The opportunity to add a player like Kevin Durant to your franchise rarely appears. Durant, former MVP, 12-time All-Star, four-time scoring champ, and two-time Finals MVP, was available, and then wasn’t.
Durant explained his stance to Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai this summer: Change management and coaching, or trade with me. Not wanting to move a lot of mountains for one player, Tsai called up deception and publicly sided with his general manager Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash.
For weeks, Durant’s rumors have been festering, with at least seven singles teams showing interest at one time or another in returning to June. The interest in some bands like the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets was brief, and for others the discussions were more serious.
On Tuesday, it all came to an end when Nets and Durant publicly announced their reconciliation as broke:
While this may serve as a position to get some trading leverage back, it certainly appears that a trade isn’t imminent. According to reports, the Nets received low-ball offers from Durant’s left and right.
Why low balls? Ricky O’Donnell has some solid theories, including the fact that a tantrum-like departure can happen again to any team he chooses to trade. It also assumes the idea that some young teams are reluctant to give up the young cores they designed to compete for years for a title window that might be smaller.
For some teams, confusing these two issues may hold them back.
Regardless, it’s clear that some teams should have put in more effort to push the envelope.
Honorable Mention: Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors may have blew into the eyes of some. They weren’t ready to give up on Scotty Barnes.
It’s only been a year and he’s had as good a season as a rookie can get, winning the 2022 Rookie of the Year award. There’s no telling what he’s up to. Long-term raptors could end up about this, so I’m not willing to say officially blew it. The jury is still out.
The teams that blew it up with Kevin Durant: New Orleans Pelicans
Reportedly, the New Orleans Pelicans will not include Brandon Ingram for Kevin Durant. Ingram, who formed his first All-Star team in 2020, outputs 22.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game season. The irony is that the Ingram framework and the Ingram game are often compared to the Durant framework.
Still, it is Durant-lite at best, trading in Kuwaiti Dinars would be an upgrade in absolute terms. Looking at the timelines, pelicans may have other perspectives.
The reason they’re low on “blew it up” ratings is because they never felt like legitimate contenders for Durant’s sweepstakes anyway.
[ad_2]
