Despite the achilles injury and surgery that has led to questions about what his future might hold, Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant is doing the unexpected and choosing to hit unrestricted free agency. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Durant will decline the hefty player option that would keep him with Golden State for one more year and test the market.
Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant has declined his $31.5M player option and will become an unrestricted free agent, league sources tell ESPN. Durant and his business manager Rich Kleiman are in New York, evaluating free agency options. So far, process has stayed private.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2019
It’s a bit of a unique situation, because while he suffered a ruptured achilles tendon in the NBA Finals, there have been rumblings that Durant will still command max contract offers from teams that were interested in him before he went down. This include the Warriors, who will reportedly put a five-year max deal on the table for Durant. Still, opting into the final year of his deal was considered a “last resort,” as Wojnarowski has previously said that even a short-term deal as he works to recover from surgery would give him more money than the $31.5 million on his contract.
Durant’s name has popped up in relation to most of the teams with gobs of cash to spend this summer, most notably the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. Signing him to a huge deal features a decent amount of risk, both because of the history of players who suffered this injury and because he’s expected to basically redshirt the 2019-20 campaign. But he’s still Kevin Durant, and in the event he’s able to get back to something resembling the level he played at before the injury, he’s one of the best basketball players on earth. Now, the question becomes whether he’ll head back to the Bay Area, or switch teams for the third time in his career.
