Nets Linked to Trade Talks with Three-Time All-Star by Rival Executive

Getty Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Utah Jazz drives into Devin Booker #1 of the Phoenix Suns

The Kevin Durant and Brooklyn Nets trade situation took a recent turn with the news that the 12-time All-Star will likely be sitting down with Nets team owner Joe Tsai this week. The news was first reported by Heavy’s own Steve Bulpett, who shared quotes from league sources about the upcoming meeting. 

“What I’m hearing is that KD is going to meet with the owner this week,” a league source told Heavy Sports. “He’s going to go directly to the owner, Joe Tsai, sometime this week. We’ll see how that works.”

Whether or not this means that Durant will rescind his trade proposal and be ready for training camp like Brooklyn hopes is up for interpretation until the meeting takes place. It remains unclear what the future of Durant will be with the Nets. Perhaps, he will decide, like Kyrie Irving, to run it back at least for next year in Brooklyn, or maybe the trade discussions get pushed to February’s trade deadline. 

Either way, one Eastern Conference executive recently told Heavy’s Sean Deveney that the Nets have teams where they want them in trade negotiations and even named one three-time All-Star from the Phoenix Suns. 

Devin Booker Named in Trade Possibilities

When discussing the current status of trade talks, the league executive told Deveney that because of recent reports, teams looking to add Durant would likely have to up their offer to do so, and the executive named Devin Booker as a possible player that could be offered. 

“The Nets have gotten them to the point they were trying to get them to, which is, ‘OK, do we include Bam (Adebayo) in one of these packages?’ The young players, Tyler Herro, the picks they have, that is not going to get Durant. Adebayo will. When the stuff came out about Jaylen Brown, that was aimed at a team like Miami, letting them know they’ve got to add Bam, letting Phoenix know they’ve got to add (Devin) Booker. If the package is Bam and some of their bench pieces and three picks, the Nets might not do better than that,” the Eastern Conference executive said. 

It’s important to note that Booker will be unable to be in any trades for a year after signing the four-year supermax extension with the Phoenix Suns. Perhaps the executive forgot about Booker’s extension in the busy offseason or maybe this could be a future deal. After all, Durant still has four years remaining on his contract, and the Nets are under no obligation to deal him this year, and maybe they give their core of Durant, Irving, and Ben Simmons one year as an experiment to see what they can do. 

Nets Durant Asking Price

Booker would fit the Nets asking price in Durant deals with a current NBA All-Star, and the Suns would likely have to include another rotation player and draft picks, but Durant with Chris Paul and some of the other young and developing pieces in Phoenix would be interesting. Perhaps after another year, Phoenix will be more tempted to trade their young star.