Kevin Durant

The 12-time all-star is eyeing a move to the Phoenix Suns or Miami Heat, among other possible destinations.

Irving’s lack of availability for much of last season due to his refusal to take the vaccine influenced Brooklyn’s thinking. Being a free agent, it’s one of the most important times in your career. Durant carried the Nets through a turbulent campaign, averaging 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game, earning all-star and all-NBA second team honors. Earlier this week, Irving picked up his $36.5 million player option with the Nets for the 2022-23 season after the franchise opted against extending him a long-term max contract. That can’t be swayed by anybody else.” Durant’s co-stars, James Harden and Irving, weren’t re-signed to long-term deals last summer, and Harden forced his way to the Philadelphia 76ers at the trade deadline.

Kevin Durant has requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets, according to a person with direct knowledge of the seismic decision.

Durant spent three seasons with Brooklyn, not playing in the first of those years while he recovered from the achilles injury. Harden wound up getting traded to Philadelphia for Ben Simmons, who didn’t play at all last season. Durant has played 14 seasons, not including one year when he sat out while recovering from a torn achilles.

Durant and his agent are in discussions with GM Sean Marks to find a move away from Brooklyn; Kyrie Irving could also now leave the Nets despite opting into ...

A three-level scorer and top-calibre defender, Durant is one of the most valuable trade assets to ever hit the market. When he signed that extension the Nets still had the biggest 'Big Three' in the NBA with Durant, Irving and James Harden. Durant and Irving are very close and came to the Nets together in July 2019. After their playoff exit, the Nets acknowledged that all their distractions off the court kept them from becoming a great team on it. Irving had until Wednesday to inform the Nets of his opt-in decision. Now, Brooklyn faces another headache by trying to offload Irving as well, with the point guard also presumably wanting now to leave.

Durant drops NBA trade bombshell on Nets as Lebron's Lakers linked to seismic double deal.

We don’t 100 per cent know where KD is with Kyrie Irving. The league doesn’t know. Windhorst added: “We just don’t know where KD and Kyrie are, if they’re still interested in (playing) together. Windhorst said: “We know where KD is with the Nets – that is now over.

But as Wojnarowski notes, with four years left on Durant's contract the Nets likely will trade him to the highest bidder and pay little attention to ...

“Not necessarily a slap in the face, when someone chooses to do something else. “Of course,” Green told Goodwill. “There’s always things you want to prove. But as Wojnarowski notes, with four years left on Durant's contract the Nets likely will trade him to the highest bidder and pay little attention to Durant's desires.

'Epic, historic, unmitigated fail': No winners in $287 million 'basketball Armageddon'

Until he requested a trade, and was told his wishes would be honored, three years to the day after allowing the Nets to dream bigger and bolder than they ever had before, allowing them to believe their own hype that they were the smartest kids in the class. If one of them is a quashed belief that the Nets can actually win a championship as presently constructed? And he seemed to genuinely care about where the Nets were, and where they were going. This was a fail. That is all. That is horrendous. That is it. In return they got two years of brilliant basketball out of Durant. But they also played three playoff series in that time, and lost two. This is not overstatement. They agreed to Durant’s terms of engagement, which included signing the mercurial Kyrie Irving and the glacial DeAndre Jordan. This is not hyperbole. This is a basketball calamity, a basketball catastrophe, a basketball cataclysm.

The Brooklyn Nets' superstar stuns the NBA world with a trade request in the offseason.

Irving had until Wednesday to inform the Nets of his opt-in decision. Durant and Irving are close friends who came to the Nets together in July 2019. The Associated Press reports the Nets have been working with Durant to find a trade partner, and he has multiple teams on his preferred list. The Nets returned this past season thinking title with their core of Irving, Durant and James Harden. It didn’t work out anywhere near as planned. Last season, he averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game while playing in 55 games — his most since the 2018-19 season — en route to earning All-NBA Second Team honors. Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant has reportedly requested a trade, per multiple reports.

Isn't it ironic? ESPN analyst Zach Lowe joked that the Warriors have the most intriguing trade package to land Kevin Durant.

The young players Lowe was referencing are Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and James Wiseman. Sending at least two of those three to the Nets along with Wiggins and a few future first-round picks might be one of the better offers the Nets see in their trade talks. They have everything." "Golden State has, ironically, the absolutely ideal package to get Kevin Durant," Zach Lowe said with a smile on Thursday's episode of "NBA Today." "All the young players that didn’t play much in the playoffs, plus Andrew Wiggins, plus a bundle of picks.

