After ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski suggested on Friday that Toronto is “lurking” as a team to watch in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes today that the Raptors believe they can put together the best package for Durant that the Nets are likely to receive.
Grange describes the Raptors as “optimistic” rather than “confident,” noting that there’s a sense Durant is at least open to the idea of playing in Toronto, even if the team is not atop his wish list.
However, Grange cautions that the Nets may not agree with the Raptors’ assessment that they can offer the best package for Durant. Additionally, Grange’s story suggests Toronto has remained opposed to making reigning Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes available so far.
While the Raptors have all their future draft picks and have several solid veterans on good contracts – including All-Stars Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, as well as OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. – it’s unclear if they’d be able to make a deal for Durant without putting Barnes on the table.
“That’s the billion-dollar question,” one source said to Grange.
Here’s more on Durant:
- In the latest episode of ESPN’s Hoop Collective podcast (video link), Tim Bontemps said he believes “Toronto thinks it’s in the game” in the Durant sweepstakes, while Brian Windhorst said he still considers the Suns the favorites, since it’s rare for superstar players not to end up where they want to go.
- Windhorst (video link) has heard that the Pelicans view head coach Willie Green – an assistant in Golden State during Durant’s Warriors years – as an asset in the chase for the former MVP. As Windhorst explains, the hope would be that if the Nets like what the Pelicans have to offer, Green would get the opportunity to sell Durant on New Orleans.
- With New Orleans being mentioned as a possible Durant landing spot, Scott Kushner of NOLA.com wonders whether or not the Pelicans should seriously pursue the 34-year-old.
- Within his latest look at the Durant situation, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype confirms that the Nets would want more than Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges in a trade with the Suns and says that any Heat package built around Tyler Herro “wouldn’t scratch the surface of what the Nets want.”
- Brooklyn is seeking teams’ best assets, Scotto writes, including All-Stars, rising young players, and “substantial” unprotected draft picks and swaps.
King Petty in the pettiest city it’s the perfect place for his basketball kingdom
What is the Heat best offer?
The key word is AND and AND
Brooklyn is seeking teams’ best assets, Scotto writes, including All-Stars, rising young players, and “substantial” unprotected draft picks and swaps.
That’s the point. The Heat have nothing to offer that can be on the level of the Raptors and Suns. If you put Butler or Adebayo in the deal, that defeats the whole purpose of Durant wanting to go there.
Dumb are you? They would put Butler AND Adebayo. They MAY do Tyler, Bam, picks, and more. But, THAT defeats the purpose SOLEY because Durant said he would only go to Miami if Butler, Bam, & Lowry stayed. Which THEN leaves the Heat with nobody to offer.
would NOT do both Butler & Bam*
Do you know what the word “or” is?
@trog- koz proved that his reading comprehension skills are below par.
Herro has little trade value. Nets will let him walk for nothing because Nets are at the luxury tax land.
Bam is not good enough
Here is the deal
Bam and Herro to the third team
Durant to Heat
Third team offer all stars, rising stars and unprotected draft assets.
Can’t trade for bam anyways. Simmons and Bam are both on nba rookie extension. You can’t trade for two on the same team per nba rules. So they would need to move Simmons as well. Which isn’t a easy task at this point. So it would be herro and fillers with whatever picks they have left.
Raptors have better offer.
Siakam, OG and 2 Firsts for Durant and Curry.
There would need to be more picks.
Add one more 1st and that’s the best deal the Nets will get, IMO.
“It’s rare for superstar players not to end up where they want to go”. He can request a trade and express his preference. At the end of the day, he’s under contract for 4 years and the Nets have no obligation to send him anywhere except where they can get the best return.
Unless he pulls a Ben Simmons and suddenly his trade demands have caused him a mental health crisis that can only be solved by the help of his agent getting him to the city of his choice.
Durant is not that guy.
I was joking.
Target SGA point blank period
Bwhahahahaha
Oh you were serious…..
Curious why playing overseas is not being mentioned as a possibility for Durant?
Maybe because he’s under contract with the Nets for another 4 years?
Lol lol you told him
If the bulls could somehow turn coby white and draft pick(s) into Seth curry in all this, that’d be cool
Agreed. Some Bulls fans think AKME could spin Vuc, DeRozan, Williams, White and whatever possible picks they could send including the Blazers but I can’t imagine two older players at the center of the deal would do it. But yeah if they can somehow move White and end up with Seth Curry, that’d be great.
