NBA: What is known about the future of Durant, Giannis and the Knicks?

AM850 experts think of the rumors of transfers involving Durant, Antetokounmpo and the search for coach of the Knicks.

The NBA world will be focused on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse of Indianapolis on Friday night, when the Oklahoma City Thunder He will try to recover against Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers and tie the suddenly exciting finals to two games for side.

But for the 28 teams that do not participate, the activity has not stopped. So, less than two weeks of what could be a draft of the NBA Very agitated, less than three weeks at the beginning of the free agency period of this year, here we present our last look at what happens in the League.

And, with the rumors of transfer that involve Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and other stars, the growing search for coach of the New York Knicks And some initial rumors about free agency, there is no lack of stories beyond the duel between the Pacers and the Thunder in the finals.

Where is the Giannis saga directed?

Until an exchange with Antetokounmpo materializes or there is a definitive Milwaukee confirmation about the permanence of the two -time MVP, the largest head of the preseason is the future of the Greek Freak.

There are few players in the history of the Giannis Caliber League. The possibility of acquiring it – at his best moment, nothing less, at age 30 – is a tempting possibility for both rival teams and for the fans.

One possibility is far from safe. And, as things are today, the expectation is that Antetokounmpo begins next season as Buck, Fuentes reported to AM850. To be clear, the emphasis is in the present. There is still a long way to go this preseason, and it is difficult to know exactly how everything will develop.

In meetings with the board since the end of the season, the Bucks coach, Doc Rivers, and the recently renewed general manager, Jon Horst, have presented plans to maintain the core of the intact team around Antetokounmpo, with the aim of competing for a position among the first six in the playoffs and with the hope that Damian Lillard He could return from his recovery of Achilles before the end of the next season. Bucks ended 10-4 without Lillard to close the regular season while dealing with a blood clot. That, added to the most important role of Antetokounmpo to keep Milwaukee afloat, were the cornerstones of the projection of the team.

With Jayson Tatum facing his own rehabilitation of Achilles, the Boston Celtics Perhaps cutting the payroll around him, the uncertainty facing the health of Joel Embiid And several East teams still in reconstruction, there is a path for the Bucks to return to the contest by the MVP.

Will the Bucks will be willing to apply the luxury tax next season to achieve it? That has been an open question in the League for months, with the headline Brook Lopez ready to become a free agent and with Bobby Portis facing a decision about his player option of $ 13.4 million.

If Lopez renews his contract, Milwaukee does not have many realistic options to be below the tax. If you enter the free agency, bucks can easily avoid it. Sources said the franchise is prepared to apply the tax once again after spending more than $ 200 million only in the luxury tax in recent seasons, more than any other team since 2012, except the Golden State Warriors, the clippers, Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, According to Spotrac.

The rival teams suspect that the Bucks will end up in the tax, but maintain their payroll below the $ 196 million of the first round, which would allow them to access a majority of the exception of $ 14 million for medium -level players. They may need a large part for a starting base instead of Lillard, and among the candidates, free agents such as Dennis Schroder, Tyus Jones and Malcolm Brogdon are included.

It will be known much more once that Milwaukee template is known after the draft and free agency, and then we will have a better idea of the position of the bucks and how real are the hopes of competing next year with Antetokounmpo.

Where will Durant land?

Unlike Antetokounmpo, there is not much ambiguity about Durant’s situation. Shams Charania, from AM850, reported Wednesday that the Suns and Durant are evaluating transfer offers.

Charania listed five teams that have shown interest in Durant: Houston Rocketsthe San Antonio Spursthe Minnesota Timberwolvesthe Miami Heat and the New York Knicksand added that several other clubs have shown interest in Durant, 36. For Phoenix, a transfer will be very complex for three reasons.

Since both parties are working together in a possible agreement, Durant has to land in a place that interests him.
This team must probably be willing to consider a contract extension of more than $ 60 million per season for its seasons of 38 and 39 years.
Perhaps the most important thing is that the Suns will need to obtain enough in return in an agreement that satisfies the owner Mat Ishbia and his directive. Despite Durant’s brilliance throughout his career, it will not be easy to reconcile those three things in an agreement that benefits everyone.

