Kevin Durant’s trade request from the Brooklyn Nets, one that came not long after Kyrie Irving’s own trade request, is holding up the rest of NBA free agency as teams wait for the dominoes to fall before making their next move. Pacts are still being signed–including Danilo Gallinari’s taxpayer’s midlevel exception contract with the Boston Celtics signed on the first day of free agency–but a large number of free agents are holding out to see which teams will have money to spend or who will give them the best chance at an NBA Championship.
Durant and Irving both have likely destinations in mind. For the soon-to-be 34-year-old Durant, joining fellow mid-2000s draft pick-turned-NBA great Chris Paul and budding young All-Star Devin Booker in Phoenix is his preferred situation. Irving, meanwhile, wants a reunion with fellow 2016 NBA Champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, on the Los Angeles Lakers alongside Anthony Davis to form an even more formidable trio than the one the Suns are hoping to form.
Those are the most likely destinations for both, but a deal for neither has been struck so far. Brooklyn isn’t too interested in Deandre Ayton from Phoenix or Russell Westbrook from the Lakers — likely causing negotiations between the Nets and those squads to go in circles. Both the Suns and Lakers are the betting favorites for their respective targets, but the longer this drags on, the better chance a surprise team swoops in and steals one of them.
Or both.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst floated the possibility of the Lakers putting together a package, presumably including Davis and Westbrook, that would keep the Durant-Irving pairing together. As intriguing as that sounds, the Nets could actually get more immediate value from a different team, since L.A. doesn’t have a tradeable pick until 2027.
One such deal is the Miami Heat, who have enough win-now pieces and future assets to intrigue Brooklyn and have one player the Boston Celtics have interest in with their $17.1 million Evan Fournier TPE.
This mock trade sends Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to the Heat and adds Duncan Robinson to the Boston Celtics roster
For the Boston Celtics, it’s pretty simple: grab a shooter to complement a starting five that led the entire league in net rating (12 points/100 possessions better than 2nd best team) and defensive rating, and was third in offensive rating (h/t Max Lederman of NBC Sports Boston).
It’s almost as simple for the Miami Heat. Bam Adebayo has the highest ceiling of anyone gettable player in a Durant trade and while Pat Riley would likely give pause to giving up Bam for KD alone, for Irving as well, he’d consider it. The Heat’s new ‘big 3’ of Durant, Irving, and Jimmy Butler would be in good hands starring for a franchise that has proven capable of filling out a roster around a star-studded trio during the early 2010s with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.
Brooklyn isn’t getting a better collective return than this from any other team in the NBA. Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Nikola Jovic are legitimate building blocks and Kyle Lowry keeps the team competitive in the interim. They’d be getting the maximum number of draft picks and pick swaps allowable from this deal.
Who says no?