NBA Rumors: Signing Kevin Durant Is Priority No. 1 For Miami Heat?

USA Today

The biggest name on the NBA free-agent market this summer will be Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant will have many different suitors competing to lure the superstar forward away from Oklahoma City in free agency this summer, and it appears the Miami Heat will be one of them.

According to ESPN’s Dan Le Batard, Miami’s top priority in the summer, over retaining Dwyane Wade and Hassan Whiteside, is signing Durant to a lucrative long-term deal:

The plan is and always has been: Go after Durant and free everything up – so much so that you insulted your superstar this offseason by telling Dwyane Wade no on multiple years, even though that’s what he wanted. Dwyane, who deserves more of your allegiances as business and a company and management than Chris Bosh does. Because the whole thing is get in a room with Durant after this season.

This summer will be crucial to the long-term future for the Heat with a number of key players on the team’s roster set to hit the open market. Along with Wade and Whiteside, Joe Johnson, Luol Deng, Amar’e Stoudemire, Gerald Green, and Udonis Haslem will be unrestricted free agents.

An ideal situation for Miami would be bringing in Durant alongside Wade, Whiteside, and Gordon Dragic. Although the Heat would instantly be considered a perennial title contender with Durant added to the roster, it seems highly unlikely this scenario would come to fruition.

At this point, the best case scenario for the Heat might be re-signing Wade, Whiteside, and Johnson while hoping to add a few shooters into the mix this summer.

It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out for the Heat as Pat Riely clearly seems intent on making some major moves to get this team back to title contending status for many years to come.

[Transcription via Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk]