After weeks of speculations, twists and turns, the Kevin Durant trade demand has ended, for the time being, with the former MVP and two-time NBA champion agreeing to remain with the Brooklyn Nets for the the upcoming season, the team announced, Tuesday. Durant and his business partner Rich Kleiman met with team owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, general manager Sean Marks, and Nets head coach Steve Nash in Los Angeles, with all parties nodding that the best path forward would be for KD to set aside his trade demand.
pic.twitter.com/wQfhrKqUeM — Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) August 23, 2022
Background to the Trade Request The announcement comes after a couple disappointing seasons from the talent-packed Nets, especially after being swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of last season’s playoffs, and a summer-long deadlock about Durant’s and fellow star Kyrie Irving’s futures with the team. E2gsports reported some two months back that both Durant and Irving were unhappy with Nash and Marks’ leadership with the team, partially due to Marks not giving the unvaccinated Irving a long-term contract extension.
Kevin Durant will always have Kyrie Irving’s back pic.twitter.com/ploywT6u6q — Cody Mallory (@RealCodyMallory) March 13, 2022
What happens next is yet unclear. Finding the right role for Ben Simmons will be a challenge for coach Nash, although his unique skillset potentially could compliment Durant and Irving quite well. In the same vein, Brooklyn has a few young players and a surplus of draft capital to upgrade the roster around its big three.
The NBA Championship Albatross General Manager, Sean Marks added that the goal remains to bring a championship to Brooklyn, and that aspiration is likely to happen by keeping Durant, who remains one of the best scorers in the NBA. The forward is set to begin a four-year extension he signed last summer, but the prospect of the trade had been the biggest story in the NBA this summer.
Now that the warring parties are sheathing swords for the collective good of the Brooklyn Nets franchise, it then becomes a matter of interest to the team’s fans and avid legionnaires of the hoop, whether or not the potentials and expectations long imagined from Durant, Kyrie, Simmons and other role players would ultimately be fulfilled and met eventually.
Ben Simmons Kyrie Irving Royce O’Neale Kevin Durant Seth Curry Joe Harris Patty Mills TJ Warren Cam Thomas Nic Claxton Your 2022-23 Brooklyn Nets — NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) August 23, 2022
Perhaps, time will tell.
#SteveNash #JoeTsai #BrooklynNets #KevinDurant #KyrieIrving #SeanMarks