The Kevin Durant saga is still hot around the NBA, even though there haven’t been many updates about KD’s status. He wants out of the Brooklyn Nets and reportedly has a list of teams where he’d like to play next. The Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat have been deemed KD’s favorite, but they’re not the only ones fighting this fight.
The Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and even Golden State Warriors have been mentioned in these rumors, but nobody has made an actual move for the 2x NBA champion. This has opened the door for speculation, as everybody is trying to find the right team for KD right now.
Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd recently gave his two pennies on this, naming a series of young players that he could or could not trade for Kevin Durant. He mentioned four players that the Nets wouldn’t get for anything in the world: Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Doncic.
However, in the next group, he mentioned a couple of figures that could find their way to Brooklyn for KD. The first name he brought up was Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, but Colin ended up saying that the Celtics wouldn’t agree to it (3:18):
The player I'm trading straight-up for Kevin Durant is _____@ColinCowherd reveals his list pic.twitter.com/kQA2E495yf
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) July 8, 2022
The ‘I’d Sleep On It’ group: Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, Devin Booker, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell.
“I would sleep on it with Jayson Tatum, but I think the answer would be ‘no.’ “Jayson worries because he doesn’t have that alpha, sort of Mamba Mentality thing where he verbalizes sometimes his lack of confidence. But he’s a 24-year-old kid. Again, athletes now, in this generation, he’s got 10 years minimum of prime. Minimum. Kevin, you can argue because of his injuries, is at the end of his prime, or out of it. Jayson Tatum played Kevin Durant in a playoff series this year, I thought Jayson outplayed him. Jayson doesn’t have an ego, Jayson is all-in, Jayson’s committed, Jayson’s not impulsive, I think when he wants to, he can be the best defensive player, Jayson gets along with everybody in Boston. They love Jayson Tatum. I’d sleep on it, but I wouldn’t the move.”
This is an interesting trade idea, but it’ll be hard to see the Celtics getting rid of their best player for someone that is past his 30s. Of course, the C’s have a terrific supporting cast, even if they deal most of them to Brooklyn, but it doesn’t seem likely that Boston sends Tatum to Barclays Center.
Perhaps Jaylen Brown could be that guy, but the Nets are looking for more than that at this moment. Every day we learn new details about Durant’s situation while more trade ideas surface. This is already the biggest saga of the summer, and nobody knows when it will finish.
