Los Angeles Lakers: How Kevin Durant’s free agency impacts the team

Kevin Durant is the big fish in free agency this upcoming summer. How will his decision impact the Los Angeles Lakers?

The Los Angeles Lakers have big plans this summer in free agency, but the NBA’s worst kept secret is that Kevin Durant wants out of Golden State. I have absolutely no concrete evidence to prove this, and neither does anyone else. Everyone does know certain things, however.

For one, his respective team, the Golden State Warriors, have only lost one game since Durant went down with a calf injury and may end up winning a championship without him. We aren’t quite sure whether or not Durant will come back at some point for the NBA finals, but if he doesn’t and the Warriors beat the Raptors in the upcoming seven-game series, it won’t reflect nicely on Durant’s impact on the team or lack thereof.

Rumblings of Durant wanting to find a new home began earlier in the season when Draymond Green reportedly said the Warriors didn’t need him to win. Speculation of Kevin Durant signing with a new team this offseason has only grown stronger since then.

The most common desirable team’s for Durant has so far been primarily the New York Knicks followed by the Los Angeles Clippers. The one thing these two teams have in common is their gigantic markets which validate these rumors significantly.

Nonetheless, I believe Rich Kleiman, Kevin Durant’s manager, when he says that Durant is “100 percent undecided” on where he’ll be playing next season. Let’s rightfully assume that Durant is indeed strongly considering a shift to the Clippers or Knicks, and even staying a Warrior, which betting odds Odds Shark indicates to be the three most likely destinations for the superstar.

How would his choice of residence affect the Lakers, if at all? Here’s the answer for all three.