NBA Rumors: Kevin Durant Leaving Oklahoma City Thunder If New York Knicks Hire Scott Brooks

NBA rumors are stating that the New York Knicks would definitely increase their chances of signing Kevin Durant in free agency if Phil Jackson were to hire Scott Brooks as his new head coach, according to CBS Sports. Leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder is not something that is mandatory for Durant, but if he can find a more suitable situation in the NBA, then he would not be opposed to making the jump.

It’s no secret that Kevin Durant is going to be the biggest free agent catch in the NBA after the season ends. LeBron James becomes a free agent as well, but it would take a miracle for a team to convince him to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers. Even if he manages to bring an NBA Championship to Ohio, James is more than likely going to finish his career with the team that initially drafted him.

The connection between Scott Brooks and Kevin Durant should be pretty easy to understand. Durant played for Brooks for seven years, going deep into the NBA Playoffs. Aside from the personal relationship that naturally exists with players and coaches, the two of them bonded because they knew that the other one would do whatever they could to ensure that the team would be in the best position to win games.

Scott Brooks was fired by the Oklahoma City Thunder because the team felt that they needed a new voice at the head coaching position. It wasn’t because he was a bad coach. People in the NBA, especially those in power, know that Brooks can still be a good coach, which is the reason why he has been mentioned as a top candidate for a lot of the positions that are already opened and those that are opening up soon.

Even though it has been reported that Phil Jackson would prefer someone that has experience with the Triangle Offense, Scott Brooks has seen his name pop up in rumors about the New York Knicks head coach position. Brooks has never played for a team with Jackson as the head coach, and he has never coached underneath him, either. The two don’t have much of a connection but that hasn’t prevented a hiring like that from happening in the NBA before.

Scott Brooks is not a disciple of the Triangle Offense, but it wouldn’t be impossible for him to learn the scheme, especially since Phil Jackson is readily available as a resource. As a player in the NBA, Brooks played for six different teams, which meant that he had to learn a whole lot of different playbooks over the years. He’s intelligent, so Scott can slowly start implementing his version of the Triangle Offense for the New York Knicks.

Phil Jackson is another smart head coach, and while he’s very dedicated to the Triangle Offense, even he has to know that it cannot be ran full time when you have NBA stars like Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant on the roster. Those guys are sometimes impossible to guard one-on-one, so there needs to be a good amount of isolation plays that are ran for them in order for the New York Knicks to win a lot of games.

The Triangle Offense might actually need to be entirely scrapped if the hiring of Scott Brooks as head coach and the signing of Kevin Durant leads to the signing of Russell Westbrook, who reportedly is not opposed to leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder and signing with the New York Knicks in 2017.

[Featured Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]