Nets Wanted Both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown For Kevin Durant
By Liam McKeone
Things are getting tense between Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets as the disgruntled superstar apparently told team owner Joe Tsai to fire Steve Nash and Sean Marks or Durant wanted a trade. Tsai then tweeted that the coaching staff and front office has his full support, signaling the stalemate would continue.
The end is not in sight unless the Nets lower their asking price, which they won't. Thanks to the James Harden trade, the Nets owe all their picks to Houston for the next five years, so sending Durant out for peanuts in order to tank is out of the question. And it's nearly impossible to put a price on a player of Durant's caliber anyway. No team is going to rise to the Nets' asking price, but that isn't stopping them from shooting for the moon.
Boston Celtics reporter Adam Himmelsbach wrote about the possibility of Durant ending up in green for the Boston Globe today. According to Himmelsbach, Brooklyn attempted to squeeze Boston for not only Jaylen Brown, the most popular KD trade piece on the market right now, but also Jayson Tatum.
According to the source, Brooklyn initially tried to pry both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown from Boston. That proposal went nowhere, of course. The source confirmed recent reports that Brooklyn later shifted its focus to a potential deal centered on Brown, Marcus Smart, and a massive haul of future first-round draft picks. But the Celtics were not interested.
The epitome of "the worst they can say is no," right?
Even after Durant couldn't win a game in the playoffs this year, there will be those who believe it's worth moving heaven and Earth for a player of his caliber. But Tatum is a legitimate superstar in his own right and Brown is approaching that territory. The Celtics trading both of its cornerstones for Durant would put them in basically the same position as the Nets right now, just without Kyrie Irving involved. They would be championship contenders on paper but have very little depth and overly reliant on Durant to be a superhero.
Further explanation is not needed, but it's an interesting look into Brooklyn's mindset. Even with the owner's clear frustration with what's going on they're going to squeeze every last drop of juice out of a KD trade if it happens. And if this is what they're aiming for, a trade will never happen.
Imagine Kyrie showing up to camp after missing most of last year and Durant not being there. What a world!