The Brooklyn Nets will host Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night.  While they’ll be trying to contain the hot scorer tomorrow, in two years they’ll be trying to retain his services.

Durant will become a free agent in 2016 and of course plenty of teams will try to snag the superstar including the Nets.

via New York Daily News:

The impending Durant free agency bonanza should start picking up steam next season and will undoubtedly engulf the NBA in the summer of 2016. And make no mistake: the Nets are targeting Durant, the 25-year-old offensive juggernaut, even if it’s too early to predict their odds.

The Nets could be committed to no salary when Durant becomes a free agent, depending on whether Deron Williams picks up his one-year option for the 2016-17 season. Everybody else is off the books.

The Nets books will be clear but they have to keep it that way.  The big spending team will have to put some restraint on their contracts meaning signing guys to short term deals.

Of course we have a ways to go before we know what will happen, I’m sure it’s not what Durant is focused on right now.  It will be interesting to see if he will remain with the team he’s built his career with or if he’ll leave for the bright lights and big city.  I would assume that a lot is contingent or whether Durant is able to win a title with the Thunder, if not the allure of joining a team that will spend whatever it takes will surely be a factor.

Durant is also signed to Roc Nation Sports which is owned by former Brooklyn Nets minority owner Jay Z.  Durant maintained however that Jay Z would play no role in his decision.

Nets biggest signee Deron Williams spoke on the big market-small market debate in terms of landing big endorsements.

“To me, it really wasn’t big market or small market. It was kind of my options (when I was a free agent). I got traded here. I don’t know if I would’ve looked here if I wasn’t traded here,” Williams told the Daily News. “For someone like (Durant), I think it makes a bigger difference because of the endorsements he’d command in a market like this. I mean, look at what he’s already doing in Oklahoma City. But at the same time, maybe he’s such a big name that it doesn’t matter where he’s at. If LeBron would’ve stayed in Cleveland, he still gets $150 (million) from Nike.”

There’s a lot to factor in, luckily Durant has some time before he has to make this decision.

– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)