Simmons: Miami is Kevin Durant's 2016 'Stealth' Destination
The people of Miami may not be the biggest fans of Bill Simmons, as evidenced by his Final 4 appearance in the Miami Sports Hate Bracket, but there's some speculative juice from his column on Grantland today that will surely make Heat fans giddy.
The unabashed Celtics fan who blatantly rooted against the red and black the last four seasons mentions Miami as a "stealth" destination for Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016:
"Dudes will always want to play in Miami. For that and many other reasons, here's your stealth Durant/2016 destination. Not Washington, not New York, not Los Angeles. Here. South Beach. They've done it before; they'll do it again. Miami will ALWAYS be fine. That's why Riley doesn't care about giving up those future first-rounders. Ride or die — remember?"
Whether Miami will even have the cap space to pursue the grandiose possibility of adding KD is another story. Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, and Luol Deng have player-options for next season and Hassan Whiteside is likely in for a massive payday after his bargain deal expires after the 2015-16 season.
Yet there's a chance Dragic, Wade, and Deng either opt in this summer or sign new deals with a one-year out to maintain the flexibility of becoming free agents in 2016 when the NBA salary cap will boom with the influx of new TV money. This means higher maximum contracts and teams oozing with cash to spend.
Adding Durant to the mix in Miami might seem like a farfetched scenario today, but did people not think the same preceding the Heat's free-agent haul of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the summer of 2010?
Pat Riley is a dreamer, sure, but he has a track record of converting the fantasy into reality.
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