Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets brass have reached a peace offering. But make no mistake, this isn’t over.
After requesting a trade at the conclusion of the NBA season, Kevin Durant has been through months of public negotiations with the Brooklyn Nets who have been trying to find him a new home.
In a statement published by the franchise, General Manager Sean Marks confirmed the news that Durant will now stay-put, but there’s a strong sense this situation will need constant monitoring.
This is quite the about-face. It was only very recently Durant had reportedly asked for both Marks and Steve Nash to be fired in order for him to continue in Brooklyn.
The Nets have every right to keep Durant, he is under contract for the next four years and the franchise has been very committed to him, essentially giving him everything he needed and wanted in order to be successful.
The reality remains that trading ‘KD’ isn’t viable for interested parties; teams with championship aspirations can’t put together a package enticing enough for the Nets to part ways with their franchise star.
With the inflated trade value seen in the recent superstar trades of Rudy Gobert and Dejounte Murray, Durant was likely to fetch unprecedented value in a trade – eclipsing even what the Lakers gave up for Anthony Davis in 2019, which remains the record. New Orleans received two high quality players and three first-round picks to hand over their prized possession.
33-year-old Durant has been heavily scrutinised for essentially leaving the Nets in the dark and blindsiding them just 12 months after signing a four-year extension.
Given his history, having forcing his way out of two other teams in the last six years, speculation won’t be going away. Fans – and probably him – are wondering how much of his ‘prime’ is left. All the while, there are persistent rumours Brooklyn team-mate Kyrie Irving will either be traded or leave in free agency.
The Nets were heavily engaged in trade talks with other championship rivals, even being offered some of the best young players in the league, but the Nets couldn’t reach any agreements.
Durant’s clear desire to continue challenging for NBA titles has ironically worked to his detriment, given the sacrifice a trade partner would be making; his lofty transaction cost would deplete the rest of any other NBA roster.
The only certainty in this league is that nothing is certain. That statement has been the downfall of many NBA franchises in the past, who have ‘sold the farm’ for stars… only to see them leave at the next available opportunity.
You only have to look as far back as the 2013 variation of the Brooklyn Nets, who traded three unprotected first round picks for an ageing trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry.
All three of those players departed the Nets just two years later and those draft picks turned into Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Colin Sexton.
The Nets sat at the bottom of the NBA for years as they watched their traded Draft picks morph into some of the brightest young talents in the league.
Brooklyn managed to recover, but are only a couple moves away from being back in that position. The Rockets currently own all of their Draft equity until 2027, via the James Harden trade.
If Kyrie left for nothing this summer, Durant will likely agitate again.
The Nets going all in for Durant, Irving and James Harden seemed like a no-brainer at the time, but hindsight might be revealing an alternate reality.
Teams like the Bucks, Timberwolves and Hawks all find themselves in a similar situation with no Draft assets; going ‘all-in’ for a superstar, but at least in those cases the key pieces still have plenty of their prime years ahead.
Durant and the Nets will put on a front that all is healed, hoping it’s quickly forgotten. But a read of the tea leaves suggests this saga is far from over. Age may be the main factor in Durant’s trade value starting to fade, but at some point his rebellious reputation may also become a significant red flag.
