2019 summer free agency predictions

 It’s pretty early for this considering we’ve barely finished this years free agency but it won’t do anyone harm in giving this a good early shot

Kevin Durant – Golden State Warriors
Don’t think he’ll leave as soon as next year. Should be a safe lock to stay for a while.

Jimmy Butler – Indiana Pacers
I’m going bold here. Indiana should have the cap space and appeal to sign Butler if he is truly sick of the immaturity of the T-Wolves. Oladipo and Butler could be a killer 1 2 punch.

Kawhi Leonard – Los Angeles Lakers
Pretty obvious one here but hey, we though Paul George would be a Laker too.

Karl-Anthony Towns – Minnesota Timberwolves
He’s still young, don’t think he has any intentions of leaving.

Kemba Walker – New York Knicks
Cardiac Kemba returns! Perfect running mate for Kristaps and gives New York fans something to cheer for

Al Horford – Boston Celtics
Horford will possibly stick round for as long as he can while the Celtics dominate the east with their young talent.

Klay Thompson – Golden State Warriors
Same as KD. I don’t think Thompson has any plans of leaving any time soon.

Kyrie Irving – Boston Celtics
He’s not going anywhere. The New York rumours are exactly that… rumours.

I think KD leaves.  He obviously cares about his image and will want to try and win by himself.  By that time he will have three rings and probably three Final’s MVP and will want to prove he can win by himself.

 Kawhi to Lakers, Butler and Kyrie to Knicks, the rest stay at their teams

KD-Golden State

Klay-Golden State

Jimmy B-NY

Kyrie-NY

Kawhi-LA take your pick which team.

KAT-Minnesota

Kemba-Charlotte

Horford-Boston

KD – Golden State Warriors, it’s working and he knows it is. Why leave?

Jimmy Butler – Indiana Pacers, he wants to win badly. Indiana offers that and a team of hard workers that suit him. (Also I want it to happen badly as well)

Kawhi – Los Angeles Clippers, I believe that he doesn’t want to team with LBJ. Instead opting to team up with Lou Williams a re-signed Tobias Harris and they should have $ for another nice free agent.

KAT – Minnesota Timberwolves will offer the $ and he will take it.

Kemba – Los Angeles Lakers, an elite scorer, playmaker and very good shooter to go next to LBJ.

Al Horford – Boston Celtics, I think he retires there.

Klay – See KD.

Kyrie – New York Knicks, I think he teams up with Porzingis to try get N.Y. back to relevance. He is young enough to wait for Knox, Ntilikina, Robinson & Hezonja to develop.

1. Kawhi goes to the Lakers. We all know it’s coming.
2. Horford stays in Boston. 
3. KD stays, but this time the money he signs for means they don’t have enough to re-sign Klay
4. Kyrie and Jimmy go to NY. Kyrie has wanted to be “home” for awhile now, and with guys like Smart and Rozier already proving they can hold down the position without Kyrie, I could easily see the Celtics letting him walk. Butler has already expressed interest in the idea of playing with Kyrie in NY. 
5. KAT gets a max offer from Minnesota and takes it.
6. Utah lets Rubio and Alec Burks walk and they use the money to go after Kemba.
7. This one is super “out there,” but I’ll go there. We all know that Schlenk is trying to build the next Golden State in Atalanta. Instead of letting Huerter develop into the Klay role, I predict that the Hawks use their massive cap space to get Klay outright. 

 KD and Klay back to GS. I think they both like winning and being on a dominant team.

Kawhi, feeling like Lakers but it sounds like he wants his own team. So let’s go Clippers.

Horford back with Boston. 

Kemba to the Knicks. Charlotte ain’t working for him.

Kyrie and Butler to Brooklyn. They wanna team up in a big market. The team already has all the role players.

KAT back to Minny.

KAT is a RFA so T-Wolves will likely match any offer or may have him signed up in autumn.

Kyrie to resign with Boston.

Kawhi or Butler to Lakers with the the other to Knicks.

Kemba Walker to one of Brooklyn, Suns or possibly Knicks if they miss out on Butler or Kawhi.

Al Horford has $30 million player option so he may well opt in on that unless he agrees to sign longer more cap friendly deal with Boston. If Boston pressure him to opt out to take lesser deal then he bolts to another team as a superstar would like him as a running mate or he takes less and does a DMC type deal.

I read somewhere that if both Klay and Durant got max deals next year the Warriors’ total payroll including tax would be 400 million! If that’s true I can’t see both staying.