The Kevin Durant trade saga will be one of the biggest talking points of the 2022 offseason, even though no trade ended up taking place because of how it impacted the entire league. Teams were bullish on even extending their own players to contracts to make sure that they had the assets to trade for Durant. After nobody could afford to do so, and KD returned to the Nets for the 2022-23 season, Patrick Beverley got upset.
Beverley voiced his displeasure at KD holding up the offseason and causing people to miss out on contracts a day before he was traded to the Lakers. Durant responded to Beverley with the hashtag #BLAMEKD. Former KD teammate Andre Iguodala has stepped up to defend Durant:
“Pat, Pat, Pat you gotta chill out please, please. You’ve had a great summer, so let’s end it now while you’re ahead. So basically, Pat Bev said, ‘Nobody saying nothing about KD holding up everybody’s summer where guys have to wait until he makes his decisions because teams are on pause and that’s the nature of the business.'”
Did Kevin Durant Slow The Offseason Down?
It is challenging to say that KD wasn’t partly to blame for the slow-moving offseason that we had. Durant’s trade request was announced prior to the free agent window opening, so many teams put negotiations on hold to see if they have the assets the Nets would want in a possible KD trade.
The Nets could have used the team’s offers to prove to KD that whichever team he will go to will be left weaker as a result of them giving up assets to send to Brooklyn. No team matched the asking price the Nets had set, so they weren’t empowered to move him.
The market has started taking shape now, with the Utah Jazz being the biggest sellers on the market. Beverley made it to the Lakers, and teams will fill up their roster spots. Yes, KD might have delayed this movement around the league, but he can’t be considered directly responsible for teams not doing their offseason business to keep a pipe dream of acquiring him alive.
