Clippers prepare for pursuit of Kevin Durant in free agency

The Clippers wouldn’t mind if their roster looked radically different in the coming weeks. They also would be just fine with it remaining essentially the same.

The drastic change would involve landing Kevin Durant, the prize of this summer’s free agency.

Staying intact would mean retaining most of the team’s free agents to surround the core of Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan. Those Clippers would get to see if they really do measure up to the league’s best teams after injuries and Griffin’s punching a team assistant equipment manager muddled their assessment of last season.

“We would have loved to have been healthy and just see who we are,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers, who is also the team’s president of basketball operations, said last week.

The Clippers are expected to be one of the first teams to meet with Durant in the Hamptons on Long Island, N.Y., after the start of free agency at 9:01 p.m. PDT Thursday.

Rivers, team owner Steve Ballmer and other executives will pitch the superstar on a roster that could conceivably pair Durant, the 2014 NBA most valuable player, with a nine-time All-Star point guard in Paul, one of the game’s most dynamic power forwards in Griffin, and a first-time Olympian in Jordan.

It’s a bit of a longshot scenario considering all the maneuvering the salary cap-constrained Clippers would have to do just to offer Durant something close to a maximum contract. They would need to trade shooting guard J.J. Redick, renounce the cap holds on their free agents and fill out their roster with minimum contracts.

A potentially more enticing option would be to execute a sign-and-trade agreement with the Oklahoma City Thunder involving Durant and Griffin. Another possibility would be signing Durant outright and trading one of the Clippers’ current stars, which would give the team more financial wiggle room to flesh out the roster.

Oklahoma City is widely considered the front-runner to keep Durant, who has spent his entire career with the franchise. The Clippers will also need to top proposals from the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat and Boston Celtics to land Durant.

Should Plan K.D. falter, the Clippers would shift to Plan K.E. (Keep Everyone), starting with Jamal Crawford, Jeff Green and Austin Rivers, their top free agents who are all unrestricted.

The Clippers hold each player’s Bird rights, meaning they can offer them more than other teams in terms of length of contract and annual raises, but they could be priced out by other suitors with cash to spend under a salary cap that is projected to reach $94 million per team. Crawford ($5.6 million last season) and Rivers ($3.1 million) could more than double their previous salaries and Green ($9.3 million) is expected to seek a contract paying $12 million to $15 million a season

Crawford said his preference is to re-sign with the Clippers, but he’s also expected to speak with the New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks and Miami. “I have to be very, very open-minded about the whole process,” said Crawford, who is seeking a multi-year contract. “Whoever wants to talk to me, I have to sit down and listen and give them that respect and talk back to them.”

The Clippers would also like to keep backups Cole Aldrich and Wesley Johnson, plus starting small forward Luc Mbah a Moute. Aldrich, who made $1.1 million last season, is due for a massive raise after his best NBA season. He’s believed to be looking for about $10 million per season and is expected to draw interest from the Phoenix Suns and Orlando.

“To a man, they all want to come back,” Doc Rivers said of his free agents. “But then there’s business and so we’ll see once July 1 comes.”

Paul Pierce is still deciding whether to keep playing after the least productive season of his career, but he’s expected to make a decision in a few weeks.

Ultimately, it could be a successful summer if the Clippers’ roster looks like it did in the spring before injuries to Griffin and Paul resulted in a first-round playoff loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I look at our record and I look how good we’ve been and I know that we are right there,” Doc Rivers said. “I’ve been around this game long enough to understand that. I’m not going to buy into the impatience of anyone else.

“If you don’t do anything and the entire team came back, that may make you better because you were there another year, Jeff Green got to go to training camp, and Blake was healthy the entire year.”

Times staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.