Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets are engaged in an all-out war. As Durant angles to get himself traded, Joe Tsai and GM Sean Marks remain reluctant to meet his demands.
And with the superstar swingman locked into his contract for several more years, this could drag o for quite a while.
In the latest update from The Athletic’s Sam Amick, one league executive described Brooklyn as unmotivated to lower their ask in any deal for Durant.
Most folks around the league with whom I spoke seem to believe the answer is no, but we shall see. As for the notion that the Marks-Nash ultimatum might speed up the process by forcing the Nets to lower their lofty demands in a deal, I didn’t find much support for that idea either.
“Marks is still asking for the world; that won’t change,” one front office executive texted late last week. “They could call his bluff and make him come to camp. I can’t see him sitting out.”
While that ultimately might be the case, this situation hardly seems headed the way of Kobe Bryant’s unfulfilled Los Angeles Lakers trade request in the summer of 2007, either. By most accounts, the end has unofficially arrived between Durant and the Nets.
In order for Durant to be traded before training camp, one of two things has to occur. Either Durant stirs up enough trouble to essentially force Brooklyn’s hand, or a team out there gets desperate enough to offer the Nets something they might accept.
It’s a gamble either way, but don’t think for a second that the Nets are going to fold so easily.
They have the leverage in this situation and also have a roster capable of winning a championship. Even if Durant continues his antics, we can expect the Nets to take their time and not force anything that doesn’t set them up for the future.
