Pressure On OKC Thunder To Win Title With Kevin Durant Free Agency In 2016

Kevin Durant still has two years left in his contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder but the team is already anticipating that a number of suitors will be aggressively pursuing the best pure scorer in the NBA today. OKC’s reply is simple: do everything to keep KD in Oklahoma by surrounding him with top talent and battle consistently for the NBA title.

"We know it's there, and we are looking forward to it — the opportunity to re-sign a legacy player — especially when you consider where our team could be at that point, with two more years of experience and cohesion and taking that into account," Sam Presti, general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder, said via USA TODAY Sports.

Presti might not admit it directly but losing the superstar in Kevin Durant is a possibility especially with the recent turn of events in the NBA landscape in recent years.

In 2010, a free agent LeBron James “took his talents” to the Miami Heat to jilt the team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, that drafted him in 2003. For seven years, the Cavaliers built around James and was enough to be called title contenders in some of those years but failed to win an NBA title.

Durant is now entering his seventh season with the Thunder and Presti knows a championship is one of the major factors that will convince KD to stay in OKC. An empty campaign without a title in the next two years could be costly for the small market franchise.

"We have to honor the season in front of us, because we have a tremendous opportunity to win right now and continue to build the tradition of the Thunder. We are fortunate to be in this position, and we want to capture and respect this moment,” Presti said in the same article referencing to the eventual Kevin Durant free agency after two seasons.

For his part, Durant was generally noncommittal to his future in OKC saying that he’s taking it “day-by-day” although he added, as good teammates do, that he likes the direction where the team is going.

“And whatever the future holds, I don’t know, because I can’t tell you the future,” Durant said.

Durant had one of the best seasons in his career last season averaging 32.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in the regular season won the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the first time in his career.

However, Durant and the Thunder came up short once again in the postseason losing to the eventual champions San Antonio Spurs in six games in the Western Conference Finals.

Will Durant stay in Oklahoma City when his contract with the team expires after the 2016 season?

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