Heavy writer and HoopsHabit editor Jack Simone came up with a trade proposal for the Boston Celtics to land Kevin Durant, and it is a best-case scenario that likely would get outbid by a contender with more to sacrifice than this mock swap sees the Cs give up.
Durant is ‘monitoring the Brooklyn Nets’ situation and considering options with his future’ according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium. That ‘opens the path for Kyrie Irving to proceed on finding a new home via opt-in and trade’, Charania adds.
Hardwood Houdini is of the thinking that landing Durant would likely take Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams as a baseline — with sweeteners like Payton Pritchard, Grant Williams, and Aaron Nesmith all thrown in as well.
This deal adds two of the aforementioned recent first-round picks but it does not, however, see Jayson Tatum, Brown, Smart, or the ‘Time Lord’ included. Simultaneously, the core is kept intact and one of the greatest individual scorers in the history of the game becomes C’s the fifth starter.
Here’s Heavy’s Boston Celtics trade proposal to the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant:
Why the Brooklyn Nets would not agree to send Kevin Durant to the Boston Celtics in this deal
Given the history of these two teams trading together, the likelihood of Sean Marks taking on the expiring contract of Al Horford–likely to just to eventually buy him out and allow him to sign with a contender anyway–and receiving Derrick White and a pair of future picks, which would need to be 2024 and 2026 first-rounders due to the Cs parting with their ’22 pick via Stepien Rule, is slim to none.
Obviously, Durant forcing the Nets front office’s hand and demanding a trade to the Celtics could drive the price down considerably, but this would still be a deal Brooklyn would face backlash for accepting. Making two such notable trades in the same decade would be a lot for a franchise that moved to the ‘Big Apple’ in 2012 and has two second-round postseason appearances to show for it.
At the very least, Marcus Smart and Robert Williams seems like a starting-point the Nets would consider, at a minimum, before they’d simply sit Durant out and hope he opens up his potential trade destinations.