Lakers Confident Kevin Durant Will Talk to Them Because They Don't Operate in Reality

Kevin Durant plans to meet with 5 teams this weekend in the Hamptons, in addition to the Thunder. All six of those teams were in the playoffs this season. Two teams that were not in the playoffs hope to meet with Durant. One of those teams is confident Durant will talk to them. Yes, it’s the Lakers. Take it away Chris Broussard’s sources:

"The Lakers intend to contact Durant and his representatives July 1 and are confident they will get a meeting, the source said. “I can’t imagine Durant wouldn’t talk to us,” the source said. “That would shock me.”"

It might also shock that source to learn that the Lakers haven’t been to the playoffs since 2010 2013. (Update: Lakers were actually great from 2011 to 2013, amassing a 9-17 playoff record over that stretch.) Lakers  The Lakers plan to entice Kevin Durant with a bunch of money and the opportunity to play with another star – something that all teams he’s actually going to meet with can also offer. (Isaiah Thomas was an All-Star, so that counts, right?)

This comes a day after Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding dropped a gigantic story about the internal struggles of the Lakers which further illustrates the complete lack of contact with reality in Los Angeles. Via B/R:

"Some believe Jim [Buss] was so blatantly confident because he figured LeBron James was coming to the Lakers as a free agent that summer. Indeed, his father had shot for the stars often and hit. So why wouldn’t it happen again? So Jim told people that Carmelo Anthony was coming the next summer. He told people that Howard was staying the previous year. He told people as soon as the Lakers’ recent season was winding down that Kevin Durant was coming this summer…with Russell Westbrook the next. But with each failure, it became clearer and clearer that the optimism with which the Lakers approached each summer was rooted in the past."

Oh, the poor, sweet Lakers. When will they learn?

The Atlanta Hawks apparently also want to meet with Kevin Durant, but come on. Meanwhile, the Knicks knew enough to lose all hope years ago.