The biggest news to come from the NBA trade deadline was the Brooklyn Nets retooling their roster. They ended up trading Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks over the weekend and on the night before the deadline traded Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns.
It sent shockwaves through the league as two All-Stars were on the move and both landed in the Western Conference, which was already going to be a dogfight. Now, even more so with the Mavericks and Suns having legitimate title aspirations with their star-laden rosters.
In a somewhat surprising development, the Nets didn’t actually canvass the league and open negotiations for Durant up to everyone. Instead, they negotiated strictly with the Suns. The familiarity of the franchises from offseason discussions centered around Durant helped and the package that the Suns ultimately offered was enough to get a deal done with no bidding war needed.
Had Brooklyn canvassed the league, one team that would have shown interest is the Memphis Grizzlies. According to Zach Lowe of ESPN, Memphis was ready to put together a very strong package centered around draft picks.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets, Memphis Grizzlies & Phoenix Suns Updates
Lowe noted that the Nets were aware of the Grizzlies’ high level of interest since last July. Memphis was reportedly willing to trade every available draft pick that they had at their disposal and swap of its own to get a deal done.
What ultimately separated Phoenix and Memphis were the players that were put on the table. The Nets acquired Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson from the Suns in the deal along with Jae Crowder; Crowder was re-routed to the Milwaukee Bucks in what became a four-team deal.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets, Memphis Grizzlies & Phoenix Suns Updates
The Grizzlies were not willing to go to such lengths. While any draft compensation was on the table, they were holding Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. out of any negotiations as the trio was off-limits. What the team had remaining on the roster to offer wasn’t able to stand up to the Suns’ wing duo that ended up in Brooklyn.
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