Kevin Durant loves to shake up the NBA from time to time. If he detects excessive quiet and gets bored, he decides to change teams. And if he changes teams, he changes the league and changes the entire system established until then. The interest of a player of his size in leaving a franchise, something that the Oklahoma City Thunder already suffered in 2016 or the Golden State Warriors in 2019, puts anyone on alert. It doesn't matter if it's viable or a simple dream to be able to count on him who is, for many, the biggest star in the league if injuries allow it. Nobody loses anything by asking, and dreaming is a right.
It's been almost a month since Durant asked to leave the discipline of the Brooklyn Nets. A franchise that bet everything on immediate success, forgetting about sustainability and the organic construction of a winning project. Well, not even putting him together with Kyrie Irving and James Harden, two other of the most prominent names in the league in the last decade (offensively, the defense was someone else's business), the Nets got the ring. Not even close to him, although it is necessary to point out here that the three have only been able to share the floor in 16 games, with a terrifying balance of 13-3 in their favor. What would have happened if everyone had stayed healthy is one of those great unknowns that can never be resolved.
In Durant and Irving's first season together in Brooklyn, they were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Toronto Raptors. In the second, with Harden already in the engine room since January 2021, cruelly eliminated in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks. A Durant toe stepping on the 3-point line, Irving's absence due to injury and Harden's physical discomfort were to blame for that dramatic drop. Finally, this past season, Irving's refusal to get vaccinated, the frightening of 'The Beard' and the absence of Ben Simmons left the Nets depleted, who were again swept at the first change, this time by the Celtics.
And Durant will think, "This is as far as I can go." The forward has already played in three 'superprojects', and only achieved glory in one, that of the Golden State Warriors (he touched it with the Thunder in 2012, when he fell in the Finals against the Miami Heat; and in 2016, when he lost in the seventh Conference Finals game, precisely against the Warriors). Everything indicates that his next step will be towards another team in this category. The slab of having joined the franchise that beat him to sow terror in the NBA will always weigh on him. However, speaking of a player of Durant's historical entity, is there any possibility that it does not go through forming a 'super team'? Isn't it his presence that immediately turns a normal project into a 'super project'?
More than half the league has inquired about him, but very few have the pieces that Brooklyn will demand to let him out. More convoluted if possible, the operation becomes because of the presence of Ben Simmons in the squad, a young man who signed a maximum contract before his fourth year in the NBA. Under current league rules, two players with this contract status cannot share a locker room, forcing the Nets to rule out Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum and other big names in the league. list of possible rewards.
The board of directors of the New York franchise is interested in getting, in exchange for one of the greatest talents in basketball history, a budding young star with an All-Star level and many rounds of the draft (the maximum is seven), enough to be able to recover from the blow that the hiring of Harden meant, for which the Nets mortgaged his future, running out of almost no picks. Plus, they're in a position to ask for just about anything they want, since Durant has four years left on his contract and has the most to lose. Which teams could be realistic destinations?
Toronto Raptors, Memphis Grizzlies and Miami Heat are three of the franchises that pool the resources to pay for one of the biggest transfers in the history of the competition: rosters with great young players with projection and draft rounds intact. These three, who would be, a priori, the most viable, have been joined in the last few hours by the Boston Celtics, one of the most important projects in the league today, finalists last season and defeated by the Golden State Warriors.
The team led by Ime Udoka is in a difficult moment. The template has the potential to continue in the fight for the ring, but it has been in that discussion for several years and has not yet achieved success. There has been speculation about the possibility of breaking up the couple formed by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in order to, in some way, reshape the team without the need for an absolute reconstruction and enhance the chances of success. According to ESPN journalist Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics have been willing to include Brown in the trade, which makes them the number one contender to take the Nets forward.
"Boston could build a Durant package that would include Brown, plus three unprotected first-round draft picks (2025, 2027 and 2029) and two swappable picks (2024 and 2026)," Wojnarowski told ESPN. He also assured that nothing is firm yet. The drama of the summer could stretch even beyond the start of the regular season. This silent storm, which is shaking the offices of the NBA although everything seems to be calm, will not only affect the teams involved, but the entire league.
Many teams will be doing the math to see how they might lure Durant. Others will already have the accounts done, but will be waiting to see the movements of others. Some will give up strengthening in order to be able to assume, when the time comes, the cost of the superstar. Everything seems calm, but that tranquility is nothing more than a mirage. Behind closed doors, the NBA is more hectic than ever. And Kevin Durant, in the eye of the hurricane, enjoys it.
