Lakers Free Agency Targets: Kevin Durant Wants to Be Courted

Lakers free agency target Kevin Durant wants to be ‘courted’ on the open market

There are a seemingly countless number of NBA players that the Los Angeles Lakers can, will, or should target in 2016 NBA free agency given the team’s cap-room and abundant needs. However, there’s no question that Kevin Durant is at the top of that list for the Lakers and for essentially any team with the financial ability to sign him to a max contract.

Given the luster—no matter how much it’s dimmed in recent years—of the Lakers name and organization, there’s a belief among fans that they have a legitimate shot of getting him. Various reports from around the league indicate the same thing, that LA is one of the possible destinations for Durant. If that’s to ultimately be the case, though, it’s going to take some “courting.”

According to a report from Chris Mannix of The Vertical, Durant wants to be “courted” and for teams to treat him like “the biggest free-agent prize since LeBron James” back in 2010. Mannix also added in something that feels noteworthy that Durant almost definitely won’t be announcing where he signs on Twitter like he did when he re-signed with Oklahoma City for his second NBA contract.

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Though the Lakers will surely have to put together a better presentation than the now-infamous one that they gave to LaMarcus Aldridge in the summer of 2015 that lacked any emphasis on analytics, this report that Durant wants to essentially be wooed and treated like a big deal are quite favorable in regards to the prospects of him signing in Los Angeles.

For all of the Lakers faults as an organization in recent years, they undoubtedly know how to create a buzz and a spectacle. If it’s to feel important and to feel like a major deal, the Lakers would unquestionable have no problem with obliging and also have no trouble pulling it off in a city like LA.

There is so much buzz about Durant and where he might end up every single day around the NBA that it’s hard to know which teams are viable destinations for the superstar forward at this point. However, these kinds of reports about what he wants and the fact that he wants to be “courted” make a departure from the Thunder seem increasingly likely.

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And if that is indeed the case, you can bet that the Lakers are set to do everything within their power to make Los Angeles the place that Kevin Durant departs for.

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