Udonis Haslem Feels Miami Heat Has Major Advantage in Kevin Durant Chase

With many around the NBA growing confident that Giannis Antetokounmpo will stay put in Milwaukee, Kevin Durant is set to be among the biggest dominoes set to fall this offseason. 

ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania divulged on the "Pat McAfee Show " that Durant’s camp is set on the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Miami Heat as a potential destination. 

“I’m told those are the three teams where a lot of the focus for Durant lies,” Charania said. “He’s on an expiring contract of about $54 million dollars. That could also come up as an issue here if there’s a team that for sure wants his extension.”

Charania went on to compare Durant’s situation to Kawhi Leonard’s stop in Toronto that resulted in a championship before his eventual signing with the L.A. Clippers, suggesting that there may be a team that “just takes a swing and makes a deep run to keep them there.”

Udonis Haslem, also a guest on Friday’s "McAfee Show" taped at Indiana’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse prior to Game 4 of the NBA Finals, offered his opinion, prefacing his two cents by saying he can’t say much since he’s employed by Miami as the vice president of player development.

“I think Kevin Durant would fit in anywhere, but definitely, I feel he fits in with the Miami Heat culture,” Haslem said. “I can’t speak too much on it, but I would say he’s a guy who comes in and just has to be Kevin Durant.”

“What I will say is that if it happens, he comes into a locker room and a situation where you have a Hall of Fame coach already in (Erik) Spoelstra Nostra, where you have a team that has a culture already. The questions that people have about Kevin Durant, can Kevin Durant be a leader? He doesn't have to be a leader in Miami. They already have leadership. They already have a culture. They already have a hell of a head coach.”

Haslem’s main selling point, albeit in a roundabout way, is that Durant would be coached by a more accomplished head coach in Spoelstra than he would be at any other potential destination. Although the Rockets’ Ime Udoka and Timberwolves’ Chris Finch are highly respected, neither has won a championship. Only Udoka has reached the NBA Finals, falling to the Golden State Warriors in 2022.

“Is Kevin Durant going to respect the guy (who is coaching him)? His accolades, MVPs, Hall of Famers, scoring champions..you just can’t have anybody coach Kevin Durant. You can’t just have anyone that has no experience saying, ‘Kevin, you need to do this to win a championship.’

“Kevin could say, ‘I’ve got more championships than you, I could tell your ass what to do to win a championship.’ So you have a coach that has that pedigree and Kevin Durant’s gonna respect that. So, yes, the situation in Miami will work, but at the end of the day, Kevin Durant has put himself in the situation and earned the right to pick and choose where he wants to go.”

Spoelstra does have familiarity with Durant, having coached him as part of staffs in the USA men's basketball program over the past decade.