Kevin Durant was the hottest name on the free agency market the second the window opened because of his stunning request to be traded from the Brooklyn Nets. While we haven’t heard anything from the man himself about where he wants to go, the entire league has been scrambling to try and trade for him.
Brooklyn has been trying to overprice Durant to the rest of the league after the incredible haul Utah got for Rudy Gobert. Jerry West has previously said that he doesn’t believe any team can afford Durant, but Skip Bayless has a different perspective.
One of the teams in the running for Durant has been the Miami Heat, but many have doubted whether they actually have the assets to try and get KD. Skip Bayless believes Pat Riley is going to make another big move and acquire KD to have another championship run before he has to call time on his career as the President of the Heat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KGzlDSjtv0
“If anybody can figure something out like this in ways that to the naked eye you can’t see it. Trust me but, and by all accounts, he is feverishly working behind the scenes to try to figure something out (for Durant). I believe Pat thinks of Kevin what Jerry thinks of Kevin. In so doing, Pat says, ‘I wanna win at least one more title here before I’m finished, and the one guy who can do that for me the fastest is that guy. If in fact he’s available, I have to figure out how to go get him at any cost.”
Riley is a master recruiter but this situation may be a little harder for him to make something happen from. The Nets are the only ones that need convincing and the Heat simply does not have enough first-round picks to entice the Nets.
Hopefully, the heat can figure out a multi-team trade where some team can send the Nets a couple of picks for players on their roster, but it’ll be very hard to keep a competitive team around if they give up most of their players. It’s a challenge for sure and Pat Riley will make sure he does everything he can do.
