Why Kevin Durant Isn’t Heading to Phoenix or Miami
When the bombshell news dropped that Kyrie Irving opted-in on his $36.5 million player option to stay with the Brooklyn Nets, it did very little towards solving any of the Nets offseason problems. In fact, Irving opting-in for 2022-23 doesn’t even mean he would be staying put in Brooklyn for the final season of his current contract.
Irving is reportedly trying to force his way to Los Angeles to reunite with LeBron, but another Nets player has now also requested a trade: Kevin Durant.
The Durant Request
Pundits saw this Durant request coming from a mile away as reports claimed that the two-time NBA champion was monitoring the Kyrie Irving situation in Brooklyn.
Just hours before the 2022 free agency period opened, Kevin Durant requested a trade from the Nets. His preferred destinations: the top teams from each conference, the Phoenix Suns, and the Miami Heat.
Durant earned a spot on the All-NBA Second Team during the 2021-2022 season. The four-time scoring champion averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.4 assists in 55 regular-season games. However, the Nets got swept in the first round of the 2022 playoffs by the Boston Celtics.
While Durant will be 34 by the time the 2022-2023 season opens, he still has a good few years left in his tank. However, Durant landing on a championship-contending team will prove to be more complicated than simply “wishing it into reality”.
The Hold Up
Here’s the catch with Durant putting Phoenix as one of his preferred destinations: The Suns and Devin Booker are finalizing a four-year supermax extension that will earn Booker up to $214 million.
And since the Nets are trading one of the elite scorers in the history of the game, it’s only logical that they’d be looking to add another elite scorer in Booker as a part of any trade packages. While Phoenix would likely have reservations about including Booker in any potential Durant deal in the first place, there’s also CBA related issues at play as well.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the Suns can’t include Booker in any potential trade for Durant because of another recent acquisition, Ben Simmons.
“Ben Simmons signed a designated rookie extension with Philadelphia. He was traded to Brooklyn,” Marks said.
“You can only have two players who have signed this type of extension on your roster. However, they cannot be two players who were acquired in a trade,” he explained during his appearance on ESPN’s NBA Free Agency special.
The Nets would also face the same scenario with the Heat if they looked at a package centred around Bam Adebayo as well. With Durant set to earn $42.9M in 2022-23, any potential deal would need to send back a high profile veteran to even get the salaries in the same ballpark, which prevents teams from pulling a New Orleans Saints “here’s every pick under the sun for Ricky Williams” style deal.
While there would be no shortage of interest coming from teams who would want to trade for Durant, it’s good to keep in mind that he still has four years left on his contract and is expected to earn upwards of $200 million. Any interested franchise would need two things: a haul of players and draft picks to throw into the package, and a strong franchise structure to be able to manage Durant’s sometimes prickly nature.
If you look at his previous stints with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Golden State Warriors, and now the Nets, there is one common denominator that led to Kevin Durrant leaving the team: things got difficult.
Any team who ultimately takes a swing at Durant will need a clearly defined hierarchy between the coaches and front office, as well as a high basketball IQ roster who know how to play their roles in order to achieve on court success.
Recently rumours surrounding the Toronto Raptors as a potential dark horse candidate to acquire KD have surfaced, with Brooklyn reportedly seeking a package based around 2022 NBA Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes. Durant for his part has allegedly already told his circle that he wouldn’t be interested in a trade to the Raptors if Barnes wasn’t still on their roster, but didn’t rule out a trade north of the border altogether.
The Nets roster saw a massive change following the 2019 NBA Finals. Now only 3 years later, it appears poised to undergo yet another seismic shift. The only question now is, who leaves first: KD or Kyrie?
-Iggy Gonzales
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