What is a fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I Am Damn for Valley, coming
at you with Surprise Surprise, a podcast about the latest Kevin Durants. Before
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NBA analysis at Hardwood Knox. So another Kevin Durant update, which it's interesting
because the article coming from the Athletic sham Sharania drops Monday afternoon and there's like
an update within like the first three lines. Then the rest is just like
the same gabbledegook that we've we've heard all along. Joe Si did weigh in
though later on which I'm glad I didn't rush to record a podcast on Monday,
I was taking a I want to call it a much deserved breather,
because I don't want to make it seem like I work hard than anybody else.
But I needed, I need to take a little bit of extra time
off. But let's get to the sham SHRANTI a portion he reports, and
a face to face meeting with Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Sai over the weekend.
All NBA star Kevin Durant reiterated his trade request and informed SI that he needs
to choose between Durant or the pairing of general manager Sean Marks and Steve Nash.
Sources with direct knowledge of the meeting tell The Athletic Durant stated he does
not have faith in the team's direction. Sources said Durant and SI spoke in
London on Saturday, and sources describe the discussion as transparent and professional. The
meeting took place a year to the day that Durant agrees to a four year,
one ninety eight million dollars contract extension with the Nets, and barely a
month after his initial trade request. So fast forward like six hours or whatever,
and Joshi goes on Twitter and says, our front office and coaching staff
have my support. We will make decisions in the best interests of the Brooklyn
Nets. This is Let's operate under the assumption that this report is verbatim,
word for word, absolutely true. There are like maybe two or three people
in the league that could have this conversation with in this exact situation and not
be just laughed out of the room. Kevin Durant happens to be one of
them. I did see follow up reports from people that I would not consider
a trustworthy source mentioned that Durant and Kyrie never really wanted Steve Nash in the
fold and that they're rightfully angry. I find let's even buy into that Kevin
Durant signed his four year, one nine eight million dollars extension knowing Sean Marks
was in charge the Brooklyn Nets front office knowing Steve Nash was the head coach
of the Nets. And Durant also came out at the end of this season
I think it was, and said something to the effect that Steve Nash should
be back because look at like he's been dealt essentially a crazy hand, and
the entire organization has been dealt a crazy hand and it's just for him to
now flip flop to will now you have to get rid of Steve Nash or
Sean Marks, who, by the way, did just sign an extension this
offseason. We have not received information or even confirmation as far as I know,
about how much that extension was worth and the exact terms of it.
But like that already happened. So now you're coming with this demand or ultimatum
after that step has been taken, and also when you kind of voice your
support for Steve Nash already. And I refuse to believe that the Nets,
specifically when it comes to Steve Nash did not weigh with Kevin Durant would have
wanted into the fold just because he and Nash had a pre existing relationship dating
back to when Nash worked with him while he was with the Golden State Warriors.
And so if Kevin Durant had a different choice as a head coach,
yeah, okay, fine, but I doubt that Steve Nash didn't have his
support coming in. That's not a hire when you're talking about hiring someone who
quote unquote skip the line. Since he didn't have all this pre existing assistant
coach head Spears, didn't spend all this time on the sidelines like other teams.
