Clippers Rumors: L.A. ‘very dedicated’ to Kevin Durant pursuit
By Tom West
The Los Angeles Clippers are reportedly “very dedicated” to their pursuit of Kevin Durant with a Blake Griffin sign-and-trade.
For a while now, the feeling from Los Angeles has been that the Clippers don’t intend to break up their core this summer. Doc Rivers has expressed his faith in the Big 3 of Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, saying that he thinks it’s best for the team that they stay together for the upcoming season to have another title run when everyone is fully healthy. With Doc’s insistence and J.J. Redick adding that he thinks the core will remain, too, it looked like nothing would come of the rumored Griffin for Kevin Durant sign-and-trade.
Well, while it’s still highly likely that Durant will ruin the hopes and dreams of every other NBA team by staying put with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Clippers may still be interested in pitching L.A. to Durant, after all.
According to Lucas Hann of Clips Nation (SB Nation), the Clippers are “very dedicated” in making a Griffin for Durant sign-and-trade happen.
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Of course, this proposed (and unlikely) scenario doesn’t really come down to the Clippers’ side of the bargain in a trade. Yes, they need to make their best pitch and it needs to be spectacular to work, but what they offer the Thunder isn’t the key.
The only way a sign-and-trade for Griffin happens is if Durant agrees to it and wants to join the Clippers. Meeting with Durant to sell him on the team’s potential with him onboard is what this comes down to, but it won’t necessarily be enough.
Of course, everyone is going to be doing the same. From the lowly Los Angeles Lakers to the Golden State Warriors, every team will pester Durant in a bid to woo him over. With the salary cap rising to $92 million and every team adopting the “why not?” attitude of going after a new superstar, the Clippers will have a lot of competition.
Most importantly, they’ll have to lure Durant away from Oklahoma City.
Even after suffering a playoff elimination that was just as painful than the Clippers’ loss to the Houston Rockets last year, the Thunder are still widely regarded as the favorite to sign Durant. No matter how devastating it was for OKC that they blew a 3-1 series lead to the Warriors, having a chance to close out and enter the NBA Finals in a Game 6 at home, the Thunder at least proved to themselves how formidable they can be.
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After Game 1 in the second round, they took firm control of their series against the San Antonio Spurs, essentially running them straight off the floor. Then, with an upset win in Game 1 against the Warriors, the Thunder continued to come back after a blowout loss in Game 2 to play possibly their best basketball yet in the following two games. The ball was moving well, they were controlling the boards, their transition play couldn’t be stopped, and their team defense and intensity was exceptional.
Oklahoma City is a special place to Kevin Durant and his personal connections there won’t be left lightly. Now, despite how it ended, he has an unlikely playoff run to further indicate how close he may come to his first championship there, and the possibility for that again next season.
After all, no one expected OKC to have much of a chance against the Spurs, let alone the Warriors.
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We’ll have to wait and see just how serious the Clippers are about pursuing a sign-and-trade if that’s the case. In the end, though, it will probably be to no avail.