Nets Star Kevin Durant Openly Recruited by Western Rivals

The future of the Brooklyn Nets is looking quite murky as Kyrie Irving has reportedly reached an impasse with the team, and there’s no telling what impact that’ll have on Kevin Durant’s future going forward.

News of the impasse comes from The Athletic’s Shams Charania and things could be trending towards divorce for the two sides. While Irving has long been looked at as the lone domino to fall here, his departure could lead to Durant wanting out as well.

As of right now, Durant has kept his cards close to his chest as he’s not formally asked for a trade in the event Irving leaves, and he has also confirmed he hasn’t spoken to the disgruntled guard about free agency.

Despite nothing official, players have already started recruiting Durant to their team. A pair of Portland Trail Blazers stars posted the same image to their respective social media pages that show Durant in a Blazers jersey.

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Durant to Portland

Way back when Durant was drafted in 2007, there was a big debate about who should go number one over him and Greg Oden. The Blazers ended up picking Oden who managed to stick around until 2014, but he was never near the level of Durant who went number two to the Seattle Sonics.

Fast forward to 2022 and it looks like the Blazers are attempting to fix that mistake by recruiting Durant. Both Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic posted images of Durant wearing a Blazers jersey, so the two of them are making their thoughts very clear.

Nurkic posted his on Twitter, but Lillard’s image can be found on his Instagram story. Openly recruiting the Nets superstar doesn’t guarantee he’ll find his way to Portland, especially since Brooklyn has him signed for another four seasons.

No matter the case, it’s looking like the Blazers stars are making it clear they want to bring Durant to the team.

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Is It Possible?

Giving up Kevin Durant seems to be very unlikely for the Nets because there’s little to no chance they’d be able to get similar value back for him, especially from the Blazers.

In the trade of James Harden, the Nets were able to get Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond in return, so while they gave up a clear-cut star, they were able to get rotational pieces back, and if Simmons can bounce back they have a star there as well.

In a trade with the Blazers, the Nets would need to get a bunch of young players and draft picks, something that could be worthwhile if they do want to move him for whatever reason.

If you’re a Blazers fan, it is very exciting to imagine a world where Durant and Lillard are sharing the same court, but that just seems like a pipe dream as it’d require a lot of things to happen. Then again, this is the NBA and strange things do happen. However, even this idea might be too far out there.

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