Rough night against Kevin Durant, Thunder should remind Wizards to consider plan B
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Version 0 of 1. It could have been worse. Oklahoma City center Steven Adams could have made two free throws in the fourth quarter and cost the Verizon Center crowd its free Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Then the night really would’ve been worthless. As disasters go, the Washington Wizards didn’t set a new standard for catastrophe Tuesday night only because the seventh of 82 games can be rendered trivial over a long season. Nevertheless, in the moment, it was a fiasco of epic proportions. Given the opportunity to impress home-bred free agent-to-be Kevin Durant, the Wizards watched the evening turn into one of those calamitous D.C. sporting lows that makes people swear the local teams are cursed. On this splendid occasion, a portion of the crowd booed Durant, the man it is supposed to be wooing. Then Durant injured his hamstring and left the game at halftime. Bradley Beal, the Wizards’ leading scorer, couldn’t play because of a bum shoulder. The Wizards yielded 15 three-pointers and 125 points and lost by 24. And for 95 percent of a highly anticipated game, Verizon Center had less energy than a dead battery. One fan held up a neon sign asking Durant to come home. The sign should’ve requested that Durant forget this day ever happened. [Steinberg: D.C.’s relationship with Durant? It’s complicated.] If you tried to play free agency detective Tuesday night and determine what it meant for the tight-lipped Durant, you could deduce only that the Wizards will be in trouble if their summer shopping list has only one item on it. Plan B, anyone? No, really, that’s not just a pithy line. The night was so horrible, so sobering, that it should have forced even the most spirited KD2DC dreamer to consider the possibility that a homecoming just isn’t meant to be. Eight months remain in this saga, so the story could twist a dozen times before the summer arrives. But if it was painful to watch the Wizards fail to make a lasting impression, imagine the disappointment if Durant doesn’t choose the Wizards next July, and the franchise doesn’t have an adequate fallback option. The debacle was a reminder of how difficult the summer will be. Most of the league will be vying for the services of the game’s most electric offensive talent. Everywhere Durant looks, he has good options, including the Thunder. Especially the Thunder. After enduring three foot surgeries and missing 55 games last season, Durant has returned to a team with a sharp new coach, Billy Donovan, who is far more equipped to succeed in the pros than most former college coaches. Durant has returned to a team with a co-star, Russell Westbrook, who plays at a consistent MVP level now. And he has returned to one of the deepest and most versatile rosters in the NBA, a squad that is back to being championship caliber. Even with the hometown angle, it will be difficult to pry Durant out of Oklahoma City. And even if he wants a change, there are intriguing teams across the league expected to have plenty of cap space. After spending several years preparing for 2016 free agency, General Manager Ernie Grunfeld and the rest of the Wizards’ front office need to have a thorough and agile plan to handle the uncertainty. Durant is one of the classiest athletes in sports, but when it comes to his future plans, he’s an enigma. He’s not providing any clues. He could do anything, including re-signing with the Thunder on a short-term deal and pushing back the decision on one last long-term contract. If he believes his foot problems are in the past, it would make financial sense if he signed a one-year deal with an option, which is similar to what LeBron James is doing in Cleveland. He could delay free agency until the summer of 2017, when Westbrook’s contract ends. Once again, he has so many good options, which only means more competition for the Wizards. [Wizards are routed despite Durant leaving with hamstring injury] Grunfeld can’t be passive and wait. While it would be foolish to derail a chance at Durant before he says Washington is out of the running, the Wizards still need a proactive plan. Sources say there are alternative plans in place, but everything is fluid. The next NBA offseason will be wild, and the Wizards don’t want to be a team carrying $38 million in cap space and evaluating uninspiring players to spend their money. The goal can’t simply be KD2DC. That’s the dream scenario. But the absolute standard must be all-star-to-DC. Even if it isn’t Durant, the Wizards have to add an impact player. There’s much to monitor. Sacramento center DeMarcus Cousins, who played with John Wall at Kentucky, is expressing frustration again. If the Kings ever decide to trade the big man, the Wizards have to be prepared to make a strong offer. Would a Carmelo Anthony trade be possible? In free agency, would Al Horford or Joakim Noah make the team better? Would an emerging young player such as Harrison Barnes, combined with a nice complementary veteran, make this a stronger team? There are so many scenarios to consider, and if you wait too patiently for Durant, other teams will pounce on good fallback options. When two-thirds of the league is expected to have significant cap space, it creates a different dynamic. There will be teams that know better than to woo Durant, and they’ll be making the Wizards’ secondary options their primary ones. How do you navigate those waters? It’s a capstone challenge for the 60-year-old Grunfeld, who has been in the business of team building for 25 years. Grunfeld has created hope with this Durant possibility. He has built a decent, mid-level playoff team in the interim. But the excitement — even though it wasn’t evident Tuesday — is so strong now that you can’t fall flat. This game was a reminder that nothing is promised. In fact, humiliation is possible. “We played without pride, without any character,” center Marcin Gortat said. “That’s what happened. I mean, we would like to play just as OKC was playing, but we are not on that level yet.” Durant would put the Wizards on that level, but he didn’t exactly play against a team that looked like it was one star away Tuesday. It was just a bad night without Beal and Nene. But it feels like the Wizards need every advantage it can get to lure Durant. And this game — which could have been a party, a true D.C. event — turned into an opportunity lost. Well, it was worse than that. It was a disaster. But at least Durant experienced only half of the fiasco. On this night, that had to pass as hope. The Wizards had better work on those contingencies, though. |