5 teams who must work overtime to keep Kevin Durant away from Luka, LeBron, and the Lakers this summer

The Kevin Durant era in Phoenix has been a waste. The Suns haven’t won anything since they turned to the Brooklyn Nets for a blockbuster deal to acquire the future Hall of Fame forward. 

When the Suns gave up essentially all of their future picks for the next six years at the time, they wanted to win a championship. Truthfully, with a core of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Durant, they should have figured it out. 

Three coaches later, the Suns came out significantly worse than the Nets. With Durant’s tenure falling flat in Phoenix, it should not be a surprise to see him force his way out once again and land on a true contending team.

There’s speculation that the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are all interested in luring Durant. For the sake of the league, every other team should make sure Durant doesn’t end up with Luka Doncic and LeBron James in LA.

Here’s who should be extremely aggressive in finding a way to get a deal done to not just keep Durant away from the Lakers, but also put themselves in the driver seat of becoming championship contenders. 

5 teams who must work overtime to keep Kevin Durant away from Luka, LeBron, and the Lakers this summer

5) Memphis Grizzlies

It feels like the Memphis Grizzlies are another star away from becoming serious contenders in the Western conference. The only problem I have with this is that Durant hasn’t had a fully healthy season since his days in Oklahoma City. 

And he’s had just three seasons of 70 or more games played since 2015-16, his final season with the Thunder. The last thing the Grizzlies need is a player with health issues. They already have Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr, who have had their fair share of injuries throughout their career. 

It would probably take Desmond Bane, G.G. Jackson and quite a bit of draft capital to pull off. But if the Grizzlies wanted to cement themselves in the thick of the western conference race, Durant might be the final piece. 

The Grizzlies’ biggest problem this season is losing to the good teams. They have no problem defeating the inferior teams, though. This year, they have a 13-19 record against teams with a record above .500. That changes drastically to 25-5 to teams with a record below .500. 

With Durant, they could figure out a way to win against those better opponents, but it comes at the cost of potentially having availability issues. It’s something the Grizzlies will have to figure out. 

They’ve done a good job drafting that they have some players and draft capital they could offload for the chance to become a serious contender in the West. 

4) Houston Rockets

Much like the Memphis Grizzlies, the Houston Rockets have been a team that looks like it's ready to contend in the west. The good thing about the Rockets is they’re young. The downside is the potential of their roster would have to be offloaded to bring in Durant. 

I don’t think the Rockets have to be aggressive, rather just feel out and see what the Suns would want in return. My guess is they’d favor draft capital over more players. This also feels like if they part with Durant, they may just implode the whole thing. 

In that case, acquiring players would be less of a priority. The fact of the matter is the Suns haven’t won with a core of three players that’s eating up $150 million in cap space. If they can’t turn it around this year, getting rid of everybody might be the best move. 

Either way, the Rockets have at least one more year to figure out how they will contend in the west so they should consider going after Durant, but not give away too much in hopes that they could win right away. 

3) San Antonio Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs might have the most leverage of any team to lure Durant. They have Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and a young enough core to put it all together. They started to show signs of turning the corner with Wemby. 

Now with Fox in the mix, a core of Durant, Wemby and Fox could absolutely contend in the west. The good thing with that is, the Spurs could manage to win now before Wemby’s due for his first contract and not feel obligated to keep Durant around. 

The good thing with this move is Durant wouldn’t have to be the focal point of the offense. And when you have two seven-footers on the same team, it typically ends up being ideal for you. The Spurs could have that. 

The only issue I can think of is that Wemby and Durant are primary scorers. The Golden State Warriors were able to make it work with Steph Curry and Durant. I’m not sure how that would look with Wemby or Durant taking a secondary role. 

That said, this has much more upside than the fiasco with the Suns. The Spurs could go from having a lottery pick to possibly returning to the NBA Finals. 

2) Detroit Pistons

Like the Spurs, the Detroit Pistons have a young core. And this year, the Pistons proved they’re ready to take the turn and become a strong team in the east. That said, they would either have to overspend to convince the Suns to send Durant or they’d be so unhealthy it would be a waste. 

This season is the healthiest the Pistons have been since acquiring all their young talent and they’re still without Jaden Ivey right now. It may not be worth giving up on their youth for Durant. I could see a play to go after Booker, though. 

That said, the Pistons need a solid veteran and now that they’re turning that corner, it could be a little more attractive to play in Detroit again. Durant would fit well with the Pistons right now. 

Cade Cunningham has taken on the role of providing the offense with a great supporting cast. If he could reduce his scoring role to Durant and continue to be that true point guard, it might be what takes the Pistons to the next level. 

This one is tricky though. The Pistons have the capital to make it work as well as young, tradeable players. But they also run the risk of giving up a lot when it may not pan out the way they want. 

1) Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder might be forced to go in on a Durant-type player this offseason if they don’t reach the NBA Finals. They very much should have made it out of the West last season, but ran into a Luka Doncic-led Dallas team that stormed through the conference. 

They won’t have that this year, and the core around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is enough to get them there this year. Only the Lakers have more pressure to get to the Finals this season and the two could very well meet for a Western Conference Finals showdown. 

The Thunder have the players and the draft capital to pull off just about any move they want. If they come up short of an NBA title, let alone missing the Finals, they should do everything they can to negotiate a trade to bring Durant home. 

This could be Durant’s only time to deliver the team that drafted him a championship. The Seattle SuperSonics moved to OKC the year after drafting Durant. He might be hated for how he left and then subsequently running to the Golden State Warriors. 

But if the Thunder truly want to win the championship that’s eluded them since relocating to the midwest, Durant may be their only way. Unless they win a championship this season, then they can feast on the top draft picks while remaining championship contenders.