Kevin Durant is joining the Golden State Warriors.Saying he has experienced by far the most challenging few weeks in my professional life, Durant announced his decision to leave the?Oklahoma City Thunder?on Monday in a post on The Players Tribune.Durant is expected to sign a two-year, $54.3 million contract, sources told ESPNs Marc Stein. The deal will include a player option after the first year.The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player -- as that has always steered me in the right direction, Durant wrote. But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth.With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.After Durant signs with Golden State, two-time reigning MVP Stephen Curry will be the fourth-highest-paid player on the Warriors. Durant will be No. 1, followed by Klay Thompson ($16.6 million), Draymond Green ($15.3 million) and Curry ($12.1 million), who can become a free agent after next season.Green told The Undefeateds Marc J. Spears in a text message that he was ecstatic the Warriors landed Durant. He tweeted to express his enthusiasm about his new teammate.Im excited about the opportunity to add one of the best players in the world to our team and welcome him to our brotherhood! This will be some of the best times of our life, and Im looking forward to it, he wrote.Durants contract can be finalized Thursday, when the leaguewide moratorium on signings and trades is lifted.Warriors coach Steve Kerr was in Hawaii and said he learned about Durants decision to join Golden State via The Players Tribune, ESPNs Ramona Shelburne reported.The Warriors plan to renounce their rights to Harrison Barnes, sources told Stein, to help clear the salary-cap space needed to sign Durant. That will make Barnes an unrestricted free agent on Thursday. Barnes, sources told Stein, remains on course to sign with the Dallas Mavericks, who reached a verbal agreement with the 24-year-old on a?four-year max deal worth $94.4 million, no matter what happened with Durant.The Mavericks also have agreed to a trade with the Warriors to acquire center Andrew Bogut and his 2016-17 contract, with a base value of just over $11 million. Just before Durants Players Tribune post, Bogut removed references to the Warriors from his Twitter page.Golden State will renounce its rights to center Festus Ezeli, which will make him an unrestricted free agent, but?guard?Shaun Livingston?was told by the Warriors that?he wont be traded, sources told Spears. Golden State also agreed to a one-year, $2.9 million deal with?Zaza Pachulia, according to a report by The Vertical.Thunder general manager Sam Presti expressed his teams disappointment over Durants departure in a statement.Kevin made an indelible mark on the Thunder organization and the state of Oklahoma as a founding father of this franchise, Presti said. We cant adequately articulate what he meant to the foundation of this franchise and our success. While clearly disappointing that he has chosen to move on, the core values that he helped establish only lead to us thanking him for the many tangible and intangible ways that he helped our program.Presti later said?the team had a pretty good idea that Durant was moving on even before its final meeting with him in the Hamptons on Sunday.Even when we were relatively sure it probably wasnt going to go our way, eight staff members and our owner stayed overnight in New York just to be there and to kind of finish it out, Presti said at a news conference in Oklahoma City on Monday evening.Weve been there for every first in his career, and we wanted to finish it out the right way by being present whenever that decision was made, regardless of how it turned out.Presti said he was alerted to Durants final choice in a phone call from Durant on Monday morning a few minutes before the announcement.It was disappointing, it was hurtful; but at the end of the day, it was what he felt was best for him, Presti said.The Thunder will take some time before making any roster decisions, particularly related to All-Star point guard?Russell Westbrooks future, sources told ESPNs Brian Windhorst.The biggest catch on the free-agent market, Durant met with six teams over the past three days: Oklahoma City, Golden State, San Antonio, Boston, Miami and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Warriors held their meeting with Durant on Friday.?On Saturday, Durant spoke with NBA legend Jerry West, a member of the Warriors executive board, on the phone, sources told ESPNs Chris Broussard. West outlined the reasons he thought Golden State would be the ideal fit for the superstar forward.Durant, 27, has spent all nine seasons of his career with the Thunder organization. He won the MVP in 2014, has been named first--team All--NBA five times and has made seven All--Star teams. He has appeared in four Western Conference finals and one NBA Finals, in which he lost in five games to the Heat in 2012.Im from Washington D.C. originally, but Oklahoma City truly raised me, Durant wrote. It taught me so much about family, as well as what it means to be a man. There are no words to express what the organization and the community mean to me and what they will represent in my life and in my heart forever. The memories and friendships are something that go far beyond the game. Those invaluable relationships are what made this deliberation so challenging.It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career.Durant bounced back last season to earn second--team All-NBA honors after undergoing three surgeries to repair a Jones fracture on his right foot suffered before the 2014--15 season, in which he was limited to 27 games before undergoing a season--ending bone graft procedure in March. Without Durant, the Thunder missed the postseason.With Durant back for 72 games last season, the Thunder improved to 55-27 and finished third in the West. The Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the opening round, upset the 67--win Spurs in six games in the second round and pushed the Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference finals.Durant averaged 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists last season, and he scored at least 20 points in 67 straight games. In nine seasons, Durant has averaged 27.