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The Brooklyn Nets have been fielding offers for Kevin Durant for over a month now. However, no deal has been good enough to even build traction for the Nets. The teams that have been reported to be most in the mix for Durant have been the Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, New Orleans Pelicans, and even the Boston Celtics. None of which have had a package good enough for the Nets.
Phoenix is now unable to trade Deandre Ayton after matching the historic offer sheet from the Indiana Pacers, and that has them out of any deals for now. Miami does not have the pieces necessary unless they include Bam Adebayo in the deal. The Raptors are refusing to include their rookie of the year, Scottie Barnes, and therefore, are out of the mix. Then Boston has proposed a deal including Jaylen Brown, but the Nets countered their previous offer. New Orleans, it remains hard to see where they stand in negotiations.
However, one Eastern Conference executive told Heavy NBA Insider Sean Deveney that the Nets have team’s just where they want them in Durant trade negotiations.
Eastern Conference Executive on Durant Negotiations
An unnamed Eastern Conference executive recently told our own Sean Deveney that so far, the Nets hesitancy in their current trade negotiations has helped get them to the point they were hoping to get to.
“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.
The executive talked also talked about if it will be enough to push the Heat over the edge and deal Bam for Kevin Durant.
“From the Heat’s point of view, it’s Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, and Kyle Lowry, it’s only a two-year window, but they can win it all. What the Heat have now, they can’t win it all. It’s like, trade Bam or bust at this point,” the executive continued.
Current Durant Negotiations
The Celtics leaks being a way for the Nets to get leverage in negotiations with other teams makes sense as other NBA Insiders shared that the Nets and Celtics negotiations were “weeks old.” The news helping teams like Miami realize that they would have to include Bam Adebayo in all proposals is a good negotiation tactic, especially considering that Tyler Herro is currently the centerpiece of the Heat’s negotiations.
It also has the Nets linked to Devin Booker in any deal with the Phoenix Suns, which is an interesting development to consider the Suns tooling for a CP3, Kevin Durant, Deandre Ayton, and co. title hunt.
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