It’s looking increasingly like Kevin Durant will be traded from the Brooklyn Nets as he attempted a franchise takeover during a meeting with Joe Tsai this past weekend, demanding GM Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash go if he isn’t traded. Shams Charania (subscription required) listed the Boston Celtics with the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat as the primary KD suitors.
The Cs have been the popular betting favorite, and Tsai has since publicly backed the Brooklyn front office. Connecting the dots here, something massive could be imminent if that rumor of Brad Stevens viewing KD as the over-the-hump king on the chessboard is true.
What does the price look like in a deal, though? Marcus Smart may be a must, while Derrick White could also be included should the Nets want to move any unwanted salary, like Joe Harris, back to Boston.
Here’s the price Loyal Ricks Jr over at HoopsHabit set for the Boston Celtics to land Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant is the game-changing domino that, once fallen, will set the wheel in motion for the rest of the league and specifically the free agents waiting on franchises that can be used in multi-team trade arrangement for a player of KD’s caliber. The potential of a Donovan Mitchell deal has a similar gravity.
Durant could realistically ended up in anywhere in the Eastern Conference, or if a dark-horse team out west gets aggressive enough, back there too. Crazy things happen when the situation grows this toxic between a star player on a long-term contract and a brain trust that won’t bow down to him.
Ricks’ proposal could be on, or at least in the vicinity of, the money considering the concession being made to include the reigning Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart. Brooklyn’s trader-in-chief Sean Marks could ask for more draft picks and/or pick swaps, but the Nets don’t have a ton of leverage in negotiations anymore considering how this has played out in the public sphere.