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Collins, who has been on the trade block since before he even signed his $125 million contract, could find fresh opportunities as a roll man and pop threat in a refashioned Brooklyn offense that could take better advantage of his versatility. The Hawks, for their part, would have Durant, Onyeka Okongwu (stepping into the starting spot Capela leaves behind), and De’Andre Hunter up front, with Murray and Trae Young (who’s come a looooong way since he first met KD) in the backcourt, plus Harris, Kevin Huerter, and Insert Eighth Man Here rounding out your playoff rotation. As it stands, though, a 22-year-old potential Defensive Player of the Year with a chance to develop into a legitimate floor-spacing unicorn—JJJ shot 38.4 percent from 3-point range over his first two seasons before dipping over the last two—would be an awfully intriguing building block for whatever the next iteration of the Nets might look like. One big potential problem from the Brooklyn side: Thursday’s news that Jackson had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right foot and will be sidelined for the next four to six months. Capela provides a steady backbeat as the kind of rim protector that the Nets sorely lacked last season after letting Jarrett Allen go to open the starting job for DeAndre Jordan to accommodate Durant and Irving, which, yipes! Let’s hand some of those to Kevin freaking Durant and see if maybe they don’t work out a little bit differently. That means we’re looking for potential trade partners who can furnish the Nets with players who can give them a fighting chance in a resurgent, deep, and tough Eastern Conference. Those roster realities, plus age, injury history, and expected depreciation with the ravages of time, might depress Durant’s market some. There are ways to get there: Brooklyn could move Irving, or Simmons, or maybe expand the trade to send Joe Harris to Phoenix while taking back smaller fillers like ex-Net Landry Shamet or Torrey Craig. If the Nets can find a way to make the math work, though, Ayton-Bridges-Simmons looks like the core of a formidable defense that can help Brooklyn stay competitive now while replenishing the draft coffers a bit. Add in that Phoenix is reportedly one of Durant’s preferred destinations (not that Brooklyn’s required to send him to one of them, but still), plus the fact that the Suns— not exactly the most draft-stoked franchise in the NBA, as it turns out—own all of their future first-round picks, and it seems like there might be a plausible framework here. Even at age 33, with an Achilles rupture in his rearview and just under 41,000 total minutes on his odometer, he’s one of the five best players on the planet—an MVP-caliber scorer and offensive engine who also happens to be 7 feet tall and capable of playing both point guard and center on a championship-level team. If the going rate for Dejounte Murray, a very nice one-time All-Star, is two unprotected first-round picks, another protected first, and a pick swap, then the mind positively reels at what kind of return Marks and Co. will demand for Durant, who just averaged a tick under 30-7.5-6.5 on .634 true shooting in his 14th season played, and who has four fully guaranteed years left on the extension he signed just last summer. In a vacuum, all 29 other teams should be lining up to take their best shot at landing the kind of world-shaking talent who can shift the NBA’s balance of power all by himself.

NBA superstar Kevin Durant has requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets, according to NBA insiders Sham Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ...

Irving had looked to be heading out the door before opting into his $37 million player option, but according to Wojnarowski, Durant and Irving "want to continue to play together," but not in Brooklyn. Durant signed an extension with Brooklyn last offseason and is under contract through the 2025/26 season. According to ESPN, the 33-year-old's business manager, Rich Kleiman, told Wojnarowski that they are working with Nets general manager Sean Marks on finding a trade partner.

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It appears LA and the Mavs are the only teams interested and at this point there’s good reason for teams to be wary of Kyrie, despite his prodigious talents. A locked-in, available Irving is still one of the best talents in the league. We keep hearing about the Lakers, in part because it would seemingly take a sizable gamble on their part to somehow become a contender anyway. The league has seen Irving wreak a lot of havoc over the last five years, from Cleveland to Boston to Brooklyn. It’s left an impression. A team with all sorts of length getting one of the longest, most unique talents the league has ever seen. It pushed James Harden to ask for a trade and it sabotaged what could have been a championship season in Brooklyn. But I was more prepared for the next round of Kyrie rumors than to hear Durant was requesting a trade. Kyrie wasn’t even on all of the season-ticket material, signaling that the team wasn’t sure what sort of commitment it wanted to make to him for the long haul. Or the moment Harden soured on the team because of Irving’s lack of availability. Durant will be 34 years old in September, about to enter his 16th season (or 15th, if you don't count the one he missed with a torn Achilles). The back half of his prime—let alone his career—won't last forever. Yes, we know Durant is friends with Kyrie Irving. Yes, we know Kyrie was irked over his failed extension talks with the Nets—and the Nets’ crazy insistence on him being more committed to the team. Robin Lundberg: That this is an epically embarrassing situation for the Nets. It seemed things had settled after the Kyrie opt-in so it was kind of shocking to see KD’s trade request.