You don't make a higher like that in a situation such as this without
taking into an account what Kevin Durant wants. And so there are just levels
to the hilarity here of what Kevin Durant appears to be asking for. There's
also the slant though, that this is the Nets leaking it out so that
when they do trade Kevin Durant for less than what it's reported they wanted,
they're able to save face and just say, oh, well, he probably
wasn't going to show up to training camp. He wanted us to fire our
entire organization. Could it be that maybe I find it it's there. I'm
just trying to like the audacity of Durant to go in and request this is
just melt my mind mind a little bit, and maybe it shouldn't when it
comes to this NETS situation. And I think one of the other things to
really keep in mind here, let's not lose sight of the plot of the
real reason that the Nets have imploded, and that's because Kyrie Irving is Kyrie
Irving. If Kyrie Irving gets the COVID nineteen vaccine, We're probably not having
any of these discussions. Does does James Harden ever request a trade? Does
Kevin Durant ever request a trade? Certainly not. What does last season look
like for the Nets at all? If Kyrie Irving is a you know,
a full time player, if he's available on a night tonight basis for them,
that is the person who everyone here deserves. Blame Kevin Durant for hitching
his wagon to Kyrie Irving, the Nets for turning the keys over to the
organization and then deciding to kind of not follow through with that. When you
look at the stands, they've taken sense. But like Kyrie Irving is the
you know, the main breaking point to me, Like that's the common denominator
of all this is everything that went wrong with the Nets can be traced back
to what he ultimately decided to do by k not getting the COVID nineteen vaccine
and becoming this part time player. And he is in Brooklyn now he had
to pick up his player options because there was no other market for him,
and that situation is sort of fizzled outs where we know, okay, well,
if they don't trade Kevin Durant. Maybe Kyrie's back, or maybe he's
just gonna end up with the Lakers. Also part of that Shawnee report was
notes that three teams remained most heavily involved in the rant sweepstakes, the Miami
Heat, the Boston Celtics, and the Toronto Raptors. Both the Heat and
the Sun's Ron Kevin Durant's initialist. We have not received confirmation of an expansion
of that list since the Sun seemed to have faded out. Now that DeAndre
Ayton can't be a part of any direct deal or three team deal at least
until until January, and he'll have vital rights in that situation if it even
leaks out that far. So you have the Heat, the Celtics with their
Jalen Brown offer that was reported about a couple a week or two ago that
they were willing to move Brown as part of a Durant package, and then
the Raptors of all we sort of loomed on the Fringes. Will they give
up Scotty Barnes? Will they not? The stance has been so far that
they will not give up Scotty Barnes, but they can still depending on whether
they go with Ogianna Nobi and Gary Trent or Pascal Siakam as the centerpiece.
Plus all these picks, they can still probably build a better package than most
teams. I am curious if this not even the report, but Durant having
that meeting with Josi was in an effort to accelerate the process to get him
out of Brooklyn, sort of knowing that well, they were never going to
get rid of Marx and Nash. For Durant at this point, it just
feels like this is an organization that's really tried to seize control of the narrative
and over its own fate, and that to get rid of Marks after apparently
agreeing to an extension with him, the optics of that are just so poor.
And so if Durant, you know, if you do grant his request,
now what's on you go from extending Marks to firing him. You could
get rid of Steve Nash. I would argue, no problem. There would
be jokes criticism with people who believe that Durant specifically he had a huge say
in Nash coming into Brooklyn, But like, you can get over that because
I think it's you look at what happened this past season and even the year
before with all the injuries. I don't know that Nash has been dealt the
fairest of hands. I don't know that he's also done anything that's necessarily been
spectacular as head coach. The first season was probably more encouraging than the second
season, but then you look at everything that was just going on behind the
scenes on the court with injuries, what else was he supposed to do?
Still, I think you could get rid of Nash, like the coaches in
this situation, especially when you have Kyrie and Katie essentially saying that this is
a collaborative that they don't really have a head coach. Yeah, they're definitely
going to be replaceable, But for what the Nets have tried to do of
drawing this line when it came to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Duranton's basically the start
of the off season, it would be out of I guess it wouldn't be
out of character, but it would sort of miss the mark of what the
team is currently aiming to do. So I feel like Durant makes this request
or has this meeting at all, regardless of what was said word for word
in that meetup in hopes of excel rating the process that he doesn't have to
deal with going into training camp in September deciding do I show up, do
I not show up? Do I have to deal with the media once I
get there? Or is this going Are we ever going to be able to
get away from these questions? And there's also the look if you're the NETS
organization too, you should root for a resolution sooner rather than later, because
you don't want to go into training camp not to be made a decision not
only with Durant, but with regards to Kyrie and then sort of the rest
of your roster. You want to have a direction on where you're going next.
