For nearly two months, the NBA world has been waiting on any kind of movement involving Kevin Durant’s trade request out of Brooklyn, as the Nets have rebuffed every offer made so far and, with camp a month out, there was no real change in the situation from when he issued the request on June 30.
While there were reports of some new teams inquiring on the superstar, pretty much every reported offer fell well short of the asking price of the Nets, with teams refusing to include top players and numerous picks for Durant. As the offers kept coming in and falling short, it became clear something was going to have to change — either the Nets would need to lower their offer, Durant would need to be willing to start the season in Brooklyn, or he would have to do something more dramatic in forcing his way out.
On Tuesday, we learned of that change, with Durant meeting with the Nets brass and ultimately deciding that he will “move forward” and stay in Brooklyn.
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) August 23, 2022
It’s a pretty huge change of stance from Durant from where he was a couple weeks ago when he laid down a reported ultimatum to Joe Tsai to choose between him or GM Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash. Tsai publicly backing his top executive and coach seemed to only further indicate a trade would need to happen, but this situation not being able to be resolved quickly seems to have worn on all parties and Durant has decided he’ll just head into next season as a member of the Nets.
What isn’t clear is whether Durant will still be available in any way should a team come with a vastly improved offer, or if he’s off the table completely — both in the immediate and the long-term. Whatever the case, it’s a huge burden off the Nets for now, and would seem to further indicate that they’ll be keeping Kyrie Irving as well and hoping that this year they can find the on-court success to heal a number of wounds off of it.
