The Kevin Durant trade request has been a roller coaster ride for the Brooklyn Nets. They are still holding out hope that Durant will change his mind and re-focus on contending for an NBA championship with the team, but it is anyone’s guess if that will occur.
Durant has seemed intent on getting moved, especially after the ultimatum that he gave to the franchise. During a meeting with team personnel and ownership, Durant said it was either him or the combination of general manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash. He no longer believes in the direction of the team and is not confident they can get their respective jobs done.
That certainly came out of left field, especially since Nash is who Durant helped hand pick as the replacement for Kenny Atkinson. It is tough to imagine him coming back after an ultimatum like that as there will have to be a ton of relationship mending.
A trade seems more likely than not given the circumstances. The question for the Nets is now, who will they make a trade with? There have been a few teams mentioned thus far with the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans being the most prevalent.
Another team is thrown their hat into the ring recently in the upstart Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies finished in second place in the Western Conference last season, losing in the second round of the playoffs to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors.
Inserting Durant into their lineup would be a huge boost for the team. Over at The Athletic, an update was provided about Memphis’ interest.
Recently, a new team has shown interest in Durant: the Memphis Grizzlies, league sources tell The Athletic. Fresh off a 56-win season, the Grizzlies have made new inquiries to the Nets about Durant, those sources added. Memphis has five first-round draft picks available (four unprotected selections of its own and one protected via Golden State in 2024) to utilize in a trade as well as young players like Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane, Ziaire Williams, Brandon Clarke, Kennedy Chandler and David Roddy.
The Grizzlies certainly have the pieces to build a trade package that would appease the Nets. Sending him to the opposite conference, where they will only face him two times per season and potentially the NBA Finals, is something that Brooklyn would like as well.
A potential limitation for the Memphis Grizzlies is their unwillingness to include Jaren Jackson Jr. or Desmond Bane in a trade package. Instead, they’d prefer to use future draft capital as the focus of a potential offer.
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