We know that they prefer a win now package in any Durant deal,
or one that's used when now with players who can help the media because they've
mortgaged so much of their own future already. But you need clarity on what
you're actually working with and could I see it both ways? Where they also
want this out there that the screws are being put to them. So if
they do accept not pennies on the dollar, but a package, that's going
to be significantly worse than people were expecting. Or that was you know,
being reported when Durant's initial trade request came through. Sure, this whole look,
all these were ports are wars of optics at this point. There are
people behind the scenes trying to win the press conference, trying to win the
direction, trying to push their agendas, their narratives. So we have to
keep that in mind. But my first, my first gut instinct to all
of the my first gut feeling to all this is that I'm I just find
it hysterical that this is where it's come through with drand like the optics here
are so bad for him. Even if that's not exactly how this meeting went
down, you have it's not even just a matter of if you chose this
team and then you were the one that chose to hit your wagon and Kyrer
Irving cause you signed an extension while knowing that Sean Marks was here, that
Steve Nash was here, and to now try after they after the organization goes
out and announces at least that they shown Marks agreed to an extension, to
now go out and try and force their hand a different way, It's just
it bends my brain. And then sort of in the backdrop of all this,
If Kyrie Irving says he wants to be in Brooklyn, which that's been
the that's just been the chatter ever since he opted in as a show of
loyalty. It was a show of loyalty. He wasn't that he had no
other options, and that it was a difference of keeping thirty plus million dollars
rather than take the miny MLI from the Lakers and free agency. Was a
show of loyalty that Durant still wants out knowing that Kyrie might be okay staying
in Brooklyn. Is this a way so or if you move Durant, you
know that Kyer is going to get out anyway. I also don't know how
you go through this entire process as Durant and you're not at least a little
bit pissed off at Kyrie Irving for the role that he played in this.
And like it's just I do tend to believe I will skew that I think
organizations receive too much credit for the work of what players are going to do.
In this case specifically, though Durant has made misstep after misstep and how
this was handled. If you had any doubt about the future in Brooklyn.
Why would you have signed an extension in the first place. Yeah, get
your money and then figure it out later. You're kind of seeing how messy
it's going to get if you need to figure it out later when four years
are left on your contract. There, I normally would say that the organization
will acquiesce to the top fifteen player of all time, who is still sort
of in his prime. But the steps that the Nets have taken to let
this situation deteriorate, it leads me to believe that, no, they're not
going to choose Durant over the pairing of Marks and Nash. And maybe they
end up getting rid of Nash anyway as they move into this next era of
basketball. But this almost sort of seals the fate of Durant in Brooklyn where
I would expect him Now, it's more likely for him to get traded before
training camp where he ultimately lands. The fact that we haven't heard more about
his list is a little odd. You would think maybe that's the next natural,
the next natural progression of all this. Perhaps are we going to hear
more than oh, he was willing to go to the Heat and the Suns,
And maybe the Celtics were kind of on there, but the Raptors aren't
involved, and the Pelicans get mentioned at all. Are there are other teams
that come out of out of the woodwork that want to maybe roll the dice
on Kevin Durant, give his health history and age. Because he has so
much time with on his contractors. He just opened up playing for them and
that's just going to organically more teams become interested in in going after him.
Those reports have yet to follow. We haven't really seen anything come through that.
Talks are intensifying. I will say of the three teams mentioned, I
think you probably say, if Gallen Brown really is on the table and the
Celtics are going to include draft equity on top of another player, whether it's
Smart, Robert Williams the third or Derek White, I would guess would be
the pick there. I think that they probably have the best package, the
one that adheres most to what the next they're looking for. I then think
it would go to Toronto pretty clearly. If they put Scottie Barnes on the
table, I think they would clearly have the best package then. But knowing
that they're not going to they feel like the second best team in this running
and then the Heat it's just getting to assuming they can get to three first
three swaps, then it's Tyler Hero and then it's you know, Nicola Yovich
is in there, but you're giving O Kyle Lowry. That feels like a
team that needs to find a third or fourth, third and fourth or or
facilitating party party to make this work. It's interesting that the report makes it
seem like the Suns are out on Kevin Durant. I can't imagine that they're
out on Kevin Durant. This to me, might be more effective of how
the organization views which teams can offer them or are willing to offer them the
best packages. Because right now, if you're a Phoenix, it's you know,
whatever money has to be out around, and there it's mcail Bridges,
Cam Johnson, and then your entire draft is basically the set up there.
