NBA: Filling out our 2019 free agency superlatives
By Ethan Becker
The completely unexpected move: Kevin Durant, Golden State Warriors
People seem to forget that Durant isn’t technically a free agent this year. He has a player option left on his contract and most people just assume that he isn’t going to accept it. And before the playoffs started, that may have seemed reasonable. However, the dynamic has changed now.
Durant suffered a nagging calf injury in the second round of the playoffs and, when he returned in game 5 of the NBA finals, he elevated the injury to a torn Achilles. Often a death knell for NBA careers, it’s so sad to see a player just entering his prime fall to this injury. Already, Durant is slated to miss most, if not all, of the next season, and his value on the open market has dropped; and it will probably stay down until he proves that he can still play at a level comparable to his previous self.
Because of this, it isn’t totally unreasonable to think that Durant might opt-in to his player option, take the $31 million this year to recover and rebuild his game, and then hit the open market next season as a big question mark.
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It’s not a totally unique perspective to say that this injury changed the free agency landscape, in fact most places see it that way, but the Achilles tear may have just given us what is always a fun and interesting move to talk about over the summer, and if he plays his cards right, Durant may still end the summer as the biggest headline.