Forget all of the free agent names, the biggest news of last night was that superstar Kevin Durant asked for a trade from the Brooklyn Nets.

First off, I should say that I absolutely DO NOT THINK THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN. The Pelicans are happy with the direction of the team, have a roster loaded with young talent and have no reason to make an “all-in” move like this at this point. This is now the second time in recent history that the Nets have tried to build a super team only to have it blow up in their face, and now they’ll get to watch Houston reap the rewards just like Boston did the last time. Can you blame Durant for wanting out?

Opinions are split on whether the Celtics would be wise to go all out to bring in Kevin Durant. Our John Tomase lays out why paying the ransom to the Nets ...

Durant might put you over the top in 2023, but he could just as easily show his age and you could just as easily get there without him. OK, but the Celtics spent years ignoring incessant calls to break up the Jays, and now that they're on the cusp with one of the youngest cores in the league, they're going to throw it all away in the pursuit of another white whale? Surrounding your max stars with young, cheap talent is the surest way to remain competitive for more than a year. And that's why I ultimately come down on the side of no. That's the only way to compete with a package out of Miami centered around Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro and All-Star big man Bam Adebayo. He left Golden State after butting heads with Green and failing to integrate with the homegrown core. Durant's an incredible talent and if healthy, he makes the Celtics the favorites to raise Banner 18. Robert Williams would almost certainly have to be a part of any deal. He joined the Nets amid much fanfare, won just one playoff series in three years, and now wants out. He spent two months last year on the shelf with an MCL sprain. And they're blessed with a young All-Star in Jaylen Brown to serve as the legitimate centerpiece of any deal. They're capable of winning a title, which should appeal to Durant's ring collection.

The Nets star is fed up, and two factors appear to have led to his unhappiness.

The Nets will surely get a generous haul of talent and draft picks for Durant, and perhaps something of value when they offload Irving. They could retool quickly around Ben Simmons—albeit another enigmatic talent—and conceivably be back in playoff contention next spring. The irony of it all is that as the Nets canvass the league for trade offers, they will almost certainly send Irving and Durant to different teams anyway, ending a partnership that spanned just 44 games over three seasons. Now they’re scrambling to salvage their franchise in the wake of what the fan blog NetsDaily is calling, “the single greatest failure by ownership and management in NBA history.” As one insider sympathetic to Durant noted, “Kyrie sabotaged everything,” but Durant is reacting more to the effects than the cause, and he now views the Nets as unsalvageable. On the other hand, he is said to be upset with the team’s stance toward Irving … who was the primary cause of the Nets’ disastrous season. NEW YORK – On a late December evening in 2020, when the state of the world was bleak, Kevin Durant slipped on a Nets jersey and stepped into the Brooklyn spotlight for the first time.

In an unforeseen turn of events the Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant has requested a trade from the organization, here are some possible trades.

Zion is the best you can do in a potential KD trade if you’re the Nets. He’s a franchise-changing player, and you have no chance of winning a championship without that kind of player on your roster. The problem is that route would mean that you trade Zion Williamson. The solution is that if you’re trading a generational talent like Zion you would like another in return, and KD fits that bill. KD/B.I/CJ is a title-level trio, and they would still have the flexibility to make additional win-now moves to maximize their chances of winning a title. We’ve already seen what the current iteration of the Suns’ ceiling is without KD and the West only getting better; you need KD to take the next step as a team. In return, the Nets would get a foundational piece in Scottie Barnes to potentially build around, and while the fit with him and Ben Simmons may be awkward, you can always flip Ben in the future if necessary. Out of all the teams that can put together a package for Kevin Durant that doesn’t include their best player, the Pelicans still have the best potential package. With rumors in the offseason that OG Anunoby wanted out of Toronto, you would be packaging a disgruntled OG, Gary Trent Jr., Scottie Barnes and only two unprotected first-rounders for Kevin Durant with four years left on his contract. The Clippers would form the best and most talented Wing tandem in league history while keeping a significant amount of depth around their new duo. Trading three first-rounders and getting off of two bad contracts (Lowry, Robinson) and Tyler Herro, who will likely never be as good as Paul George is right now, makes this swap worth it for Miami. The Jimmy/PG/Bam trio would take a team that was already the No. 1 seed up a tier. Scottie Barnes is one of the best young prospects in the league, and because of this, the Raptors likely wouldn’t have to part with as much draft compensation as teams with inferior prospects would have to. The franchise will likely find the best deal for them to rebuild and it’ll likely be the first of two major deals with the second shipping out Kyrie Irving. The starting point for a potential KD package is likely at least one current All-Star or blue chip prospect, two other high-level rotation players, and six or more draft picks.