I could see, I could make a case to you as for why that's,
as to why that might be more appealing than what Toronto could be offering,
But it's hard to stack that up against if Boston is going to attach
draft equity and another player to Jalen Brown and then the Heat. I'm not
gonna lie. I probably prefer Phoenix's best package to the Heat's package by a
pretty substantial margin, unless you're turning Kyle Lowry into other picks or a player
that far exceed what you'd be getting value wise out of the Suns. So
it is odd to me that the Suns are not mentioned like at the four
of this anymore. I can't to me, I can't imagine that DeAndre and
was sort of the like the only way, the only mechanism through which they
were going to acquire KD because we knew that DeAndre was never going to go
to Brooklyn. It was just too tough with them having to be hardcapped.
And then they brought back Nick Claxton. He's a terrible fit with Ben Simmons.
It was always under this guy's that oh Eton can be used sent to
a third team or a fourth team that's going to send other stuff to Brooklyn
to make this work. So if the rant still wants to go to Phoenix,
Phoenix, Phoenix is involved in this like Mega Stars, they're gonna put
even with four years left on their deal, it absolutely matters. What I
do wonder is whether, by reaching this point, if it's the Nets who
have self who are self serving in the sense of, oh, everyone knows
the pressure being applied to us from Kevin Rant, how unreasonable some of these
asks has been specifically to get rid of Sean Marks after we just extended him
to try and pin blame on the direction of the franchise that you were comfortable
with a year ago and then the last year you're not comfortable with it anymore.
And what has changed abu the organization in that last year? Is it
their fall up? James Harden requested to trade. No Kyrie Irving happened,
that is what actually happened. So the Nets actually have a unique form of
cover here, I think, relative to how most of these situations might play
out. Yeah, they'll come off looking bad regardless. But I do wonder
if this would embolden them to send Kevin Durant somewhere that he doesn't necessarily want
to go, or isn't on his first list, his second list, his
sublist, whatever it is. And given how few teams I can we can
single out that could give him a realistically give up these attractive trade packages for
him. Maybe it doesn't even matter. Maybe we've already gone through them all
when you're looking at Miami and you're looking at Boston, you're looking at Toronto
and Phoenix. Then we've mentioned New Orleans a million times on this podcast,
Like what other team is going to come in and bowl over the nets with
an offer? I do think Atlanta can probably get to an interesting number of
picks if they're also going to be dangling Capella and Collins maybe again in third
or fourth team scenarios. Cleveland, if they're not gonna put Mobili on the
table, that's really tough to envision. So you've all and if the Clippers
aren't going to give up Paul George, if Menace isn't gonna, you know,
break up its core and put Jaron Jackson Junior and Desmond Vane on the
table, you start to run out of options here pretty quickly. And just
there are teams that might be interested that really won't have enough. It feels
like Golden State already bought Bat out of this situation. Philly doesn't really have
a ton of pull in these talks, aside from Tyrres Maxie, who by
himself is super appealing, but he's just not enough to get a deal done
on his own. Portland really no longer has the assets to me to get
it done after going through their their off season. If you wait long enough,
you can build things around Shane and Sharp and Jeremy Graham. But even
your draft pick equity is not going to be that sexy at the moment,
and so like you run out of suitors very quickly. I know the Wizards
were sort of mentioned, and they might have a more trade attractive trade package
than most when you're looking at oh including Denny Avda. Can we get to
salary filler with Chris Tops or we tack on Will Barton and Monte Morris,
There's Kyle Kuzman in there. Having that draft pick ode protected right now to
the Knicks does make figuring out what their best offer would be a little bit
difficult because you're probably not going to get the Knicks to unprotect that pick in
twenty twenty three. If you do, yeah, then you can get to
a point where you're like Miami, it's three first three swaps and then the
other players that you have to offer. I think you can make a case
or arguably more valuable than what Miami would be doing. Because Tyler Hero,
maybe you consider that the best prospect between Miami and Washington, but also like
having Denny Avda, having Johnny Davis having you know, uh, maybe maybe
the Nets like Ruby Hachimura having Daniel Gafford as well, who still remains young.
