Kevin Durant requested a commerce from the Brooklyn Nets on June thirtieth, however after a number of weeks of commerce rumors, it was introduced he would stay with the franchise. Whereas there have been reviews of commerce calls and curiosity, no deal appeared to get anyplace near being consummated.
Ethan Strauss of Substack reviews that the Nets have been by no means severe about fulfilling Durant’s commerce request. The framing of Durant’s worth within the media went from “one of the vital beneficial commerce belongings ever available on the market” to comparatively restricted in worth.
“In response to NBA insiders, Brooklyn’s effort to deal KD was largely pretend,” writes Strauss. “Positive there have been a number of professional calls on the very starting, when Durant made his ask. After that time, although, the commerce discussions have been principally a façade, performed merely to recommend the hassle.
“As one GM put it to me, ‘There’s a distinction between making a name and making an attempt to construct a commerce. Brooklyn wasn’t making an attempt to construct a commerce.'”
The Nets are believed to have gone via the motions of contemplating a commerce merely “to to quickly placate an viewers of 1, in hopes of getting him to just accept that which he finds unacceptable.”
Brooklyn found when fielding commerce gives that there was much less curiosity in utterly gutting their staff for Durant than they anticipated, largely as a consequence of his age and the truth that he was making an attempt to depart his staff for the third time since 2016.
“That is based mostly on conversations with a number of NBA GMs: The operating perception in league circles is that the Nets needed to current Durant with the false actuality that they have been actively making an attempt to commerce him, as per his needs, as a precursor to cajoling him again into being a dedicated Internet,” writes Strauss.
