Kevin Durant Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Durant Not Sure He’d Play This Summer Even If Healthy

June 26th, 2020 at 9:41am CST by Luke Adams

Kevin Durant won’t be making his Nets debut this summer. He and the team have decided to continue planning for Durant to return from his Achilles injury to start the 2020/21 season, with the star forward confirming earlier this month that his season is over.

As such, there’s no need for Durant – or teammate Kyrie Irving, who is also sidelined with an injury – to make a decision on whether or not to participate in the NBA’s restart plan. However, during an appearance on the Dawg Talk podcast this week, Durant admitted he’s not sure he’d want to play even if he were healthy.

“I feel, me right now, I probably wouldn’t have played because the unknown going into that situation looks crazy right now, seeing so many new (COVID-19) cases,” Durant said, per Alex Smith of SNY.tv. “It’s just so unpredictable. It’s easy for me to say right now because I’m injured but I probably wouldn’t have went down there.”

Of the four players who have voluntarily opted out so far, three – Davis Bertans, Trevor Ariza, and Willie Cauley-Stein – are on teams that are either outside of the playoff picture or hold a lower seed. That’s the case for the Nets as well — they have a half-game lead on Orlando for the No. 7 spot in the East. No Brooklyn players have opted out yet, but Durant said he’d support his teammates no matter what they decide.

“If the guys feel safe enough to go play, that’s cool. I’m with them,” said Durant. “If they don’t feel like they should go down there and play or don’t feel safe, I’m with them too. I’m all about what the group wants. If it’s good for the betterment of the whole group then I’m cool with it.

“I probably would have chilled. Obviously, I would have talked to my teammates and consulted with my guys and actually really went over it for the last month and a half, but me, my gut would have told me, ‘Nah, I wouldn’t want to go down there, especially after three months off.'”

Any player who voluntarily opts out of participating this summer will forfeit between approximately 9-15% of his salary for the 2019/20 season. His team will also be eligible to sign a substitute player to replace him, even without an open roster spot.

However, players who are sidelined with injuries can’t be replaced by a substitute player, which will limit the Nets’ roster flexibility — in addition to Durant and Irving, Nicolas Claxton will also be on the shelf with an injury this summer, leaving the team with just 12 healthy players on its 15-man roster. Two-way players Chris Chiozza and Jeremiah Martin should be available to help provide depth.

Atlantic Notes: Irving, Nets, Tatum, Durant, Knicks

June 17th, 2020 at 1:09pm CST by Luke Adams

In a recent group chat, Kyrie Irving urged his Nets teammates to skip the restarted season this summer, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News, who says the star guard also put forth the idea of players starting their own league.

Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report (Twitter link) hears from sources that Irving never said the Nets should start their own league in response to the bubble plan. However, the wording of that denial leaves some room for interpretation — it doesn’t mean Irving never floated the concept, or that it wasn’t part of a separate conversation from the one about participating in the bubble.

Either way, it’s an eyebrow-raising idea. It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility that the world’s best players could launch and run a successful league, but it would be a long, challenging process to get enough players on board and to attempt to build the sort of infrastructure the NBA already has in place. For now, it’s not really a realistic possibility.

For what it’s worth, Rooks adds that Irving left the group chat following the publication of Bondy’s report.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic division:

Within that same Daily News article, Bondy cites a source who says Celtics forward Jayson Tatum has expressed some reluctance about playing this summer, since he’s eligible for a maximum-salary extension this offseason and feels as if there will be an elevated risk of injury when play resumes. While Bondy’s report may be accurate, I’d be shocked if Tatum didn’t ultimately suit up — even a major injury likely wouldn’t prevent the C’s from offering him a lucrative long-term deal.
Even at full strength, the Nets wouldn’t be a real threat to win the title this season, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times, who lauds Kevin Durant‘s willingness to remain patient with his Achilles recovery rather than pushing to return to action in Orlando.
As first reported by Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Knicks are hiring Pelicans scout Alex Kline to a front office role. Kline will take on a larger role in New York, working under new assistant GM Walt Perrin, league sources tell Vorkunov.

More Details Emerge From Friday’s Conference Call

June 13th, 2020 at 5:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

We relayed details last night about a conference call regarding player objections to the plan to restart the NBA season in Orlando. More information on that call, which involved in excess of 80 players, has been released by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Charania confirms that Kyrie Irving was the leader of the effort to make players reconsider their support of finishing the season. He spoke first and offered a direct message to his peers, telling them, “I don’t support going into Orlando. I’m not with the systematic racism and the bull–. … Something smells a little fishy. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are targeted as black men every day we wake up.”

Avery Bradley, who was outspoken throughout the conversation, was the first player to follow Irving’s comments. He encouraged the players to take a stand and to use the opportunity to “play chess, not checkers.” Other prominent names on the call included union president Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Donovan Mitchell.

