The thing that makes Kevin Durant such an attractive target on the trade market appears to be turning into the single biggest problem in any effort to acquire him. Durant, one of the 3-5 best basketball players in the world by basically any way you slice it, is the rare superstar who wants a change of scenery and is in a situation where he won’t hit free agency soon after he is acquired — the 34-year-old former league MVP is entering year one of a 4-year contract extension he signed last summer that does not include any team or player option.
Of course, if an idiot like myself is able to wrap their head around this, the much smarter people who run the Brooklyn Nets likewise understand this. As such, Brooklyn is asking for the world for Durant, and as Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN noted on Tuesday, they have not gotten offered anything close to the world yet.
“Brooklyn simply doesn’t have a deal out there that’s good enough to justify trading Kevin Durant with four years left on his contract, really at the apex of his talent,” Wojnarowski said. “They’ve continued to talk to teams around the league, but simply, no one’s meeting that threshold.”
Woj noted that teams like Phoenix and Miami, which are “motivated” to figure something out and also are the two teams Durant apparently wants to play for, need to find ways to sweeten the pot if they want to make this done by getting other teams and players on board. So, basically, we’re in a situation where the state of play hasn’t changed since Durant’s request (with the gigantic exception of Deandre Ayton is back with the Suns and can’t be traded until January at the earliest), and other teams are needed to facilitate a deal, which requires said other teams being incentivized to help the Suns or Heat in their quest to become perhaps the title favorite, and would mean that the Nets aren’t getting everything possible back in a deal for Kevin Durant, which they have made abundantly clear they want.
That all seems pretty complex! Even more so when you can consider the Nets don’t, you know, have to trade Durant, and they weren’t exactly rushing to get rid of him before he requested a trade. All of this raises a question: What if the simplest thing is Durant just isn’t traded, and when the 2022-23 season tips off, he’s leading the Nets out of the tunnel at the Barclays Center (or wherever they play their first game of the year)?
Two very important things to note before we dive in: 1. Perhaps the Nets are just posturing and plan on taking a deal at some point prior to the season, and right now, they’re in “extract as much as we can” mode, 2. Everything you are about to read comes with the assumption that Durant doesn’t try to accelerate things, either by publicly pressuring Brooklyn or straight up sitting out if he’s not traded by the time the season rolls around.
The obvious thing here is that Durant sticking with the Nets probably increases the likelihood Kyrie Irving is in Brooklyn next year, too. By all accounts, an Irving trade would follow a Durant trade — perhaps this is because the presumed trade for Irving would turn him into noted guy who used to be Durant’s teammate, Russell Westbrook — so it’s worth wondering if he’d stick around for the final year of his contract. Remember, the reason Durant is on the Nets in the first place is they gave him a chance to play with Irving, and it’s fair to question if they’d get rid of Irving for anyone (let alone Westbrook) if Durant is coming back.
Besides, it’s not like the problem with the Nets has been when Durant and Irving play together. Lineups with the two of them on the floor last year, per Cleaning the Glass, were excellent. There is the glaring issue of Irving’s availability and whether he’d be willing or able to play in as many games as possible, but at least Brooklyn can take solace in knowing Irving won’t be a part-time player due to New York’s vaccine mandate no longer being in effect.
Those two are at the heart of everything for Brooklyn, and presumably, Ben Simmons is going to play basketball this year. It is hard to project exactly what we are going to see out of the former All-Star guard/forward for the Philadelphia 76ers — an entire NBA season came and went since the last time we saw Simmons play in a game and two different teams have been crowned champions in that period of time — but in theory, Simmons’ defensive versatility and ability to act as a secondary ball-handler/playmaker fits far better next to a pair of relentless self-creators and multi-level scorers like Durant and Irving than it would next to basically anyone else.
And then, there’s everyone else. Brooklyn returns seven of the 15 guys who played the most minutes last season: Durant, Irving, Patty Mills, Cam Thomas, Nic Claxton, Kessler Edwards, and Seth Curry. Guy number 16 on the list, Joe Harris, would have been higher if not for an ankle injury that limited him to 14 games. But beyond them, Brooklyn had to reshape its roster a bit — Durant and Irving both averaged more than 37 minutes per game last year, and it was obvious in their first round loss to the Celtics that Durant, in particular, was just exhausted by the time the playoffs rolled around.
Internal development from those aforementioned three youngsters — Claxton, Edwards, and Thomas — along with second-year big man Day’Ron Sharpe, could be a boost, especially if Edwards is able to continue to grow as a two-way wing and Thomas can shoulder a larger scoring load a little more consistently. The Nets have also placed bets on guys who have been effective NBA players coming back from injuries in TJ Warren, who has played in four games since the Orlando Bubble due to a foot injury and sat out all of last year, and Edmond Sumner, who tore his achilles last September. The latter could provide some reliable backcourt depth depending on when he’s ready to go, but Warren’s ability to score is the exact sort of the thing Brooklyn needs to take some of the pressure off of Durant and Irving. Remember, Warren had games of 53 and 39 points during the Pacers’ stay in the Bubble.
Add in the recently-acquired Royce O’Neale’s ability to defend and hit threes at a reliable clip and there are legitimate reasons to be optimistic about what the 2022-23 Nets with Durant in the fold could look like. Brooklyn has put together a team that fits around Durant, one with shooting, secondary scoring, defensive bite, and basketball IQ that amplifies what Durant does so well. Some more veteran knowhow in the frontcourt would be nice (even if Simmons embraces playing as a “center” on this team), and a backcourt quartet of Irving, Thomas, Mills, and Curry could use some defensive reinforcements.
But otherwise, keeping Durant (and, by extension, Irving) around gives Brooklyn a legitimately very good basketball team. Is it one that can unseat Boston or Milwaukee when they’re healthy? They might be slight underdogs, but the offensive talent here is potentially special, and Durant would be the key to it all … if he isn’t traded, of course.