USA vs Lebanon in the 1st group stage game for both at the U17 World Cup in southern Spain… link to m.youtube.com
David Castillo is the best player on the court rn & it’s not close. He’s like 5-5 from trey & has somewhere around 20pts at half. Castillo is from Oklahoma & headed into his 11th grade yr making him 1 of the youngest guys on the American team. Large chance we see him with a outlandish designed suit gettin drafted top5 into the NBA at some point in the next few yrs
It’s a dunk fest here in the 2nd half. Kevin Knox lil bro caught a nasty alley on the Lebanese big man. Slick pg Jeremy Fears Jr might be my fav guy I’ve seen so far & he just dunked on a kid as well. Lead up to 60
Gutting your team to acquire Durant seems to defeat the purpose of trade. I’m betting Durant doesn’t get moved.
The Suns package doesn’t gut the team. Ayton is likely gone and Bridges plays the same position as Durant.
I can’t see the Nets making that deal without Barnes. Part of what is preventing other teams from dealing for KD is the “Designated Rookie Extension” rule. A team is not allowed to have two of those players acquired via trade. The Nets are not moving Simmons at this time. That rule doesn’t apply to Barnes or Siakam. A deal including those two, picks, and salary matching could get it done on the Nets’ end. Would KD still want to go if those two are gone? It might be a tough sell, but they’d still have a good team around him since Van Vleet and Anunoby would still probably be there.
It’s tough to give up Barnes bc you’re moving 4 FRP and 3 swaps, so any of the guys they draft over the next 7 years probably aren’t rotational players.
Pick any two of Siakam, OG, FVV and Gary Trent Jr. + 4 FRP and 3 Swaps.
If they take Siakam, you cut out 1 FRP and a swap.
If you take OG and Gary Trent Jr you can flip them to Portland and the LAL based on the theoretical trade offers that were made.
Brooklyn has the choice of being competitive or acquiring the 7 FRP and 3 swaps
This story suggests the Pelicans. And I like it.
CJ, KD, and Zion starting. Plus Valanciunas at C. Come on this good Right.
Plus Ingram to the Nets….. this is a good place to start.
link to hoopshype.com
As a fan of the Pels I want no part of that talent, injury prone airhead Durant. The Pelicans have the right mix of vets (CJ, JV, Lance), young Allstars in Zion & Ingram & youngsters in Murphy, Herb Jones, Jose Alvarado, Dyson Daniel & Ed Liddell plus 11 #1s in the next 5 drafts. Their future in white hot bright.
BKN – Porzingis, AD, Lowry, THT, 3 WAS 1RP, 1 SWAP With LAK
LAK – KY, Simmons, D Robinson, Kuzma
WAS – KD
MIA – Westbrook, Deni Avidja, LaK 1rp
Lakers give up nothing and get everything? Lmao
AD?
Read it again. They’re giving up Anthony Davis, a 1st, and a pick swap.
I’m guessing the Lakers will need the KY after what Miami will do to them for getting them to take Westbrook and crap and pay all that tax they’ll get hit up on.
It should be an historic haul. All the elements are there. To my knowledge, the salary cap/free agent era hasn’t seen an asset this valuable (a top 5 player locked in for 4 years) available in the trade market. The current trade price for star players is at an all-time high, and the packages are beginning to have a constant theme – draft pick depletion for the team getting the star. BKN’s FO is headed by a guy, Marks, who’s very smart, still seething from being made to do the two Harden deals, particularly the last one, and now empowered by ownership to take his time and do what’s best. On the other side, there are only so many draft picks a team can trade (by rule), and there is only so much talent a team could give up to get Durant and still be an immediate contender with him (which, presumably, is the entire point). Hard to see a quick resolution to this.
The Hawks can put a really good offer together around Deandre Hunter, Capela, and Collins if they want ready made players. Still got some young assets in AJ and JJ and a few draft picks. (This year and the pick from Sacramento).
Okay folks, Deandre AYTON does not seem to be moving the needle on this, and there’s no word of a scramble to get him… (Nor Miles Bridges, in legal trouble).
They are not max players. Some people have been calling them that because they think someone else will offer the max, and that will set their level.
So much for that thinking.
Some did get maxxes, but from current teams— extensions. The dubious ones seemed to be driven by a sense of obligation and pride of development.
Yea we got some stuff to work on at the new CBA coming up
I don’t have the answers, I got some ideas but it’s very complex.
These “max’es are not working as intended and the players have learned to leverage them in their own favor (again not the initial purpose)
I like the 5 years max endpoint for length tho ….7~10 year contracts are killing baseball currently but an arbitrary number per year AAV seems to just help players like AYton and Beal more than curb the Giannis/Joker crowd from asking for 80 mill per year (which they COULD get under MLB rules etc and WOULD get in the NBA on a free uncapped market )
Under current system we will never really see teams trying to clear that much cap space like the past …The players are just going to accept all ext’s (b/c they are higher) then wiggle away later on a behind the doors trade ask…. it’s already happening and getting worse, something needs to be done
Durant’s not going to bother with bad behavior, just “wiggling” lol.
