NBA Insiders Sound Off on Adrian Wojnarowski’s Kevin Durant Trade Report

Getty Jaylen Brown Guarding Kevin Durant, Boston Celtics

At 2:31 AM Eastern Standard Time on Monday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted a shocking report that The Boston Celtics have emerged as a suitor in the Kevin Durant trade discussions with the Brooklyn Nets. The tweet read: “ESPN Sources: As Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant’s trade request approaches its fourth week, the Boston Celtics have emerged among teams engaged in talks on a possible deal.”

Not only did Wojnarowski report that the Celtics have the best odds to land Durant because they would include an All-Star in Jaylen Brown in the deal, but he also ended any rumors that they would deal Tatum. 

The next report came from Shams Charania of The Athletic, who shared what the deal that the Celtics offered was. “The Celtics offered Brown, guard Derrick White and a draft pick to the Nets for Durant, sources said. The proposal was rejected, “Charania said.

He also went on to share what the Nets would be looking for in a deal with the C’s. 

“Brooklyn has asked Boston — in any proposal — to include Brown, Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, draft picks, and potentially one more rotation player, those sources added.”

However, while Wojnarowski shared the report on Monday, they may not be very current events in NBA trade talk. 

Windhorst: These are not Fresh Talks

Following the reports on July 25, Brian Windhorst shared that the Celtics engaging Brooklyn in trade discussions was week’s old news. 

“I know that it came out today, so it’s front of mind, but from what I understand, those are not fresh talks,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Monday.

So if the Nets aren’t in any active negotiations with the Celtics, who are they talking to? Windhorst went on to elaborate on what the current state of mind on Durant trades may be. 

“Right now, the Nets’ viewpoint is: If they can’t get their price, they’re going to ride out the storm,” Windhorst said. “They could start the season with Durant, or that could be a negotiating stance.”

Bleacher Reports Jake Fischer, on the July 26 episode of ‘Please Don’t Aggregate This,’ also shared similar reports that the Nets and Celtics offer goes back to discussions in Las Vegas at the NBA Summer League. 

Celtics and Nets Talks Date Back to Summer League

Fischer, on his July 26 episode of his podcast, talked with Celtics writer Jared Weiss about the Celtics being linked to Brooklyn in offers for Kevin Durant and including Brown in the deal. Fischer also shared that the offers he heard about were weeks old. 

“I will start off by saying, I heard about Boston checking in with Brooklyn at some point during summer league,” Fischer said. “and I checked around on it after the first person told me, and in an off-the-record situation, I was told, ‘Yeah, a conversation happened but writing anything about it now would make it a little bit of a bigger deal than it actually was.” 

So as of now, Fischer has only heard of one conversation that went down with the Nets and Celtics as far as trade proposals go, and he didn’t write about it. He checked on things after the Wojnarowski report and continued on the podcast, saying, 

“I don’t know what’s happened since then, but nothing occurred in the last week or so between Boston and Brooklyn. I’ve talked to people on both sides and other people around the situation who would know I kept hearing that these talks were weeks old.”

While an offer between the Nets and Celtics for Durant does seem to have happened, nothing seems to be currently happening. Why Wojnarowski shared the news as if it was new and active, but multiple other credible insiders are reporting it’s week’s old is certainly confusing, but all signs point to the Nets continuing to prepare for a Durant return in Brooklyn.