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With the success the New York Knicks have found during the NBA playoffs despite the injuries they’ve dealt with, they look to possibly be one piece away from being a legitimate threat to win the NBA Finals. If Julius Randle was healthy, he could’ve been a potential threat for the Knicks, but past playoff struggles aren’t in his favor. To replace Randle’s playoff struggles, Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report proposed a deal to send Kevin Durant to the Knicks for Randle and more.
Knicks would get: Durant
Suns would get: Randle, Mitchell Robinson, three-first round picks
Buckley alludes to the Boardroom interview Durant did in February. During the Boardroom interview, Durant said the Knicks are “popping now.”
“They’re popping now,” Durant said. “They’re playing well. The last few years, they were playing well.”
That comment is different than what he’s said in the past.
“Is that enough for New York to reignite its pursuit? It should be, as having a scorer of his caliber alongside ascending star Jalen Brunson might make this attack unstoppable,” Buckley wrote in his May 16 article proposing three trades for the Knicks. “It would take a fortune to get Durant—maybe three first-round picks, plus Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson—but he’d be worth it if he can stay healthy.”
Kevin Durant’s Agent Wanted Him to Play for the New York Knicks
During the interview with Boardroom, Duran’t agent, Rich Kleiman, told him to tell the camera and any New York Knicks fans watching that he wanted him to go to the Knicks.
“You definitely did, you definitely did, more than anything,” Durant responded.
Durant said he was looking at the team and the Knicks weren’t “cool to play for” at the time when he joined the Brooklyn Nets.
“I was looking at the team, and the [Knicks] was not cool to play for. The team was not cool to watch. It wasn’t a good team to watch. I might have embellished a little bit or lied a little bit about the brand. I might have thrown the brand in there, too. But of course, the Knicks brand – living in New York made me truly realize how it’s the greatest city in the world.”
As Durant and the basketball world have seen now that the Knicks are succeeding, their brand is as big as any in basketball. If they were to add Durant, that’d be even more of the case as the four-time Scoring Champion would be arguably the biggest star the franchise has ever had.
Potential Perfect Fit Next to Jalen Brunson
Adding a player of Durant’s caliber next to Jalen Brunson would be an ideal fit. The reason for that is because Durant has played with star guards in the past like Brunson with Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving.
He knows how to play without the ball in his hand and can still find ways to be who he is, which is scoring the basketball efficiently.
Durant’s scoring ability has been on full display in recent seasons and his entire career, averaging at least 25.0 points in every season besides his rookie year. Since 2020-21, Durant has averaged at least 26.0 points per game, including three seasons in which he averaged 29.1 points or more.
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