The Summer of KD is nearly in full swing, with just days remaining before free agency opens and Kevin Durant officially hits the open market. Among the teams with which he’ll be meeting are the Warriors and the Thunder, widely disseminated by basketball Twitter as the favorites, as well as the Spurs, Heat, Celtics, Clippers and — as has been a yearly custom — the Knicks will actually get a stab at him. Can you guess what differentiates the Knicks from every other team on that list? They didn’t make the playoffs last year! So how did they get in there?
For the Knicks and their fans, the self-important answer is, “Because this is New York!” More likely is that KD is friends with Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, who is trying to make the most of that friendship:
Carmelo Anthony tells ESPN that his recruitment of Kevin Durant has already begun, saying: "We've been together. We've been talking."
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 27, 2016
KD and ‘Melo will be on the Olympic roster together, so if Durant hasn’t made up his mind at that point (highly doubtful), consider that a fun little sideshow to Rio.
You can debate the merits of the Knicks’ deal to get Derrick Rose in exchange for Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant, but it’s inarguable that it made the team look superficially more like a team with veteran star talent. Hey, Rose is a former MVP — those bona fides could matter more to a player than an amateur GM who sees Rose’s expiring deal and wonders if the Knicks will have to let Rose go to a better offer after a season anyway if he finally returns to form. If Kevin Durant, against the internet’s consensus, does join the Knicks, the trade will most definitely have been worth it.
Of course, if KD and ‘Melo are friends, it would be only polite for Durant to smile and nod at Anthony’s repeated entreaties before going off and doing his own thing anyway. It’s still the most likely scenario at this point.
