Over the last two months or so, the focus of the entire NBA has been on one player, and it’s none other than Kevin Durant. After signing a new contract with the Brooklyn Nets, KD shocked the league with a trade request just a couple of months later.
Now, after almost two months of drama around Durant’s future, he has simply decided to stay with the Nets. It was surely an anticlimactic finish to Durant’s trade request.
But one might wonder what could be the reason behind a player of KD’s caliber not finding a single team that could convince the Nets of a decent trade package. Well, NBA analyst Colin Cowherd has a theory for why other NBA franchises didn’t pursue hard enough to trade for Durant.
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"Kevin Durant is trapped, but it's his making."
— @ColinCowherd on KD returning to Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/fIKwlXgOAj
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) August 23, 2022
“Milwaukee was interested, Golden State was interested, Boston was interested, Miami was interested, Phoenix was interested, but those are well-run teams, and well-run teams aren’t going to gut their franchise for a guy that wasn’t even happy in Golden State. They’re not going to gut their roster. They’re not going to gut their future with six number-one picks.
Brooklyn probably said, ‘Here are the choices. You can stay with us, we’ve got talent, we like our roster, a lot of shooters or go to a desperate poorly-run franchise and you can be a $20 million chandelier in a lousy house.'”
As Cowherd explained, KD’s reputation has taken a huge hit since leaving the Golden State Warriors. After winning two rings with the franchise, KD willingly left the team and chose to join the Brooklyn Nets.
He hasn’t even played three full seasons with the franchise and has already demanded a trade. It is obvious that the rest of the league saw that as a huge red flag and seemingly decided not to push hard enough to acquire Durant via trade.
