When Kevin Durant got injured in 2019, not many believed that he will return to the player he was before that gruesome injury. But KD proved his doubters wrong with his return for the Brooklyn Nets.
Although he couldn’t lead the Nets to an NBA Championship, he was undoubtedly the best player for the teams in the last three seasons. But Durant is seemingly done with the franchise and requested a trade a couple of weeks ago.
There were several reasons behind his decision, but the end result remains Durant wants to start the next chapter of his career. When a player of KD’s abilities asks for a trade, you’d expect every NBA franchise lining up for his services.
To be honest, that would be true if KD hadn’t become injury prone in the last few years of his career. Additionally, any team that will try to trade for KD will have to give a lot of assets in return to the Nets. In the longer run, this could do more harm than good to them.
NBA analyst Adrian Wojnarowski recently explained this when he talked about why teams are hesitant in trading for Durant.
“He is under contract for four years and my sense is the owner is willing, unless they get a deal for Kevin Durant, he is willing to have an uncomfortable situation. … Brooklyn is trying to trade Kevin Durant and you look at the marketplace, five first-round picks for Rudy Gobert or whatever Donovan Mitchell might fetch. I think the hard part for teams is ‘Maybe we can get Kevin Durant in a trade but will we have enough to win a championship?'”
As good as Kevin Durant is, he still needs a decent supporting cast to help any team win an NBA Championship.
Apart from maybe one or two teams in the league, there aren’t many who can trade for the 2x NBA champ and still have enough good players left to provide him with an excellent supporting cast.
But let’s still not forget the value that the Slim Reaper brings to any team that he plays for in the future. Hopefully, the situation about his future will get clearer in the coming days.
