Hardwood Houdini
Fansided

B/R’s lopsided Kevin Durant Boston Celtics trade proposal includes 2 Cs starters

By Andrew Hughes

Bleacher Report's lopsided Kevin Durant trade proposal involving the Boston Celtics would include two of the C's starters and plenty of draft capital Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Bleacher Report's lopsided Kevin Durant trade proposal involving the Boston Celtics would include two of the C's starters and plenty of draft capital Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes came up with several fresh trade ideas from the latest intel around the NBA rumor mill, and three of the four ideas sounded plausible. Unfortunately, the one that didn’t involved the Boston Celtics and the wretched Jaylen Brown-for-Kevin Durant trade rumor that Stephen A. Smith should have kept buried.

Hughes’ proposal showed how much the deficit between Brown and Durant has narrowed since last June when the rumor first started — involving just two Cs starters instead of two starters and the team’s best two cost-controlled prospects.

While Hardwood Houdini’s definitive KD trade proposal back on June 27, 2022, involved Brown, Derrick White, Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard, and the rights to two future first-round picks and two future seconds, and thus would have been something seen as worth giving up for in order to land Durant, B/R’s current pitch of just Brown and White — plus two future firsts, a future second, and the right to a pick swap — is lopsided because of Brown’s play and Durant’s added leg injuries given his frame and age.

Analyst believes Kevin Durant unlikely to be traded to Boston Celtics — or anywhere

While Kyrie Irving asking out of Brooklyn would seem to indicate that his friend KD, who he chose to join the Nets alongside in 2019, ESPN reporter (not actor) Zach Lowe poured cold water on that idea during the cleverly named The Lowe Post podcast (h/t RealGM):

"“I’ve been saying since the James Harden trade, that it just feels like the inevitable end of this is that (Durant) asks for a trade a second time, having already done it for the first time. I just don’t know how likely that is, or when it would happen. Around the league, I think there would be some surprise—even within the Nets—if it happened in the next four days. Because that’s an avalanche of stuff happening in a very short amount of time that all of the league needs to prepare for if it becomes a thing.”"

Durant could put pressure on the Nets front office to find him a new star running mate since his opinion of Ben Simmons is reportedly less than enthusiastic, but the Nets could also choose to sit him out given the long-term extension he signed in August 2021 and simply find the best deal for the franchise in the offseason. There’s no rush for a KD trade anytime soon from the Brooklyn front office’s standpoint.

Home/Celtics News