This nails it for me. Durant has got away with a lot of shit because he gives a lot of “all access” interviews to the media (where of course he does nothing but babble nonsense) and because he’s been around even bigger lightning rods his last two stops (Draymond and Kyrie)
Pelicans would be my preferred destination. They made the playoffs last year without Zion & adding KD to a playoff team & subtracting no one who actually played would be fun. Ingram/McCollum/HERB etc. I also have a soft spot for both the Pels & KD.
I think that’s pretty good for getting rid of KD and Simmons. Do you think they should give up picks as well?
Yeah, as the Nets, I'd much rather have some team's mortgaged future for 7 drafts than have Bam. KD may stay healthy, but he also may not, in which case his contract is crippling and those drafts become very valuable very fast.
Isn't Zion's new contract the designated rookie extension (see Keith Smith tweet below)?
Yes, and that also delays Zion's being able to be dealt.
The key word there is “nearing”. The Pels could trade him on his current contract and let the Nets extend him. This brings other complications, but nothing insurmountable.
I think it changes things, just not that much. Trading Theis (the only rotation player in the deal) for Brogdon meant that the Celtics got a bit smaller, so the prospect of getting bigger (Jaylen and either White or Smart for Durant) is nice, but ultimately trading one bench guy for another doesn't greatly impact the potential trade of all stars.
This misses the point: the celts were prone to prolonged offensive droughts. A healthy (big if) Brogdon and Galinari can remedy that, partly via relieving the pressure on the Jays
Hasn't he only had one achilles surgery in those past 4 years? Obviously a big one though
If Jaylen leaves at the end of the contract, does he retroactively become a mercenary with no loyalty to the franchise or the city?
Yes, I’m about as pro-KD trade as it gets on this site and even I’m tapping out on that one. The Nets will blink and settle for a sweetener like Begarin/additional pick(s), I think. Or maybe Grant, if the Celtics blink. But I would be shocked if they agree to let Jaylen/Smart go.
I posted this in the KD Sweepstakes thread (best sweepstakes since the Jalen Brunson sweepstakes), but KOC would do Jaylen + Smart (At What Price Should the Celtics Trade for Kevin Durant? - The Ringer).
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Absolutely, and also we've never seen anything from Durant to suggest he has that level of buy-in in him.
What does this even mean?
I think we were talking about committing to a team and not shooting his way out of town at the first sign of adversity. Obviously he's a great player. He's also a selfish front-runner from a team-building standpoint and that's a bit of a risk.
I mean....
Why? He's unrestricted, it means you have no control over the situation. Maybe he stays, maybe he goes, if he's unhappy he's gone (and he has the potential to be looking to build his brand). Durant is under contract, he has to both be unhappy, and you have to agree to move him. Durant doesn't have the same incentives as Brown either, so if you put a good team around him, based on his history he probably hangs around.
That doesn’t guarantee he does so. His association with Kanye and emphasis on building his brand could throw a real curveball here. And Jaylen is a guy who might have other priorities beyond simply maximizing his gross salary.
not by enough to really matter, you're talking a couple million over the first 4 years, and given his age he doesn't care about the extra year because he's going to want to hit the market early anyway.
A bigger media market? Any of the many cities in states with Republican political leaders and more restrictive laws? SLC (generally considered the most racist fanbase), OKC (another notoriously racist fanbase).
Atlanta is probably one spot. And being from Marietta it makes some sense on that level too.
That's not how this usually works in the NBA though, is it? That seems more like an NFL thing. NBA superstars who want out use the media to cause ruckus and become a general problem for the team until they get what they want.
I’m guessing that Tatum is bought in if Brad goes ahead with this. You don’t potentially piss off the franchise without getting buy in. Or, at least, I highly doubt Brad would. It’s also possible that Tatum has a good relationship with both and is generally fine either way. He really can’t lose in either scenario.
I didn’t use the word ”guarantee,” but the C’s have home field advantage. Why would he leave money on the table to sign elsewhere?
How many max-ish players in Jaylen’s situation under the current CBA are leaving their current franchises for elsewhere?
White is more than a sweetener, he is needed to match salaries. Either he or Smart pretty much has to be in there. Nets clearly would prefer Smart and Celtics would clearly prefer White. Jaylen is valuable enough that I think the Nets ultimately back off Smart. But it may take the inclusion of Grant or more picks/Begarin to complete it.
The Bam workaround would be a 3-way trade where Bam goes somewhere else. Feels like the Heat kinda need Bam, though, & agree they can't really field a competitive offer without him.
True but 3 way trades are just so hard to line up though, especially when the 3rd team isn’t just a salary dump. I would never rule Riley out but it feels like KD only makes sense there if you can get him and keep Bam, which is not possible.
How many of those guys are there? Most guys like Jaylen can sign lucrative extensions, which he can't. But off the top of my head...
DARKO likes Jaylen a lot more than the other metrics (15th vs. 44th in Raptor and 60th in LEBRON) all the metrics agree that Durant is still both elite and a lot better than Jaylen.
What about KG was fake? Everything I’ve read about KG says that he was borderline unhinged when it came to basketball.
This is good old Rocco talk, who felt that Garnett liked to pick on smaller/weaker players (Calderon was one example) and backed off against big guys. Not an endorsement of that position, but that’s where that comes from.
