A tearful Bob Myers, the Golden State Warriors President of Basketball Operations, sat in front of reporters after Game 5 of the NBA Finals and delivered the worst possible news about Kevin Durant’s leg injury.

“It’s an Achilles injury,” he said, “I don’t know the extent of it.”

An MRI on Tuesday will determine the extent of it, but from the looks of the injury and the tone of the Warriors, it may be less of a diagnosis and more a confirmation of the worst-case scenario.

If the injury is an Achilles tear, the repercussions could spread throughout the NBA. It’s an injury that would very likely cost Durant, long expected to opt-out of his deal and become a free agent, the entire 2019-20 regular season.

The recovery from an Achilles tear is a long, tough road and there is a distinct fear that the player may never return to his former self on the court. Durant’s injury is not just something that could change the course of his career, it’s something that will significantly impact free agency this summer.

It’s been long assumed that Durant would leave Golden State this summer to join a new team. However, if this injury is as bad as it seems, Durant may decide to opt-in and take his $31.5 million to stay with the Warriors through is rehabilitation. It’s hard to imagine a team giving Durant a lot of money to sit out a year and have questions about how good he’ll be whenever he returns. Staying with the Warriors might be his only choice.

If Durant is off the market, then the players who were lining up to play with him have to find other options. New York, for example, has been among the rumored landing spots, and there have been many assumptions that Kyrie Irving would leave the Boston Celtics to join him there.

Will Irving, if he was planning to leave, still go without high-powered help?

Does Anthony Davis now become a bigger prize for Boston or another team with room for two stars? Landing Davis was always supposed to be what convinced Irving to stay in Boston, but the ability to join Durant somewhere sapped some of that leverage. If playing with Durant is no longer an option, a trade for Davis could make whichever team that gets him much more attractive to Irving.

Will the Los Angeles Clippers, for example, suddenly become players for Davis because they sense an opportunity? Could adding Davis and either Irving or another high-level free agent feel more important to them because they know the Warriors are running out of ways to add help to their team?

The Warriors are going to become extraordinarily expensive next season if Durant opts-in and Klay Thompson gets a max contract. Their tax bill could be more than their actual payroll next season, which basically eliminates all but the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.7 million) and veteran minimum contracts as options for signing free agents.

Durant’s injury could increase the importance of lesser star players as well. Teams don’t have to be perfectly built anymore to beat the Warriors. The Western conference becomes a bit more open, and adding a Kemba Walker, Jimmy Butler, or Tobias Harris could help a team more in that scenario than against a full-strength Golden State team.

And what do these teams with cap space do with it when the biggest free agent is no longer available. How do the Knicks spend their money if one or both of their big targets don’t come through? They still have to field a team, but how? And how much money will be left next season after they make their signings this summer?

Cap space dries up quickly, and teams are forced to move onto plans B, C, and D in a hurry. Guys like Irving and Davis can’t spend years of their prime waiting for Durant to heal and then seeing what kind of player he’ll be. They have to move on too.

The NBA is an ugly business. Just like a herd has to leave the sick and injured behind, NBA teams and free agents have to move forward lest they get eaten too.

Teams with cap space need to build teams. Players need to sign contracts, and the shocking nature of Durant’s injury could give pause to any agent suggesting short-term deals for their clients. These injuries strike out of nowhere, and the security of four and five-year deals makes things a little more comfortable than playing the one-year contract-then-opt-out game.

We’re only scratching the surface of how this injury changes franchises. Durant was supposed to be the first domino to fall in a crazy summer of free agency. This injury could change everything, and re-shape the futures of multiple franchises.