Is Kevin Durant a Possibility For the Charlotte Hornets?

With the NBA’s free agency period fast approaching, one of the best players in the world in Kevin Durant is set to be a free agent. Is he a possibility for the Charlotte Hornets?

Oklahoma City Thunder small forward, Kevin Durant, is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer and nearly every team in the NBA will be trying to sign him. There will be over 20 teams with enough cap space to sign KD this off-season. The Charlotte Hornets will be one of those teams.

Even with so many teams interested in him, there are only a few favorites that will likely get a real crack at Durant. The front-runners have been named in OKC, the Golden State Warriors, the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat, and the Atlanta Hawks. Many other teams haven’t been rumored to be on Kevin’s radar as potential landing spots go.

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Although it doesn’t seem likely that the Charlotte Hornets would go after KD, it could be a possibility. Maybe he is done with OKC and he is looking to move to the Eastern Conference. You would have to think the team at least makes a call to gauge Durant’s interest. You never know what could happen in free agency.

After all, the Hornets will have a lot of money to spend this off-season with a number of their players being free agents. Small forward/shooting guard, Nicolas Batum, is an unrestricted free agent for Charlotte and it is becoming more and more likely that he will quickly re-sign with the team on a max contract. If this happens then there will be no chance to sign Durant.

Kevin averaged 28.2 points per game, 8.2 rebounds per game, and 5.0 assists per game last season. He shot 50.5% from the field and 38.6% from the three-point line. He played in 72 games this past year after only playing in 27 games two years ago due to injuries. KD proved that he was back at the top of his game and that he will surely command a big contract this summer.

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All signs point to Durant singing a two-year deal this off-season with a player option for the second year. If he does this, then he will be able to opt-out after the first season and sign a five-year max contract in 2017. This would earn KD more than $30 million.

With the salary cap set to jump up more than $20 million this in each of the next two off-seasons, team’ will be dishing out a ridiculous amount of money to a number of players. If the Charlotte Hornets were able to somehow lure Durant to their team, it may hurt them in the long run.

Batum and the rest of the team had an amazing season this past year and they all seemed to gain some great chemistry together. Adding Durant to the mix would be great but it would also hurt the Hornets’ chances of re-signing key players like Jeremy Lin, Marvin Williams, and Courtney Lee. KD is also more of an isolation scorer, which isn’t a bad thing, but Charlotte is more of a team oriented offense that uses the strengths of every player.

It would be super amazing and fun to see Durant in purple and teal but frankly, it isn’t realistic. Plus that one guy that sat courtside in Charlotte when they played the Thunder, probably upset KD. That fan, if you can remember, touched/pushed Kevin and started saying things to him which led to him getting a red card from security in Time Warner Cable Arena.

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It is very unlikely that Durant will sign with the Charlotte Hornets but it is fun to speculate. Signing KD could actually hurt the team more than help it because while he is a great player, it wouldn’t leave the team with a lot of money to sign other quality players around him. Their best bet is to re-sign Nic Batum and build on the success that they had last season.