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.Golden State set an NBA regular-season record with 73 wins and led the league in scoring last season, but the Warriors fell just short of a repeat NBA title and lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.ESPN staff writer Royce Young and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Cheap Jerseys . -- The goal posts lying flat on the field, Arizonas fans lingered on the field, congregating around the locker room entrance nearly 30 minutes after rushing out of the stands. Jerseys NFL Wholesale . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. http://www.nfljerseyschina.net/ . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. Jerseys Cheap .com) - Manchester City midfielder David Silva is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a calf problem. Stitched Jerseys . - The Oakland Raiders re-signed offensive lineman Khalif Barnes on Friday. Since the start of the 2010 season, there have been five flex players (running backs, wide receivers and tight ends) who have scored more than 14 fantasy points per game. Three of them are surefire first-round picks and one was unsigned until the middle of July. The fifth is possibly the most underrated player in the first two rounds of fantasy drafts this season:?Jamaal Charles.The leader, and the one who was on the market until July, is none other than Arian Foster. The three surefire first-rounders are Odell Beckham Jr., Adrian Peterson and LeVeon Bell (at least before his suspension), and the wise among you will remember times at which all three of them suffered concerning injuries.Beckhams career got off to an incredibly slow start thanks to a hamstring injury, similar to the one he dealt with in 2015. Peterson suffered an ACL injury just a couple of years ago, and had serious injury concerns coming out of college. And Bell, setting aside his suspension, is recovering from a knee injury that led ESPNs fantasy experts to place him below Peterson in our first?batch of rankings.Yet Charles was ranked 12th, and is being drafted outside of the first round. Which seems a bit odd, right?Lets do some mythbusting to dismiss a couple of your likely concerns about the Kansas City back.But he has competitionYes, Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West had moments of brilliance last year, and those lucky enough to scoop up Ware for his six touchdowns or West for his five were almost certainly thrilled with their decisions.But lets consider where both of these players fall short of Charles.Before suffering his injury, Charles had 71 rushing attempts, on which he gained 364 yards and four touchdowns. Thats good for 5.13 yards per carry. From 2010 until 2014, he averaged 5.42 yards per rush. We have come to expect, and failed to appreciate, his consistent rushing production.Theres no other way to explain how anyone would expect West, who averaged 3.96 yards per attempt on 160 rushes last year, would be a true threat to Charles. He scored the same amount of rushing touchdowns on more than double the carries (meaning fewer touchdowns per rushing attempt). He gained fewer yards after contact per carry and posted similar numbers as a receiver (an 80-yard touchdown reception against the Broncos boosted his yards per catch from just more than 7 to just?less than?11).A better case can be made for Ware, as the LSU product scored six touchdowns on the ground on 72 attempts, and picked up tons of yards after contact. He was a nightmare for opposing defenses, and proved to be a real threat to score.But Ware managed just six catches for five yards on the season, and this is where he clearly falls short. Hes going to take touches away from Charles inside the 20, but that has never been an area where Charles has relied on volume.From 2012 to 2014, the prime of Charles fantasy dominance, he ranked 10th among RBs in rushing attempts inside the opponents 20. However, change that to peer game stats and he ranks 24th.dddddddddddd Still, he wound up with 18 red-zone touchdowns, seventh most over that span.So give Ware a few red zone touches -- he was probably going to have them anyway. Give West a series or two per game as the every down back. It only makes sense, you have to keep your starter fresh. But I just dont see a way that Charles isnt the teams lead back by a wide margin, even if its at a slightly lower volume than we were spoiled with in recent seasons.But hes too old, hurt and has too many carriesThis is the other main concern about Charles, and probably the one that most people will cite when choosing to draft David Johnson, Devonta Freeman or Lamar Miller ahead of him in fantasy drafts. While it is certainly true that those three players have accumulated less mileage in their NFL careers than Charles, its not like the Kansas City back has been overworked in his career, nor that his injuries are due to an overload of hits and bumps and brusies.Since 2010, Charles ranks 20th in carries per game in the league and 14th in receptions per game among backs. (Now compare these figures with his top-five standing in fantasy points per game referenced earlier.)And he has proven that he can flourish in low-volume situations before. His breakout season in 2009 afforded Charles just 230 touches in 15 games, on which he scored eight touchdowns and totaled more than 1,400 yards. His 217 PPR points that season would have ranked seventh in 2015, and ninth in 2014.Yes, past injury predicts future injury, and players like Bell and Charles have recent, major knee issues that should be a red flag moving forward. But even our top-ranked Peterson has a major knee injury in his past, and hes not getting any younger or rewinding the wear and tear on his body after being the lone source of offense for Minnesota for quite some time.So while I cant blame you for liking Bell, Peterson or even Todd Gurley (who suffered a notable injury himself), I dont see a reason why Charles shouldnt be in the discussion with those players as a top-seven pick in every single draft. And now that Bell is facing a suspension, there are even fewer proven commodities at the running back position with the upside Charles possesses.If his floor in a 16-game season is the volume from his 15-game debut in 2009, hes currently being drafted at his floor as the sixth or seventh back off the board in ESPN leagues. And in other league formats on other sites, hes going even later, while many analysts say hes not an RB1, and some claim hes not even an RB2.His ceiling is being the top fantasy running back, as my early projections using ESPN standard scoring have him with the most points of all players at the position. Theres risk and reward to consider, but theres no reason for Charles to fall outside of the top 10 in drafts or the top five at his position. ' ' '