There's just there's more levels to what the package that the Wizards could build
at the mid end. Salaries are definitely going to look better to the Nets
than a Kyle Lowry as a salary anchor. When you're talking about a Will
Barton or kuzm or Monte Morris maybe really high on prezingis I wouldn't necessarily believe
that they would be so. Point being, it really feels like when we're
mentioning the teams that were mentioned Boston, Miami, Toronto, maybe throw New
Orleans and Phoenix in there. That sort of feels like, maybe throw a
six team in there. Like, it doesn't feel like this Kevin Durant sweepstakes
will be that expansive unless he specifically names a team that we're not talking about,
and he comes out and says, I want to go to Orlando and
I want to stay there, not even trolling the Magic here. It would
need a development along the lines of that, And so I don't know that
this request changes anything unless you believe that the Nets were going that there was
a chance that the situation Brooklyn was going to be salvaged and that they would
keep Kadie, keep Kyrie. Ever, see what they have with those two,
Ben Simmons, the rest of the roster, Joe Harris coming back,
they traded for Royce O'Neil, They bring back Patty Mills, they bring back
Nick Claxton. You know Cam Thomas in year two. For him, the
team can still be really good if they stay this way. I just kind
of think we're at the point where it's too far gone. And if this
is what Kevin Durant wants, or if this is what the Net I think
they want, or if this is how the Nets are painting what Kevin Durant
wants, it doesn't feel like there's a resolution to be had here. And
sort of in the backdrop of all this, meanwhile, was I don't know
how much stock I placed in this report coming from Rick Buker on Fox Sports,
but that Ben Simmons left a group text chat when they asked him if
he was going to play in a game against Boston this past year. He
didn't answer them. He just left the NETS group chat, and so this
is like we've reached the point of just Nets bullshit where anything to me could
sound believable, and a report like that, Yeah, I'll just buy into
it, because, like, whatever's wrong with this organization, I'm just going
to assume is fact at this point that Kevin Durant stuff specifically, it just
it feels like this means it's more likely that he's going to leave. I
wouldn't doubt that the team would get rid of Steve Nash if that's what it
came down to. But the Marks request pushes it one too far. Whether
it's a like whether you're actually thinking about Marks the value of the organization or
for me, I'm looking at it at it optically for not just his ext
but the message the organization has been trying to convey since the end of the
season that they're not going to Kauto to Kyrie Irving. They're not going to
Kauto to Kevin Durant. So that's where I'm at with this. I'll have
we'll have more on this as it unfolds. I suppose I don't. This
request certainly has not changed the suitors that would materially be involved. It's still
the same organizations and names being bandied out about there. I think the biggest
conclusion we can draw from this though, is that if you had to bet
now whether Kevin Durant would be with the Nets or play a game with the
Nets next season, That's not something I would even consider investing in at this
point. It just feels like that situation is too far gone. I guess
stay tuned. This is the this is the team that keeps on giving the
Nets. There's always going to be these different ports of them apparently until next
time. Please remember, though, to rate reviews, subscribe to us wherever
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hit the subscribe button, hit hit like comments, and all the videos help
the algorithm love us back. I'll be back with another fuller podcast on Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday. I think this week's will stay tuned for that
unless there's any more break the news that could come out. And finally,
I leave with the shout out to the one, the only the legendary would
never request for in trade because he's so permitted to whatever championship caused of which
he is a part. Frank Nila Keena