How does Kevin Durant feel about taking a pay cut?
That’s apparently an important question for the Los Angeles Clippers, who, according to Dan Woike of the Orange Country Register, will try to sell Durant on joining Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul in Hollywood:
The Clippers are scheduled to meet with free-agency’s top prize on the first full day of free agency (Friday) in New York, sending Coach Doc Rivers and owner Steve Ballmer to try and pitch the former MVP.
While all options will be discussed, the Clippers are expected to a highlight a scenario in which Durant would sign a deal to play alongside Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin.
To make the most competitive offer possible, the Clippers would have to trade J.J. Redick, Paul Pierce and C.J. Wilcox and renounce the rights to first-round pick Brice Johnson and all of their own free agents.
This, apparently, is code for “KD would have to accept a pay cut to join the Clippers.”
Even if the Clippers trade the rest of their roster without taking any money back in return, they still have more than $64 million committed to their Big Three. That’s $30 million below the cap line, and theoretically enough to cover his max salary. But the minimum roster charges that would be placed on the Clippers’ books due to their lack of personnel would leave them with less than $26 million in room.
That still might be enough to entice Durant. At the same time, while a core of Durant, Griffin, Jordan and Paul is ridiculously intriguing, it won’t be enough on its own. Filling out the rest of the roster with minimum deals wouldn’t give them the depth necessary to overthrow the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs or Cleveland Cavaliers.
If the Clippers, then, really want to make room for Durant, they’ll have to deal one member of their Big Three. Well that, or they need to hope he signs a one-plus-one deal to stay in Oklahoma City and explores free agency again in 2017.
