NBA Rumors: Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard Decisions Are A Mystery With 2019 Free Agency Approaching

For much of this past NBA season, the majority of insiders seemed to believe that Kevin Durant would leave the Golden State Warriors for the New York Knicks in free agency. Kawhi Leonard was also expected to join a team on the opposite coast, all indications pointing toward the Toronto Raptors’ star signing with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Now that free agency is just around the corner, very little is certain regarding the future of the league’s best available players. No longer is there a consensus destination for either Durant or Leonard.

It sounds like the stars themselves have yet to make up their minds. They are running out of time, considering they’ll be fielding a bunch of max contract offers in a little over a week.

Durant will likely choose between the Warriors, Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. The Clippers are thought to have an outside chance to sign Durant, though it would be pretty surprising if he goes to L.A.

The Kawhi Leonard Sweepstakes is essentially a two-team race between the Raptors and Clippers. The Knicks are a very distant third. Leonard might take meetings with Brooklyn and the Philadelphia 76ers, but nobody expects him to join either team.

The Los Angeles Lakers are highly unlikely to be in play for either star after trading for Anthony Davis.

And that’s all we know for sure.

Maybe Durant and Leonard once had clear-cut plans. Those designs might have been scrapped during the playoffs and through the 2019 NBA Finals when Durant suffered an injury that should force him to miss all of next year and Leonard led Toronto to their first-ever title in franchise history.

If Durant says goodbye to the Bay Area for the Big Apple, it would mean turning down $57 million on the heels of a potentially career-altering injury. It’s no secret that Leonard once had his eyes on returning home to Los Angeles, but doing so now would require the unprecedented move of the best player on the reigning champions willingly going to another team.

The latest report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski indicates that Durant remains undecided. The league’s No.1 insider said Durant is doing a lot of “soul searching,” noting that his choice won’t hinge on Kyrie Irving. Many have assumed that Durant intends to team up with Irving if he leaves the Warriors.

Irving is reportedly set on joining the Nets. That’s led to increased noise about Durant going to Brooklyn.

But there have been no such reports stating that Durant to Brooklyn is also a done deal. According to Frank Isola of The Athletic, there was a belief among several NBA teams as of Wednesday that Durant would sign with the Knicks even if Irving went to the Nets. The New York Times’ Marc Stein reported a day earlier that some members of the Warriors’ organization were now cautiously optimistic that Durant might stay.

Does Durant prefer to rehab with the team he knows and can pay him the most money? Does he want to team up with Irving and create a new title contender in New York? Does he want to try and bring a championship to the Knicks?

No one seems to know where Durant’s priorities lie.

You can say the exact same about Leonard. He’s impossible to read, giving no hints regarding his intentions beyond the finals.

Durant has never publicly said what he plans to do this summer, but those close to him appeared to have an idea before he got hurt. Even the people in Leonard’s camp don’t seem to know what the 2019 Finals MVP is going to do.

Wojnarowski reported this week that the Clippers were still the frontrunners to sign Leonard. Within hours, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said members of the Clippers’ organization were “hyperventilating” because the idea of Leonard signing a short-term contract with the Raptors has become such a realistic one.

Leonard isn’t acting like someone that plans to leave Toronto, sitting behind home plate at a Blue Jays’ game Thursday night, taking a week-long victory lap around the city.

That might be significant if this were any other player.

This, however, is Kawhi Leonard, one of the most unique stars in sports. A man that rarely shows emotion, barely cracking a smile until Toronto finally secured the title. A man that laughs like this.

Reading into his actions is an exercise in futility.

All we can do is wait and see what happens. It won’t be much longer, maybe two weeks at the most. When Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Warriors in 2016, his announcement came on July 4.

Leonard and Durant will alter the landscape of the NBA for years to come. The teams that will benefit from their decisions are still anyone’s guess.