Players have been involved in conversations for the past two weeks, sources tell Charania, expressing concerns about the games in Orlando and the restrictive conditions that are rumored to be part of the bubble environment. The opposition began among “rank-and-file” players, with Irving and Durant providing prominent voices.

Sources offered Charania a few more tidbits from the conference call:

Anthony emphasized the need for player unity and the importance of conveying a single message. He also urged all 80 players on the call to donate $25K to a cause of their choice.
CJ McCollum told players they have to be prepared for financial setbacks if they choose not to play and the possibility that owners will nullify the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Howard warned that resuming the season will distract from the social justice issues the country is focused on. He encouraged players to use the moment as a catalyst for change.
Mitchell talked about players “being behind the 8-ball” by being forced into a competitive environment after being idle for so long. “We’re taking a big injury risk,” he told his fellow players.
NBPA leadership doesn’t expect fans to be allowed into games at any point during the 2020/21 season, which would result in another huge revenue loss for the league.

Players’ Conference Call Focuses On Restart Concerns

June 12th, 2020 at 8:48pm CST by Dana Gauruder

More than 80 players participated in a conference call on Friday night to address concerns over the NBA’s restart plan, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Nets guard Kyrie Irving was the leading voice on the call, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. While the NBA has solidified key restart dates, a plan approved by player reps last week, Irving has emerged as the most prominent player with major reservations about resuming the season.

Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Donovan Mitchell were among the participants on the call, and numerous players voiced their concerns about finishing the season amid nationwide unrest regarding social injustice and racism, Charania adds.

During the call, one unnamed player texted Wojnarowski regarding some of the issues raised during the call (Twitter link), including playing in the Orlando bubble: “(Kyrie)’s trying to give players a platform to be able to have a discussion — on the bubble, racial equality and unity. … It’s a good call.”

Irving underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in March. His presence in Orlando would only be as an interested observer and to support his Nets teammates.

Irving was an active participant in last week’s call when the reps agreed to the restart plan and only chimed in with mundane questions. Thus, his actions to organize a broader conference call that could change or even halt the restart plan has surprised several of his NBPA colleagues, according to Wojnarowski.

Irving’s stance has pitted him against many of the league’s superstars, most of whom have strongly supported the resumption of the season. Irving seems to be relishing the clash, Wojnarowski adds.

Kevin Durant Confirms “My Season Is Over”

June 5th, 2020 at 10:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Confirming a Friday report, star forward Kevin Durant told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated in a wide-ranging interview that he won’t play for the Nets when the 2019/20 season resumes this summer.

“My season is over. I don’t plan on playing at all,” Durant said. “We decided last summer when it first happened that I was just going to wait until the following season. I had no plans of playing at all this season.”

Durant tore his Achilles tendon nearly a year ago during the 2019 NBA Finals and had originally been ruled out for the entire 2019/20 season. When the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the end of the season being postponed, there was some speculation that KD might not have to wait until 2020/21 to make his Nets debut after all. However, reports in recent weeks continually indicated that was unlikely to be the case.

Prior to the suspension of the season in March, Durant had progressed to scrimmaging with teammates, but his rehab process slowed down when practice facilities became unavailable and group activities were no longer permitted. The former MVP told Spears that his rehab is still going well and that he’s “feeling like a normal player again,” but said putting off his return until next season is the right call.

“It’s just best for me to wait,” Durant said. “I don’t think I’m ready to play that type of intensity right now in the next month. It gives me more time to get ready for next season and the rest of my career.”

As for teammate Kyrie Irving, the expectation for now is that he also won’t be healthy enough to return for the Nets this summer in Orlando. Irving is recovering from undergoing shoulder surgery earlier this year.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Irving suggested on Friday’s NBPA conference call that he may end up joining the Nets this summer as an inactive player supporting his teammates.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kevin Durant Reportedly Won’t Play This Summer

June 5th, 2020 at 1:25pm CST by Luke Adams

Despite ongoing speculation about the possibility of Kevin Durant making his Nets debut this summer when the 2019/20 NBA season resumes, multiple sources tell Anthony Puccio of NetsDaily that Durant won’t return for the rest of the season.

Puccio’s report is the most definitive update we’ve gotten yet on Durant, but it aligns with everything we’ve heard over the last few months about the star forward’s recovery from an Achilles tear suffered last June.

Durant’s manager and business partner Rich Kleiman has repeatedly stated that it’s unrealistic to expect KD to play this summer; after initially leaving the door open to the possibility of Durant’s return, Nets general manager Sean Marks seemed to close that door last month; and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski stated in a podcast nearly a month ago that Brooklyn wouldn’t be playing the two-time Finals MVP this summer.

