Kevin Durant trade: Late September could be when there’s ‘real heat’ on KD trade front

For those hoping for an imminent Kevin Durant trade resolution, well, keep waiting as patiently as you have been since late June. You’re going to have to, at least according to NBC Sports’ Pro Basketball Talk host Kurt Helin. 

Helin recently said that ‘nothing likely gets done soon, it may be late September before we start to get real heat on the Durant front again’ at the end of his piece exploring the possibility of KD joining his former teammate with both the Brooklyn Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder, James Harden, with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The reasoning had to do with the late-September start of training camp. Helin pondered whether or not the Nets would be willing to risk having serious chemistry issues for the start of training camp and compared the situation with Ben Simmons’ own standoff with the 76ers last season.

The 76ers could put together a package based around Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, and Tobias Harris plus future draft compensation, but that isn’t seen as the best trade package available — that’d be from the Boston Celtics, who have an ace in the hole named Jaylen Brown.

Late September would be a bad time for the Celtics to pull off a Kevin Durant trade

Quite frankly, if by late September a Kevin Durant trade hasn’t already been pulled off by Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens, then there shouldn’t be a KD transaction done by the front office before the season starts.

After coming within 96 minutes of NBA Championship No. 18 for the franchise, as well as a first title for a Cs core that has been to the Eastern Conference finals in 2018 and 2020 but were stopped short, it’d be borderline demoralizing for members of Boston’s roster to get to training camp, begin preparations with a revamped group that made two key acquisitions in the summer and then find out that a Kevin Durant trade is going to drastically reshape their game-plan.

If KD is going to be acquired by the Celtics, it better happen sooner than later. Come late September, it isn’t going to be nearly as desirable anymore — especially after every free agent has found their home for the upcoming season.