Talk all you want about his free agency, but Kevin Durant's got games to win
— -- WASHINGTON D.C. -- Ask Kevin Durant and you get an answer about focusing on the present. Ask Billy Donovan and you get an answer about how he's only thinking of how he can help Durant get better. Ask general manager Sam Presti and you get more of the same.
Durant is going to be a free agent next summer, if you hadn't heard. And while the organization isn't "burying their heads in the sand," as Presti said in October, there is a season to play first. Both Durant and the team have aced avoiding distractions about it thus far, keeping the conversation on the floor for the most part.
But even with free agency some eight months and at the very least still 75 games away for Durant, that storyline will come into full focus, at least for a night at the Verizon Center on Tuesday. There will be jerseys, there will be signs, there will be chants. The free agency hype beast can't be stopped. It will be front and center, with nowhere to hide from it.
Going home?
The Wizards are perceived to be a front-runner for Durant -- though it's still a bit mystifying as to why -- but the Thunder's star forward didn't especially appreciate the reception he received last season when he visited in January.
"It was cool to see all my family there, but if our team did that to somebody coming in our arena, I wouldn't like it," Durant said Monday. "So, I didn't really like it. We played a really good team in the Wizards, a great team with great young talent and a good coach. I think that was disrespectful."
It's natural to link Durant to the Wizards. He grew up in the area and roots for non-basketball D.C. sports teams. (Plus, LeBron James went back to Cleveland so therefore Durant is going to do the same thing, right?) Certainly the Wizards should be interested, and went as far to not give Bradley Beal an extension this fall so as to maintain as much flexibility as possible next summer. They have an intriguing young core, play in the Eastern Conference and have begun to turn a positive corner, starting with last season's team that made it to the second round of the playoffs.
Durant's current team, though, is considered a sure-fire title contender. In fact, they have been the past five seasons (when he's been healthy). They've scratched at the breakthrough moment, going to three conference finals and one NBA Finals, experiencing promising seasons derailed by untimely injuries.
But with Durant available to be recruited after this season, there's a feeling of "this is it" for the Thunder. This is their final shot, it's title-or-bust in the most important campaign in franchise history. Win it all, or else. Raise a banner, or risk Durant leaving.
Hold on.
Obviously, yes, winning a title greatly improves the Thunder's chances of keeping Durant. But in a story that is basically one big unknown, there's a certain irrationality of placing all the decision eggs into a one-season basket. There's more to it than one isolated season, both in the look forward, and the look back.
There's a general narrative that's been built that the Thunder's recent roster moves -- trading for Dion Waiters, trading for and re-signing Enes Kanter to a max-level deal that's plunged the franchise deep into the luxury tax -- are "all-in" decisions based around Durant's future.
In the Thunder's view, that's the wrong perspective to take. "All-in" would suggest this season carries a higher level of importance than the season after, or the season after. And from their seat, those moves, adding a couple under-25, talented-but-flawed players, says the Thunder are placing more weight on the next five seasons than this current upcoming one.
Because that is what will re-sign Kevin Durant, not a one-season snapshot of success or failure. It's the following five and what kind of team will be around him then. When Durant's a free agent, the core he's been with -- Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka -- still will be under 28 years old. The bulk of the remaining roster will be 25 or under. They're confident they're going to keep Durant. And they want to be sure to have ready made the kind of team he wants to play on.
While it's a convenient angle to build on emphasizing a win-or-else mentality, Durant's perspective always has been one of patience, and of process. Nothing he's said has raised the level of urgency of the front office. And no, the Thunder are not following the paths of Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, and trading Durant.
"Any good thing takes time," Durant said last week. "In this league we always talk about windows. You usually give teams two or three years. This is what you have for two or three years. If you don't get it done, then you're moving on. A lot of the good teams in our league, they stick together, keep fighting and keep building that chemistry and experience together."