston Celtics have $35 million to burn on free agents.
In snaring the franchise’s first-ever title since joining the NBA in 1970-71, the Cleveland Cavaliers spent more than $160 million in player salaries and luxury taxes (for exceeding not only the salary cap but also the cap threshold) this past season.
It was the second-highest expenditure in NBA history, topped only by the more than $197 million that the Brooklyn Nets shelled out for player payroll and luxury taxes (a record $90.57 million) in 2013-14.