I like the cap, and maxxes are set to it in theory, even tho we wait for revenue figures to set the maxxes. So I do not mind Jokic/Giannis not making $80m— there would be little left for teammates!
Maybe, If stars sell the league, the stars could be justified in getting more NBA money additionally, on a showing-up basis. Benefits: maybe they don’t skip; and, the union starts challenging all the NBA charities and overblown league office.
Well that won’t sell to Silver!
I like the cap as well it just needs some tweaks
Of all 3 major sports Nba runs circles around the NFL/MLB as far as front offices needing a plan and having to refresh it at min every 6 months
I believe it was set up with major reservations of helping the smaller market teams. I love that premise, I just don’t think it’s being executed to its fullest potential currently.
At this rate free agency is going to dry up sans the exceptions year to year (helps BIG market) and the NBA will operate more like the DOW than a typical free agent market
There are too many exceptions in theory, but they save owners from their own generosity!
Them using the MLE is something to engage fans with.
I would like to see luxury penalties increase, to harden the cap. And frankly, to remove money from those who apparently think they have too much of it.
Mikal and Miles Bridges are two different people
You win a cookie.
There are teams out there that Can pull this off. KD is making 44 mill next yr.
To me Suns, Warriors, Pelicans can all make good offers. Love Ayton, Love Wiseman, love Ingram. Nets can’t go wrong with either.
Raps Trade:
Raptors get: Durant
Brooklyn gets TOR 4 FRP + 3 swaps, Port FRP, 2027 LAL FRP, S. Sharp (#7 pick), Bledsoe, THT, Nunn, Birch
Portland gets: OG A.
Lakers get: Gary Trent Jr.
I believe this is the deal.
If BRKLN wants to hold onto OG and Gary Trent and be a playoff team, LAL and Portland can be dropped from the trade.
BKN definitely wants to compete (beyond a goal of just making the playoffs). Their FRPs are controlled by HOU. So, there’s no gut rebuild/tank job in their immediate future. I don’t think OG and Trent can be the best players coming back, either.
As a Pels fan. I’d rather have Ingram than Durant. I know that’s kinda crazy to say. But, I feel like he is similar to Durant, but 10 years younger. I’d rather trade Zion.
Zion is now out of a potential one-on-one swap with Brooklyn since he just got the Designated Rookie Extension (DRE) and the Nets are not moving Ben Simmons. You can’t have more than one of those players acquired via trade on the roster together.
Can you explain that rule to me a little more? Not sure I completely understand it.
We published a whole article about it earlier today! link to hoopsrumors.com
Thank you, always thought you could have two DRE’s on one team. Did not know about the “via trade clause.” Now does that run throughout that Rookie contract? For instance Ben Simmons will never play with another DRE player (via trade) until his contract expires?
It runs through the entire contract, yes. These are the scenarios in which Simmons could play with another DRE player:
1. He’s traded to another team that has its own DRE player (who wasn’t acquired via trade).
2. The Nets acquire a player who is still on his rookie contract and that player later signs a designated rookie extension that goes into effect before Simmons’ deal ends.
Luke, that linked DRE list needs updating with ZionW. Also it could be put under “features”.
I recall a potential Irving trade being blocked due to this rule, in 2017.
At the end of last season NO was right there. If they had a healthy Zion they might have been able to make some noise. I wouldn’t flip Ingram and assets for Durant either.
Good luck with that …..
I’m actually a Knicks fan. But I’m a realist. I don’t know that moving Ingram, another player or two, and several draft picks gets them any further than just keeping this team intact, but with a healthy Zion.
The Nets are going to insist on Barnes. Trent Jr. isn’t a throw in by any means but he has a lower PER than Brodgan and I think Raptors fans are overeating his value considerably. But. If the Nets can’t get better, maybe OG, Trent, Precious and picks might be enough.
Ujiri did a trade like that once before and it worked. However, he may have more sentimental attachments to the players departing, this time, since he gathered them.
Ujiri has to be torn right now!
Raptors may get a motivated Durant, too, since the Raptors lack a known star without him, and, he would want to be able to match Kawhi’s achievement.
Celtics could offer Jaylen Brown and Derrick white. Or switch out D White for even Marcus Smart. They’ve landed Brogdon and Gallo. That starting 5 would be really long . Brogden Tatum , Durant , Rob Will and Horford . You could also bring Horford off the bench and start White or Smart whomever is left.
That would be great, offering the star Jays.
It would be risky, but fanwise, I don’t think theyre that popular, reletive to their achievements. So, Stevens would not catch too much flack among the knowlegable, and in Boston, that’s everyone’s claim.
Of course the normal choice would be to run it back with these few adds they made.
Maybe if Sevens blames the Jays for stalling his coaching career he does it!