I wonder if drafting Ben Simmons and maintaining enough cap space to add two max contract players would be enough to entice Durant.
I've thought about this too. Simmons and a max free agent center like Horford or Whiteside, to go along with our current core of Thomas, Crowder, Smart, and Bradley could be enough to land Durant. If we don't land Horford or Whiteside though, would going with secondary options like a Noah or Gasol be enough to attract him?
Wit the cap jumping 20 mil again the next year and every player you mentioned (Bradley, Crowder, Smart, Thomas, Simmons) locked into cheap money for the next couple years, why not?
You could sign Durant to 25 mil, offer Pau a 1 year contract and maybe bring back Amir Johnson or Turner. Then the next Summer, Pau/Amir could come off the books and you'd have roughly 40 mil in cap space to surround an under-contract core of Thomas, Bradley, Crowder, Durant, Smart and the guy we're taking in the top 6 this Summer.
I mean, if Durant insists we go out and trade for another top-tier player, so be it. But why wouldn't he just come play with Thomas, Crowder, Bradley, Smart, our draft pick - and use that cap space to lure another top-tier player without giving up any assets.
What's more desirable as a surrounding cast?
Thomas + Bradley + Crowder + Smart + a top 5 pick that can develop into a star + another max-contract player (Derozan? Howard? Horford? Pau?)
or
Thomas + Bradley + Smart + Melo/Butler
Because with some of these hypotheticals being thrown around (Crowder + the Brooklyn 1st), you'd lose those assets and also eat up enough cap space that you'd no longer have the flexibility to sign another star (a guy like Butler makes 10 mil more than Crowder... a guy like Melo makes about 18 mil more than Crowder). That eats into your cap space and makes it impossible to add another max-level player. Why give up Crowder + the pick to trade for a player when you can just keep those guys and use your cap space to sign a quality player outright?
Now, on the flip side, there's a scenario where we give up Bradley + Crowder + Olynyk (roughly 17 mil combined) + draft picks for a player like Butler/Cousins... and still maintain enough cap space to sign Durant and another max-tier player. BUt that's going to require giving up Bradley (8.5 mil) and Crowder (6.5 mil) to match salaries and maintain the cap space. In that scenario, Sully, Amir, Turner, Zeller and Jerebko are all renounced and they all walk.