This week alone, several more updates have indicated that Durant still isn’t expected to suit up for the Nets until the 2020/21 campaign begins. As Greg Logan of Newsday notes, teammate Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot recently told a French outlet that he didn’t think KD would be back this summer.

Appearing this morning on ESPN’s Get Up (video link), Brian Windhorst said the Nets’ official stance is that Durant won’t play this summer, adding that the compressed nature of the tentative schedule make it an even unlikelier proposition. And following up on Puccio’s report, Chris Mannix of SI.com tweeted that the idea of Durant returning this summer was “never a serious idea.”

Getting Durant and Kyrie Irving back for July 31 would have made the Nets an intriguing challenger in the Eastern Conference playoffs, even though they won’t be higher than a No. 7 seed. However, with Durant’s return apparently off the table and Irving’s status still up in the air, according to Puccio, the idea of Brooklyn making a deep postseason run looks like a long shot.

It makes sense that the Nets would prefer to play it safe with Durant, given the unusual nature of the summer schedule and the fact that he’ll likely be very rusty upon returning. The optics of KD’s Finals return and subsequent re-injury for the Warriors a year ago may also be in the back of the Nets’ minds. And even with Durant on the court, Brooklyn probably isn’t a serious title contender this season, so there’s little upside in risking another setback.

As Durant continues to rehab and work toward his return to the court, he’s also been busy off the court. Mark J. Burns of SportsBusiness Daily reports that the 31-year-old has become a stakeholder in the Philadelphia Union, a Major League Soccer franchise. Durant’s share is believed to be worth between between one and five percent, according to Burns.

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Knicks, Raptors, Sixers

May 28th, 2020 at 1:38pm CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on Wednesday on ESPN’s First Take (video link), Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie said he can’t really address the possibility of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving potentially returning from injuries this summer, since that decision will ultimately be made by others, including team doctors. However, he acknowledged that Brooklyn’s outlook for the 2020 postseason would change significantly with those two stars in the lineup.

“If they are able to return and that’s the decision they make, our aspirations turn from playoffs to championship,” Dinwiddie said, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. “If they’re not able to return, which they’ve pretty much said that’s kind of the stance that they’re taking, we still want to be a team that grinds to get to the playoffs and makes a run in the playoffs.”

Unlike Irving, whose season was cut short by a shoulder issue, Durant has yet to make his debut with the Nets. While a torn Achilles tendon is a potentially devastating injury for NBA players, Dinwiddie is confident that KD will still look like a star when he returns to the court.

“I look at it like this: At 80 percent, he’s Dirk Nowitzki,” Dinwiddie said of Durant, according to Bondy. “At 100 percent, he’s the best scorer of all time, and anywhere in between, he’s still, what, a top-three small forward in the league.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

The Knicks don’t plan to formally launch their head coaching search until they find out whether or not their season is over, sources tell Marc Berman of The New York Post. We heard on Wednesday that Tom Thibodeau and Kenny Atkinson are expected to be among the club’s candidates in that search.
Chris Boucher and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who have played key minutes in the Raptors‘ frontcourt this season, will both be free agents at season’s end. Bearing that in mind, Eric Koreen of The Athletic examines each player’s appeal, arguing that it wouldn’t be an easy decision if the team can only retain one. Hollis-Jefferson is the more versatile player, but Boucher is a better rim protector and will be a restricted free agent.
Looking at the Sixers‘ future with Rich Hofmann of The Athletic, John Hollinger suggests the team has painted itself into a bit of a corner with its big-money commitments to some secondary players and will need to get creative to upgrade its roster going forward.

Nets Notes: Dinwiddie, Marks, Durant, Harris

May 24th, 2020 at 1:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie has a pointed question for the NBA if it decides to resume its season with just playoff teams, relays Ted Holmlund of The New York Post.

“If we go 16 teams directly to playoffs do those teams get paid more for the risk and carrying this year’s revenue after Corona and China?” Dinwiddie tweeted.

He offered a few more comments in response to fans who replied to the tweet. After someone accused him of viewing the return only in financial terms, he wrote, “Isn’t that what big business is about? I’m a small business that is a cog in the machine of a bigger business lol.” After another claimed that players ceded some of their leverage by admitting they want to play again, Dinwiddie stated, “Yes, the team owners have run a master class in media manipulation.”

