NBA Rumors: According to a report, Kevin Durant is expected to miss the entire 2019-20 season, which could complicate his free agency
Kevin Durant‘s miraculous return to the floor in Game 5 of the NBA Finals lasted roughly 12 minutes before he ruptured his Achilles tendon. The Golden State Warriors did enough to extend the Finals to a Game 6 but lost Durant for the foreseeable future.
How long? Well, for the past day and a half it was pretty much anyone’s best guess. However, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Durant is expected to miss the entire 2019-20 season. Which, as you would expect, could complicate his free agency.
Barring something unforeseen taking place, the expectation is that Durant will still opt out of the final year of his contract and hit the open free agency market this summer. There will be plenty of teams interested, despite the fact that he suffered arguably the worst injury an NBA player could endure.
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It’s been a career ender in the past and, at the very least, a career changer. The hope is that Kevin Durant could be the exception, but that’s also not entirely fair to expect to happen. It’s going to be interesting to see how all this transpires over the next few days and coming weeks.
There’s no question that this injury will throw a curve in this summer. With what was shaping up to be a chaotic summer for many teams just took another curveball.
Will there be any teams that blink at the possibility that they could be giving Durant a max deal, by taking the risk of him missing all of next season and then not knowing whether he’ll ever be the same player again?
Will Durant decide to opt into the final year of his contract with the Warriors and push his free agency back by one year, hoping that he could possibly return sooner and prove that he could bounce back?
The NBA’s offseason hasn’t even technically started, and there are already many talking points getting started. Buckle in, and enjoy what is expected to be an explosive NBA summer.