How long before NBA mega trades and surprises start happening?
“We are going to go right from the NBA Finals into the offseason headlong. You’re going to get your action very soon. Trust me,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst predicted Tuesday.
While Windhorst said there’s nothing currently brewing with the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo, he does believe the Suns will trade Kevin Durant in the “coming weeks.”
“I expect them to look into the Durant trade market pretty soon,” Windhorst said of the Suns. “Now there are going to be a handful of teams that have interest in Durant. The key with Durant will be this: He has one year left on his contract, is he going to want to sign an extension and is he going to want to be a part of the process of the trade and are the Suns going to let him be involved in the process? That’s a key factor going forward.”
The latest betting market from DraftKings sportsbook favors the Spurs and Rockets to trade for Durant, with the Knicks and Wolves tied for the third-best odds.
If the Wolves do get involved, there appears to be a trade package that, according to longtime NBA insider Zach Lowe, has been “batted around league circles.”
The idea? Minnesota sends Phoenix Rudy Gobert, Donte DiVincenzo and Rob Dillingham for Durant.
It’s the same trade idea offered up by Michael Pina on Lowe’s podcast this week.
“The trade you just mentioned… is one that is batted around league circles now and then,” Lowe said. “I’ve heard it in the last couple days. It’s just theoretical. Just theoretical, people. But I just keep hearing Minnesota’s name come up [for Durant] and the combination of aprons and player options and does Mike Conley have to get thrown in as a salary filler; you threw in Dillingham. I just think they would be loathed to do that. It kind of breaks my brain a little bit.”
It’s a clean deal if only the Wolves and Suns are involved, but it gets much more complicated if a third team gets involved — and that’s very possible considering the Suns will be looking for the best possible package in exchange for Durant.
“In the summer, it’s much easier to rope in a third team and I think a theme that we are going to have I a lot of these Durant trades is Brooklyn,” Lowe said. “Can Brooklyn be used as a salary dumping ground? And what is Brooklyn going to demand in exchange for being used as a salary dumping ground? And are those demands such that it’s actually hard to satisfy all parties in this trade? And further more than that, are there constructions where Nic Claxton goes to Phoenix because they need a center so badly if Brooklyn is involved as a third team.”
It could get complicated, but a good starting point for discussion appears to be Gobert, DiVincenzo and Dillingham for Durant.
