It feels like Groundhog Day every morning when we all wake up and tune into the NBA news wire to see more Kevin Durant speculation but no deal. Things were agonizing through the first weeks of July when the Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat continued to remain in a holding pattern of not giving up any elite assets for one of the game’s all-time greats, and have only since ratcheted up since the Boston Celtics (and Philadelphia 76ers) were named as KD’s new preferred landing spots.
The Cs are known to have the biggest prize possible for Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks in Jaylen Brown. Without Brown’s inclusion, a Durant deal has no realistic chance of getting done if it involves Boston.
Perhaps, though, there is a hypothetical deal that sends KD to the Boston Celtics that also includes Brown in the arrangement — but the latter is instead included by being re-routed to a third team.
Today, Hardwood Houdini concocts such a transaction, bringing Durant to the Cs and sending Brown to the Miami Heat:
Why the Boston Celtics do it
Acquiring Kevin Durant without giving up Marcus Smart should be the primary goal for Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens as negotiations creep into training camp in late September. MassLive’s Brian Robb has pegged that timeframe for when there could be ‘real heat’ for a deal, and a potential training camp holdout from KD could give Stevens leverage in talks.
Ceding two swaps in addition to two future firsts and giving up the two main contributors from the C’s second unit hurts, but the hope is that Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari will be able to pick up the slack.
Why the Miami Heat do it
Miami is giving up a lot of talent in this deal, but ultimately, Jaylen Brown fits the Heat culture to a ‘T’ and raises their ceiling higher than any of Tyler Herro, Nikola Jovic, or Duncan Robinson — at least in 2022-23.
Given Miami’s goal of winning a championship with their core of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Kyle Lowry, it makes sense to give up a potential star and two role players in order to nab a definitive star in Brown.
Why the Brooklyn Nets do it
Leverage is being lost by the second every day the Nets don’t accept a package from one of the league’s 29 other franchise, so as KD trade talks trickle into training camp, the prospect of nabbing a top star in return dwindles.
With that said, a player like Tyler Herro, who appears ready to make a star jump in the coming years, is the kind of prospect a potentially imminent rebuilding team should be looking to nab in any Kevin Durant trade.
Elsewhere in this deal, Nikola Jovic offers a more far-fetched, if not impossible, potential future star option, while Duncan Robinson, Grant Williams, and Derrick White immediately build a bench around Smart, Herro, and Kyrie Irving if the point guard decides to stick around following the trade of his good friend and current co-star in Brooklyn.