There are a few players that the Nets cannot legally acquire at this moment.

There is a workaround here, but it's going to make life significantly harder for the Nets. One option would be for them to simply trade Simmons to another team. If that means finding a third team to facilitate a deal, so be it. That allowed him to make more than 25 percent of the salary cap in the first season of his deal, which he qualified for as a reigning All- NBA player at the time. In 2019, the Boston Celtics wanted to trade for Anthony Davis, but couldn't because both he and Kyrie Irving were on Designated Rookie extensions. The first is Brandon Ingram. While he did indeed sign a five-year extension with the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2020 offseason, he did so as a restricted free agent with Bird Rights. That did not invoke the Designated Rookie rule, so Ingram can be traded to the Nets. Pascal Siakam has a slightly different max contract, one governed by the Derrick Rose rule. Right now, fans of all 29 teams besides the Nets are constructing trade packages to get Durant to their cities…

Rumors of Durant's potential departure from the Nets started when the franchise refused to give Kyrie Irving the long-term, max contract he was seeking. Instead ...

Windhorst says he has heard that the Lakers are the only possible destination for both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to end up. Adds that Phoenix's best offer for Kevin Durant will start with DeAndre Ayton. Windy says the Heat remain in the mix because of their picks/current players.— Jas Kang (@jaskang21) June 30, 2022 That’s the contract that Simmons is on, as are Adebayo and Booker.— Alec Sturm (@Alec_Sturm) June 30, 2022 Now both players are very likely to be traded this offseason and never play another game for the Nets. Durant reportedly requested a trade from the Nets because they would not give Irving the contract he was seeking, per Adrian Wojnarowski. With four years on his contract, there's no shortage of teams willing to unload assets for Durant.— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2022 Durant is about to a start new four-year contract extension that will pay him $194 million over the course of the deal.

The Toronto Raptors are believed to be among the most likely trade destinations for Kevin Durant, Vegas sportsbooks say.

On one hand, Toronto certainly has the war chest of assets to pull off a deal. Scottie Barnes is among the most valuable young players in the league and OG Anunoby, Gary Trent Jr., and Precious Achiuwa would move the needle in any Durant trade talks. According to MyBookie, Toronto is +700 to land Durant if he's traded, the fifth most of any team behind the Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, and Memphis Grizzlies.

The price could be higher than the return for Paul George or Anthony Davis.

Windhorst adds that could “freeze business for a while” around the league as multiple teams consider getting involved. - Appearing this morning onESPN’s “KJM,” Brian Windhorst cited a “high-90 percent chance” that the Nets will honor Durant’s trade request and said any deal involving Kyrie Irvingwill probably have to wait until Durant is moved. Wojnarowski said it created an unprecedented situation as some teams called Brooklyn with offers and then called back later to increase those offers without getting a counter from the Nets.

After speaking to “a couple” NBA general managers, Marc J. Spears of ESPN (video link via Talkin NBA) outlined during an appearance on NBA Today what sort ...

Wojnarowski added that he doesn’t believe the Nets are in any rush to make a deal, since they want to fully assess all their options. - While Phoenix may be atop Durant’s wish list, Amick has gotten the sense that the Nets would want something more – or something “different” – than a Suns package headlined byDeandre Aytonand Mikal Bridges. Cameron Johnsonis a player who might help move the needle for the Nets, Amick adds. According to Spears, about half the league’s clubs remain interested.

Three blockbuster trade negotiations that did (and didn't) work out -- and what each might say about the massive trade request that has rocked the NBA.

