2014 NBA Free Agency Rumors & Predictions: Pau Gasol To Thunder? Oklahoma Wants All Spaniard Frontline With Serge Ibaka Who's Ready To Go!

The 2014 NBA Free Agency Rumors & Predictions are starting to explore the 'second tier' free agents like Pau Gasol. Another contender from left field emerges as the dark horse.

The Oklahoma City Thunder is taking all the stops, with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook leading the charge for more frontline offense. From ESPN:

"The Oklahoma City Thunder, with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook acting as lead recruiters, have unexpectedly emerged as a leading contender for the services of Los Angeles Lakers free-agent center Pau Gasol, according to sources close to the process.

Sources told ESPN.com that Durant and Westbrook made a face-to-face pitch Wednesday to Gasol in Los Angeles to join them in Oklahoma City despite the financial limitations the Thunder would face in signing him."

The coast is not so clear, as the Lakers are also bent on keeping him in LA. Chicago Bulls and even the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat have him in their sights as options are getting slim.

If the Thunder nabs Gasol, it will precipitate an offense-defense tandem in their frontline made up of Spaniards. Serge Ibaka, their defensive anchor, has declared that he is recovered from injury and fierce as ever!

From ESPN, he shares personal snippets.

His determination to return to the playoffs: "[The doctors] told me I was going to be out for the rest of the playoffs: "The MRI showed that you are bleeding a lot in your calf and you're going to be out the rest of the playoffs." But my heart was telling me, 'You're going to be back.'"

He is also obsessed about winning Defensive Player of the Year, an award he missed out on for the last three years: "That's it, that's all I think about in my mind. Every time I'm about to give up, I think to myself, "You lost three years in a row Defensive Player of the Year." That's what I am going for. I feel like I have that gift and that talent, I feel like if I keep working and doing what I have been doing, then one day it will happen. I believe it, I really believe it."

With Pau manning the offense, Ibaka can concentrate on defense, and he will finally prove that there is no better defender in the NBA.