Kevin Durant remains a member of Brooklyn Networks despite his June 30 trade request.
The Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat have all been mentioned frequently as potential contenders to acquire the 33-year-old star, who Brooklyn has put a heavy price on.
But a new report from The Athletic says the Memphis Grizzlies have made it.new requests‘ on Durant.
Recently, Boston reportedly offered Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and a future first-round draft pick to Brooklyn for Durant. Meanwhile, the report said the Grizzlies are ready to leave with a plethora of first-round draft picks to acquire Durant.
All in all, the report said Brooklyn’s trade talks with other teams have been “nonexistent” recently. Boston isn’t ready to move big man Robert Williams III, Memphis isn’t ready to move young players like Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr., Toronto isn’t ready to move Scottie Barnes, and Brooklyn wasn’t fascinated by a trade package from the center of the Suns around Mikal Bridges and future first-round draft picks.
Additionally, Miami has shown no interest in moving all-star center Bam Adebayo, while the Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks have explored Durant’s trading options.
Given the dull state of his trading market, could Durant ultimately play for the Nets on opening night of the 2022-23 NBA season? Additionally, could he do so alongside Kyrie Irving, who exercised his $36.5m player option for next season and has been the focus of trade talks ever since?
Durant and Irving were recently spotted training together in Los Angeles, and Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe thinks it’s a positive development for Brooklyn.
“It looks like they have a good relationship,” Sharpe said. “I have a hard time believing that they would train together if they didn’t get along well. That bodes well for Kyrie too, considering it doesn’t look like KD will be traded, and if KD isn’t traded, it doesn’t look like Kyrie will be traded, so that’s working out well for those Brooklyn Nets.
“I don’t know how well things are going at KD. KD probably still wants to move, but it doesn’t look like it [it will happened] As we get closer to camp, I don’t see a scenario that they would trade it in mid-season at the close of trade. It looks like Kevin Durant will return to the Brooklyn Nets for at least another year and Kyrie Irving will join him.”
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving train together amid Nets trade rumors | UNDISPUTED
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant trained together over the weekend. Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe decide if that’s good news for the Brooklyn Nets.
Skip Bayless also thinks that Durant and Irving are training together is a promising sign for the Nets.
“The X factor was that it felt like Kevin asked for a trade because he was done with Kyrie, that Kyrie cheated on him,” Bayless said. “Kyrie had everyone rubbed wrong because he didn’t get vaccinated. He wouldn’t attend. I thought it was going to destroy the psyche of this team all year and Kevin just couldn’t take it and I thought we had a half-assed Kevin in the first round of the playoffs.”
“Boston was much better. Boston’s defense just attacked him and made him look weak, basically made him say ‘no, mas’ So you know you’ve got Kyrie there for another year at a pretty modest price.
The nets were swept by the Celtics in the first round of the 2022 playoffs. Durant is entering his 15th active NBA season (he missed the 2019-20 season with a torn Achilles tendon). He averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game last season while shooting 51.8%/38.3%/91.0%.
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