On the February transfer deadline, the Suns spoke with several teams about Durant without their knowledge. When he learned, just when the Suns and the Warriors were about to reach an agreement, Durant launched the conversations. There was some disagreement within the team, according to Fuentes, about how this process was managed. It was one of the reasons why the new general manager Brian Gregory and Ishbia have repeatedly emphasized, to satiety, the promise of “alignment” in several press conferences since the end of the season.

The most important thing now is to keep Durant informed. Although it is still about to be seen if there is a real alignment with Durant in the future agreement. The suns need a favorable transfer rather than keep Durant happy. If both things can be achieved, fantastic.

In addition to the Warriors, the team that seemed more serious about signing Durant four months ago were the Minnesota Timberwolves. At that time, the Wolves and the Suns were second -line teams, which made an agreement too complex. But with the possibility that several Wolves terminate their contracts (specifically, Julius Randle and Naz Reid) and with Rudy Gobert accepting a small salary reduction as part of their new agreement, Minnesota could have more flexibility to execute said transaction.

An additional team to take into account, according to the sources, are the clippers, who have the contracts to make another movement and increase the template around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, assuming that the latter renews his contract or signs a new agreement this low season.

Several sources of the league were skeptical that the price per Durant in an exchange reached a point where Phoenix was satisfied. What seems clear is that this saga could easily be resolved during the night of the Draft of June 25. And with the weak class of free agents and the lack of equipment with salary space, a source said that this year’s draft could easily be an even more occupied night than normal, and could be the highest point of activity this summer.

Who, exactly, will train the Knicks?

On Wednesday morning, the former Knicks, Tom ThibodeauHe did something incredibly elegant. He published a full page announcement in The New York Times celebrating his time in New York and thanking the organization, players and fans for his five years in a job he grew up dreaming when he was a child in Connecticut.

At the end of the day, any dreams of the Knicks that this was a search without problems to replace Thibodeau (already a difficult task, considering that he finished his mandate as the fourth coach with more victories in the history of the franchise) had been replaced by what is quickly becoming a nightmare.

In the 24 -hour period, New York surprisingly found himself being rejected by five teams in his attempts to speak with his main coaches: the Atlanta Hawks (Quin Snyder); the Chicago Bulls (Billy Donovan); the Dallas Mavericks (Jason Kidd); The Rockets (IME UDOKA); and the Timberwolves (Chris Finch). This kind of thing simply does not happen, and has left many people in the league with a narrowed, funny head. Or, in the case of some of the teams involved in the denial of the permit, outraged by the way it has been managed.

Normally, a team in the Knicks situation – which leaves behind a coach who had won a series in three consecutive playoffs and came from his first conference final in 25 years – knows exactly who is pointing at him in a new coach.

What has been clearly clear: New York did not have an established plan when the decision to do without Tibodeau was made.

So what happens now? To begin with, according to sources, there is a belief that things could change with Kidd cases in Dallas and Donovan in Chicago. Kidd has a long history of violent exits in previous stages, including that of 2014, when he finally obtained permission to leave the Brooklyn Nets and join the Bucks. Kidd also has many relationships in New York since his year playing there in 2012-13 and has a relationship with Jalen Brunsonwho trained him in Dallas before the base arrived in New York three years ago as a free agent.

Donovan, meanwhile, is a native of Long Island who played 44 games with the Knicks in 1987-88 after shining in Providence College. Without a doubt, it would be the type of star player that the Knicks look for local level after letting go to Thibodeau.

But if none of those scenarios change, what course will the Knicks take from there? Maybe it’s someone like Taylor Jenkins, Mike Brown or Michael Malone, all experienced coaches currently without work. Perhaps he is the assistant coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Johnnie Bryant, who was a finalist for the Suns position that fell on his co -worker of the CAVs, Jordan Ott, last week, and who spent the seasons prior to this working for Tibodeau in New York. Maybe it’s someone completely out of radar.

Right now, the only thing clear about this search for coach is that he is not going as the Knicks waited.