As the Brooklyn Nets continue to battle it out with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant has apparently begun to consider his own future.
Whether or not Durant eventually becomes available remains to be seen, but several NBA teams are reportedly preparing in the event he does. And that’s a significant development.
“I can tell you this,” Zach Lowe said during The Lowe Post podcast this week (26:46 mark). “This is what teams are doing. Teams are already operating under the… not the assumption, but we need to prepare for the contingency Kevin Durant is available via trade in six days, or seven days.”
Durant signed a contract extension with the Nets in 2021 and has four years remaining on that deal. However, there are some who believe his future with the team is tied directly to Irving’s.
“There are teams rooting for Irving to opt-out and walk away from the Nets, believing it would give them a chance to cobble together trade packages to acquire Durant,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said this week. “As much as Durant asking out hangs over the Nets, there’s also the reality that four years on his contract will mean he has little, if any, voice on when or where he would be traded. This would be a small-market team’s dream, robbing a goliath of an MVP-level talent whose contractual circumstances would leave him little choice but to play for them.”
And for that reason, Lowe believes every single NBA team should prepare a “what-if” trade proposal for Durant.
“Every team in the league has to at least have a meeting about what we should offer for Kevin Durant,” said Lowe.
As Wojnarowski alludes, Durant will have little say over where he goes should a trade market develop, but expect several teams to be hot on his trail.
H/T: Grant Shirley
