Spears: KD-Warriors trade not forthcoming, but a call has been made originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Kevin Durant rocked the NBA world last week when he asked for a trade at the Brooklyn nets†
Marc J. Spears of ESPN Andscape took it up a notch this weekend when, citing sources, he reported that the warriors interested in bringing back the two-time NBA Finals MVP.
Spears went into detail on his reporting on Tuesday, explaining in more detail why a reunion between KD and the Warriors may not be completely out of the question.
“I get it. It’s the Warriors. It’s Kevin Durant. It’s going to be a firestorm when you put those two names together,” Spears said during an interview in KNBR with Greg Papa and John Lund. “But you know, essentially I said more than half of the league got to the Nets over Kevin Durant. And the Warriors are one of them. That’s a smart thing to do, I mean you should. And that doesn’t mean there’s anything imminent, that doesn’t mean there’s a trade they’ve talked about. Just the fact that there would be some interest in that certainly raised some eyebrows here. Whether in excitement or like ‘No , no no.’
“A call is a call, and that’s what [Warriors president of basketball operations] Bob Myers makes all the time. So I think people shouldn’t put the cart before the horse, but a phone call came in.”
Myers wouldn’t be able to do his job to the best of his ability if he didn’t call when a star player emerged in the trading market. Every front office leader works like this. So it makes sense that he would call Nets CEO Sean Marks.
Now things got a little more interesting on Sunday night when The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson reported that while a deal was “highly unlikely, Durant has been in touch with some of the Warriors stars and the idea of a reunion came up.
And while Durant’s final moments with the Warriors during the 2018-19 season were frosty and his departure was swift, the relationship between him and certain members of Golden State is still in good shape, leaving room for them to sort out any differences. unload and come back together.
“The Warriors did the right thing by not setting fire to the bridge the way the Oklahoma City bridge was burned,” Spears told KNBR. “Lacob did something clever. He said, ‘Hey, one day we’re going to pull his sweater back.’ Bob Myers kept a positive relationship with him, Steph Curry who is again the most important person in the group, kept a positive relationship with him and they are cool.
“If this were to magically happen, which I don’t think is anything imminent with Kevin Durant, but I think eventually with each passing day this is probably something he’s going to get more and more excited about.”
Any transaction the Nets perform for Durant will be extremely complicated. Brooklyn wants star young players to be involved in the deal and they also want a plethora of draft picks. But they also have Ben Simmons on their roster. He was acquired through a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this year and had previously signed a designated rookie max extension.
Teams may have two players on their roster for such a deal, but they can only acquire one through trade.
The teams that have the most to offer the Nets in terms of young players — the Warriors, the Phoenix Suns, the Miami Heat, etc. — all have players of interest to Brooklyn who have signed such contracts.
“The challenge, I think, is that” [Andrew] Wiggins should be included in such a deal,” Spears said. “And you can only have two players in a rookie max extension on a team. So whether it’s the Warriors, or it’s Phoenix, whether it’s Miami, because they have the same issues, I think the Nets will have to trade Ben Simmons to accommodate such a big move for Durant because of the people who are the rookie extensions on each of those grids.”
As Spears pointed out last weekend, the Warriors have the best stock of young players to lure KD away from the Nets. And that remains the part that makes Golden State such an intriguing team to watch.
“I think the most realistic places are where a combination is where he wants to be and where the Nets would get the best value,” Spears said. “Therefore, if you listened to what I said before I said, ‘Watch the Warriors.’ I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but they have the best assets. They don’t have the best draft assets, but in terms of young talent, in terms of an All-Star, future All-Star, potential players, you know, that’s what the Nets are looking for.
“So if you have a group of really talented young players, what do you need draft picks for? They’re better than draft picks. Forget the draft. Because those Warriors draft picks, if they got KD back, they’re not going to go anywhere.” They’ll be in their late 20s, maybe 30s, right.”
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A week after Durant submitted his trade request, there was no move from the Nets – no rumors of reported options on the table for Brooklyn. It’s not easy to trade a player of KD’s caliber who has four years left on an extension he signed last year.
Whether the Warriors’ interest is legitimate, has an attitude, or just kicks the ties remains to be seen. But it sure is fascinating that, after all they’ve been through over the past three years, they are one of the best equipped teams to take on Durant, even if it never happens.