Kevin Durant is staying put for now. So are Paul George and Chris Paul.

Durant has decided to sign a two-year deal with the Golden State Warriors, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal cannot become official until the league’s offseason moratorium ends Friday. The deal comes with a player option for 2019-20, so Durant can – and likely will – become a free agent again next summer.

Durant, Paul and George all knew what they were going to do even before the NBA’s moratorium – and the start of free agency – officially kicked in at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. So did plenty of other players, and by the time the moratorium was two hours old, nearly $700 million worth of deals had been agreed upon, based on figures confirmed to the AP by people involved in the various decisions.

For Dallas, persistence paid off. The Mavericks finally are getting DeAndre Jordan.

Jordan agreed to sign with Dallas three years ago, then changed his mind and social media went abuzz over what happened next. Then-teammate Blake Griffin and Coach Doc Rivers were part of a Clippers contingent that went to his house and stayed with him until a deal keeping him with Los Angeles was official.

But he agreed quickly this time to a one-year, $24.1 million deal and will finally be a Maverick.

Denver added to the huge night of spending out West when it got Will Barton to commit to staying on a four-year deal that could be worth more than $50 million if he doesn’t opt out a year early, and that move comes on the cusp of the Nuggets getting talented big man Nikola Jokic to stay in what will be a five-year deal worth nearly $150 million.

Related Stories