The Los Angeles Lakers failed to make a major splash in NBA free agency this summer. LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe all chose to sign elsewhere leaving the Lakers empty handed. Although the Lakers brass whiffed on drastically upgrading their roster with one of these frontcourt stars, the storied franchise will have shot to land a superstar next summer.
Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder will hit the free agent market next summer with plenty of teams around the league preparing to make a run at the former NBA MVP.
According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, the Lakers will have a shot to land the four-time NBA scoring champion:
Most league execs informally polled here at Summer League expect Durant to stay in Oklahoma City when he hits the market next summer. There are only a handful of teams that can legitimately think they’re an option. The Lakers, the Mavs and the Wizards (in Durant’s hometown) are in the mix, for starters. The Knicks? I mean, I guess, in theory.
The additions of D’Angelo Russell, Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bass and Lou Williams were steps in the right direction for the Lakers. It is too early to determine or speculate whether Los Angeles will make the playoffs next season, but they’ve put themselves in position to improve year after year with some talented young players.
With a solid showing during the 2015-16 NBA campaign, the Lakers could intrigue Durant once he’s officially a free agent a year from now. Durant will be aggressively pursued by the Washington Wizards along with potentially many more teams better suited to win now, but Los Angeles has an opportunity to bring in their next superstar and they’ll go all out to do so.