There’s more from Brooklyn:

After dropping a hint three weeks ago that Kevin Durant might be close to a return, Nets general manager Sean Marks now seems resigned that it won’t happen until next season, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. Sources tell Berman that the league hiatus has made it impossible for Durant to maintain the progress he was showing during workouts in late winter. Durant wasn’t in game condition when the season stopped and needed five-on-five scrimmages to reach that point.
Talking to Sky Sport New Zealand, Marks said Durant and Kyrie Irving have a chance to add to their legacies if they can bring a championship to Brooklyn, Berman adds in the same story. “That’s what these guys are fighting for now,’’ Marks said. “If you talk to Kevin and Ky, they’ve both won —Kevin’s won two championships, Ky’s won a championship — so now, it’s how do we make this ours, how do we take this to the next level and who do we do it with?”
In an interview with Michael Grady of YES Network, Joe Harris called remaining in Brooklyn his “ideal scenario” as free agency approaches. “I look back just over four years ago coming to Brooklyn, getting an opportunity to play here, to learn as a young player to play through my mistakes and be given a niche in this league,” Harris said. “And I’ve always loved New York and I love living in Brooklyn. Obviously, it’s a business at the end of the day and there are things you can’t control a lot of things that go on. My ideal scenario … that’s what it is for me.”

Warriors Notes: Myers, Durant, Cook, Free Agents

May 16th, 2020 at 5:29pm CST by Arthur Hill

“The Last Dance” documentary series is making an impression around the NBA, particularly with the Warriors, who can identify with the challenges of trying to string together championships, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN. One of those challenges is attempting to maintain camaraderie, which became an issue on the way to the 2017/18 title, admits general manager Bob Myers.

“The second time with Kevin (Durant) it felt like, ‘Well, we just did what we were supposed to do, and great job,'” Myers said. “It wasn’t joy. I’m sure a lot of people felt differently. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. I think there’s just a weight to everything. And so I’m sure (the Bulls) felt that weight of everything, weight of relationships.”

Golden State posted 67-15 and 58-24 records and won back-to-back championships during its first two seasons with Durant. But before the quest for a three-peat was derailed by injuries in last year’s Finals, there were frequent reports that Durant was looking to leave the organization and an infamous on-court incident with Draymond Green.

“To be honest, (the documentary) is just confirmation of what I was saying to our team all of last year and 2018,” coach Steve Kerr said. “The whole messaging for the year was based on my experience with Chicago and feeling that level of fatigue (and) emotional toll that had been over the previous four years. … And so watching this now is just a reminder of how difficult it is to sustain that kind of run.”

There’s more Warriors news to pass along:

Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle talked to a few Warriors players who are too young to remember the Michael Jordan era. Several took note of Jordan’s intense leadership style in the documentary, saying it was reminiscent of Green. “When (Jordan) just said he never asked anybody to do anything that he wouldn’t do, that really stuck with me,” Marquese Chriss said. “You want your leader to lead by example, but also be vocal at the same time. It honestly reminded me a bit of Draymond.”
Even though the Warriors dropped to the bottom of the West this season, the team’s culture continues to be a strong selling point with players, observes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III both expressed disappointment over being traded in February, and Quinn Cook said it was important to him to sign with the Warriors in 2017. “When Golden State called, I told my agent, ‘I didn’t care if I never play,” said Cook, now with the Lakers. “I don’t have to play. I just want to be a part of the organization. I want to learn every single day from those guys.’”
Grant Liffman of NBC Sports Bay Area identifies 11 free agents that the Warriors should target, even though they will be over the cap and can only offer minimum contracts and the taxpayer mid-level exception.

Atlantic Notes: KD, Raptors, Nets, Celtics

May 14th, 2020 at 8:20pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Nets forward Kevin Durant addressed the possibility of his suiting up if the 2019/20 season resumes in a conversation with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Radio on Tuesday, as NetsDaily recounted. However, KD didn’t offer many details about his potential return timeline. “It is what it is man. Everybody (is) waiting on me to come back,” Durant said. “But I’ll be back when it’s time.”

In 2019, Durant inked a four-year, $164MM maximum free agent deal with Brooklyn in a sign-and-trade with the Warriors for point guard D’Angelo Russell. Durant continues to recover from an Achilles tear suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals that has kept him off the floor for the Nets’ entire 2019/20 season thus far.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

For the Raptors, balancing the team’s young core and aging veterans may become especially tricky during the 2020 offseason, according to John Hollinger and Blake Murphy of The Athletic. Among the team’s top six players, ascendant young point guard Fred VanVleet, 35-year-old center Marc Gasol and 30-year-old big man Serge Ibaka will all be unrestricted free agents at season’s end.
Due to stricter state and city guidelines for reopening businesses in New York than many other teams’ home cities, the Nets appear unlikely to return anytime soon to their practice facility, the HSS Training Center in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, per NetsDaily’s Net Income and Anthony Puccio. 22 of the 30 NBA teams hope to have their practice facilities open by Monday.
The strength of Celtics point guard Kemba Walker‘s left knee and the ascent of newly-minted All-Star Jayson Tatum are among the big questions facing the C’s if the 2019/20 season does indeed resume, according to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. Forsberg notes that injuries have been a big story in the Celtics’ paused season, saying that the team’s top seven players were healthy together for just eight of the team’s 64 games before play was suspended in March. With a 43-21 record, Boston sits at the No. 3 seed in the East.