NBA Free Agency 2022 Live Tracker: Kevin Durant Trade Rumors, Available Players, Contracts & Latest News

Andrew Schlecht and Alex Schiffer break down the Kevin Durant trade request, how we got here and which teams might be interested in trading for Durant.

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There is no incentive for the Brooklyn Nets to bottom out in a post-KD world because that would only help the Houston Rockets. The Rockets can trade picks with the Nets in 2023, 2025 and 2027. They owe Houston the unprotected picks in 2024 and 2026. So they need to build as competitive a team as they can. Can you do that centered on Ben Simmons? Not a starting team, but a team that can at least keep him in the mix for the playoffs in the East? Do they make a team acquire the remaining $38 million from Joe Harris over the next two seasons so they don’t have to deal with his injury anymore or do they need Harris and his shots around Simmons? This is about to be a couple of very strange offseasons for Sean Marks, but he at least has some experience with the mess he took on in Brooklyn when he was hired. The problem here is that now it’s his mess he has to clean up, not someone else’s.

The highest possible return. If I’m Sean Marks, I’m going eBay style on this. The highest bidder gets Kevin Durant. He would try to get the best player 21 and under and a host of young talent and/or draft picks. We have never seen a trade for a player like this.

An NBA scout told me, “Start with the Anthony Davis trade and go from there.” They were three young players, including Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram. Both guys turned out pretty decent and Josh Hart has turned into a solid role player. The Nets can do better than that.

(Photo: David Butler II / USA Today)

If you’re not on Kevin Durant’s list of favorite destinations, you have to ask yourself a few questions:

1. If Durant has done this now, what will his level of patience be in a place he hasn’t chosen? Do we have the organizational infrastructure to resist a superstar who is not charmed?
2. If we answered yes to the first question, are we willing to trade our best young asset plus all draft picks (and pick trades) for Durant? For one of the greatest players of all time on a four-year deal, that’s probably what it will take.

The New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons are managing and negotiating, and mostly with each other, but the choices the two teams have made represent a true starting point in team building.

Royce, there’s been a change of plans. You will replace Kevin Durant.”

In all seriousness… a quick explanation about Royce O’Neale going to Brooklyn. The Nets had an $11 million trade exception for Spencer Dinwiddie due next week, so the Jazz can send O’Neale to that exception without getting anything back. Moving off O’Neale’s money, meanwhile, gets Utah out of the luxury tax, assuming he, too, gives up Juancho Hernangomez at the end of the day before his $7.3 million for 2022-23 guarantees.

Utah will have $11 million below the tax line, enough to use most of its non-contributing MLE, add a couple of minimum contracts, and still stay below the line. They could still re-sign Hernangómez with some of that money. The Jazz will also create a $9.2 million trade exception.

Brooklyn’s pick to Utah would appear to be Philly’s 2023 first-round pick, likely ending in the mid-20s, but he’s also unprotected.

If the Nets trade Kevin Durant, does that mean a Kyrie Irving trade is also coming? He opted in so they can control where he lands, and he sure could create a weird vibe next season if Irving is in Brooklyn without his good friend.

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant requested a trade, sources say The Athletic.

Read more.

Not the main story here, but some of Deandre Ayton’s talks to Brooklyn that seemed pointless ten minutes ago suddenly seem very viable.

A group of top Warriors front office decision makers, including Bob Myers, Kirk Lacob, Mike Dunleavy and Larry Harris, will be settling in Los Angeles later this week. That’s where much of the NBA’s free agency business gets settled.