And, 2) For his part, Durant won't be thrilled, either, with the prospect of joining a team that isn't able to contend. There was only one problem: Bryant wouldn't approve a trade to Chicago that included Deng in the deal. Naturally, a team in Brooklyn's position is going to ask for the best young player on the other team. Consider the eventually failed negotiations between the Lakers and Chicago Bulls in 2007. But it's far from the first time an all-time great player has changed teams in the NBA. In fact, over the past 20 years, it has happened time and again, from Shaquille O'Neal to Kevin Garnett to Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, just to name a few. That's exactly what the Los Angeles Lakers did in 2004 when they began discussing parameters to land O'Neal. Their target?

Kevin Durant is one of the greatest scorers ever. When a guy of his caliber says he wants to come to your city, you figure it out, writes Greg Moore.

It’ll be up to the cap gurus to figure out how to make it happen, and it’ll be complicated. Win, and Paul is in the greatest of all time conversation. Durant makes a lot of money, and the Suns will be tied to him until he’s 37. Ayton won’t be able to develop into that kind of force in his current role, and there are too many variables to accurately project that far into the future. The core of Booker, Ayton and Chris Paul is good enough to get to the NBA Finals. It’s not good enough, as constituted, to win a title. Durant has been called The Servant, maybe for the way he injects cash, attention and energy into every franchise he joins?) Offensively, Durant will give defenders nightmares of the Slim Reaper until the day he retires. And if your neighbor gives you the keys to his Lamborghini for the weekend, you don’t tell him that you’re a bad driver. You go to the carwash, charge your iPad and find a scenic place to park. If Phoenix isn’t willing to rework the entire system to make Ayton into the next Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid or Anthony Davis, then they’ll never maximize him. When a guy of this caliber says he wants to come to your city, you figure it out. If Bobby Flay says he wants to cook you dinner, you don’t complain that you don’t have fine china.

As the Brooklyn Nets attempt to trade Kevin Durant for something resembling fair value, they not only need to contend with the teams they are negotiating ...

The Suns would have to give up quite a bit to get Durant as well, but if they could do so without sacrificing Devin Booker or Chris Paul, they'd likely still have enough to entice the former MVP. If Durant truly wants Phoenix above all other destinations, this sort of leak makes sense. Teams are not allowed to have multiple players on designated rookie extensions that were acquired via trade, and the Nets already have Ben Simmons on such a contract. As the Brooklyn Nets attempt to trade Kevin Durant for something resembling fair value, they not only need to contend with the teams they are negotiating with, but Durant himself.

As is the case with most superstars, Kevin Durant exercised significant control over the Brooklyn Nets during his soon-to-conclude three-year tenure with ...

This deal would be an absolute boon for the Sixers and is probably too good to be true. The hurdle of reuniting Durant and Harden may seem too high to clear, but KD expressed no hard feelings when his former teammate asked for a trade last year. But really, Brooklyn should be looking for the best deal out there, and who's to say this isn't it? A certain speedy guard could be the key to Brooklyn taking the 76ers' package seriously. If the Nets were considering Durant's feelings, a swap to the other New York franchise would probably be off the table. New Orleans is so loaded with picks from the Davis and Jrue Holiday deals that it probably won't even miss the three firsts it's sending to Brooklyn here. But even if Ingram takes a leap, he's unlikely to match Durant's productivity—and that's even pricing in some age-related decline for KD. Understand: It's not a slight to say a player, even a very good one, is not on Durant's level. DeRozan and Ben Simmons would be a difficult fit with poor spacing, but one or the other could easily be moved in a subsequent deal. But with the Nets seeking a package that also allows them to compete for a championship, DeRozan's inclusion makes sense. In Porter Jr. and Gordon, the Nets get a ready-made combo forward tandem with complementary strengths. The Chicago Bulls wouldn't include Patrick Williams in a deal for Rudy Gobert, per B/R's Jake Fischer, but maybe they'd reconsider that stance with Durant on the table. Maybe the Nets will feel compelled by sentiment to send Durant to a team he prefers, but they're under no obligation to do so.

There are not many teams with the players and draft capital to give Brooklyn multiple All-Stars and first-round draft picks. Mannix suggested the Celtics could ...

The Raptors could decide to build a package around last year’s rookie of the year Scottie Barnes, while the Pelicans may think about using Zion Williamson as a trade piece. Mannix suggested the Celtics could get involved, but that would likely require them to include at least forward Jaylen Brown as part of the deal. With Kevin Durant now on the trade market, many teams will be interested in the Nets star.