In Brooklyn, Kevin Durant is doing everything he can to force team owner Joe Tsai and GM Sean Marks to trade him as soon as possible. Tsai and Marks, meanwhile, are doing (almost) everything in their power to convince him to stay.
While they haven’t met all of Durant’s recent demands, there have been conversations about what a return to Brooklyn might look like, and it’s the scenario that the Nets would rather see play out.
At this point, nobody knows how this stalemate will end, but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst did reveal some new details in his latest update on the situation. Here’s what he said:
“I just don’t think they want to trade Durant right now,” Windy said on the Rich Eisman Show. “What they’re asking for from these teams, it’s not the basis for… if I know on your door and say ‘I’d like to buy your house.’ ‘Okay, uh, I will sell it to you for $37 million.’ You don’t really want to sell your house. When you ask for something like that, you’re not actually interested in selling. So these teams are not actually interested in negotiating. So what are we doing here? Call us back when you’re interested in negotiating. But I think teams will stay in touch.”
“So what it really comes down to is Durant. Where is Durant when it comes to training camp? Would he consider not reporting? He has asked to be traded, he has not been traded. He asked for the coach to be fired if they want to keep him, he has asked the general manager to be fired if they want to keep him and they have not fired those guys and it sounds like they’re not going to fire those guys.”
The tricky part for Durant will be deciding what to do if the nets keep him around. With Nash and Marks still on the squad, it’s going to set up some awkward conversations in the locker room.
Still, the situation could be manageable if Durant just accepts coming back for another season. Since he still has several years on his deal, KD has almost no leverage in all of this and may be forced to choose between showing up to play for the Nets or just not showing up at all.
