As Thursday’s trade deadline approaches, trade rumors involving Suns forward Kevin Durant continue to percolate. Reporting on Monday indicated that the Warriors were eyeing Durant, with a story on Tuesday suggesting that the Mavericks and Rockets may also be in the mix.
There had been no real indication prior to this week that Durant would be available at the trade deadline, but it sounds like the Suns could be wavering on that stance.
Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link), Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal (Twitter link), and John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) are among the reporters who have suggested in recent days that there’s a rising belief around the NBA that a Durant deal is a possibility.
Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) echoed that sentiment late on Tuesday night, citing sources who say that the Suns have talked to teams besides Golden State about Durant and seem more open to discussing the star forward than they’ve ever been in the past.
Still, Stein and Fischer aren’t sure that Houston and Dallas should be considered serious suitors for Durant at this point. Stein suggests the Rockets still don’t appear particularly motivated to shake up their roster with a major in-season move before assessing how their young core performs in the postseason. The Rockets seem more inclined to use their flexibility below the luxury tax line to participate as a facilitator in multi-team trades, Stein writes.
As for the Mavs, they don’t look realistically positioned to make a move for another maximum-salary player like Durant this week after completing a Luka Doncic/Anthony Davis mega-deal over the weekend. According to Stein and Fischer, there was “no tangible expectation” in Dallas as of Tuesday night that the Mavs would be a major player in any Durant sweepstakes. The Stein Line duo believes the team will focus this season on integrating Davis and then potentially explore another major trade in the summer.
One reason there has been an increase in trade chatter surrounding Durant, sources tell Stein and Fischer, is that it’s believed to be the only way the Suns could realistically acquire Heat forward Jimmy Butler. A package headlined by Bradley Beal has been Phoenix’s preferred route to a Butler deal, but a number of factors – including Beal’s no-trade clause, his unwieldy contract, and the Suns’ lack of sweeteners – have made that path a non-starter.
The sources whom Stein and Fischer spoke to couldn’t offer a great answer when asked why the Suns would want to add Butler while giving up Durant, but that scenario does seem to be in play. Gambadoro (Twitter link) says he talked to one team that believes Durant will end up in Golden State, with Butler headed to Phoenix.
Presumably, if the Suns were to trade Durant in a Butler deal, they’d also be able to extract multiple other assets from the Warriors (or whichever team landed Durant), whereas a Beal-for-Butler trade would require Phoenix to be the team adding several extra assets to get it done. Those additional assets could help the Suns make upgrades elsewhere on the roster.
It’s worth noting that Durant ($51.2MM) doesn’t have a significantly higher cap hit than Butler ($48.8MM) and the Suns are a second-apron team unable to aggregate salaries or take back more than $51.2MM in non-minimum contracts for Durant. That means the Suns’ ability to take on additional contracts beyond Butler’s in that sort of multi-team deal would be limited unless they sent out another player or two.
Along those lines, Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com reported on Tuesday (via Twitter) that the Suns and Wizards had momentum on a trade that would involve Jusuf Nurkic and Jonas Valanciunas. Gambadoro (Twitter link) followed up to say that it’s not a done deal and would likely only happen if it’s attached to a bigger trade, adding that Phoenix isn’t really interested in Valanciunas.
This is purely my speculation, but if the Suns were to tie Nurkic to a Durant/Butler trade, bringing in more teams, it’d be a way for them to add more players using Nurkic’s $18.1MM outgoing contract without requiring aggregation.
For instance, Jonathan Kuminga‘s $7.6MM salary and Valanciunas’ $9.9MM salary would both fit within that $18.1MM limit. Valanciunas could even be flipped to Golden State in that scenario, with one of the Warriors’ other outgoing players sent to Phoenix. But again, that’s just a hypothetical for now.
Why do the suns even want Butler if they trade Durant?
That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out and unable to answer. Unless Durant has privately asked out. Or unless they’re not serious about contending this year and they are just trying to do a retool for next year.
Makes me think this is just chatter and speculation rather than a real deal. If you trade Durant butler makes zero sense. But trading Luka doncic for a 32 year old and 1 pick makes zero sense, so who knows.
Because he is 35, Phoenix believes in the golden NBA age Durrant 36, Beal 33, Butler 35. Who next maybe Lebron 42 or maybe ask Golden State for Green and or Dallas for Thompson 34. Phoenix loves their old players.
They want Butler instead of Durant because Durant can bring them Jonathan Kuminga and Draymond Green plus a first round pick.
so what’s going to miami for butler… a bucket of cheese and your wet dreams? lol
Beautiful Jeremy. Frustrated over this whole thing that you have to throw a derogatory at me? OK I’ll cut you some slack.
If I knew who was going to Miami, we would’ve figured this out a month ago. You tell me you’re a heat fan, what does Miami get out of this?
The question was concerning the Phoenix Suns. Why would they want Butler if they’re going to trade Durant?
Will KD want to play for the Las Vegas Mavericks?
Thats the selling point
“Anyone not named Steph or Dray or Moody for KD, Butler and Vucevic! MDJ will make this a 10 team trade which is one of his favorites”
#StrengthInNumbers
GSW gets KD
Toronto gets Wiggans
Suns get Bruce brown, Kuminga, GPII, looney two 1st from GS and two 2nd from Toronto.
if Suns want Butler.. Heat would love Durant… win win? I’m lost here why there needs to be a middle man lol
Phoenix may prefer the assets the Warriors could offer, but I have to think if they’re open to discussing Durant, the Suns have talked to Miami about what the Heat would give up for him.
Pho is run by a guy who snorts white powder and adderall…. if he’s hyper focused on Jimmy Butler.. he’s not gonna pivet to a couple of role players for one of the 30 best forwards in NBA history lol
Both teams want the new player plus a first round pick or other asset. There is the standoff with that idea.
If you trade Durant 36 why in the world would you replace him with Butler 35 and it seems like a problem child attitude, he has worn out his welcome with every team he has played on, why would you want a player like that? I really do believe they need to blow up the Suns roster, they are not going anywhere, they hired how many coaches in the last few years. They acquire Durant to go with Booker, that has not really work all that well consistently, then go out and acquire Beal, that really has not been a winning trio, now they want to trade Beal but can’t, now it is the Durant rumors, yes you can get a pretty good haul, but now they want Butler and will give up all they got if they trade Durant, what do they gain. I wish they would just bite the bullet trade Booker along with Durant start the hell over ala Oklahoma or Houston make it fun to go to see a Sun game again.
to be fair Butler will be “butler” for another 3-4 years.. Durant has 2 left in him tops.. Butler doesn’t have a long injury history and his style of play doesn’t require a ton of scoring
Does Butler still want to go to the Suns if KD is gone? Sounds like a smokescreen from the Warriors to get Butler.
Booker, Bradley Beal, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Nick Richards. Not a bad lineup with what’s already there. Built for the playoffs.
We forget that Jimmy wants to get paid. That’s the giant elephant in the room. The Suns have indicated they will do just that.
Send KD to Atlanta for Hunter, Risacher, Lance Jr, and 4 firsts.