The Kevin Durant file is a gigantic molehill. What is a giga molehill? You push in one place, and it comes out a few meters further. On this Free Agency 2022 – the fault of this great dadet – all the files correlate with each other: “I think he will sign there if the other leaves there, unless the franchise wants to keep this one, in which case the other might land instead of him, but there”.
What, him once more? Even when the news belongs to Deandre Ayton, Kevin Durant seizes it. With the extension of the 1st choice of the 2018 Draft in Phoenix – up to 133 million over four years – the chances of seeing Kevin Durant land in Arizona have … plummeted. How is this done? The Suns were one of two teams given by Kevin Durant to Sean Marks, when asking for his trade. Why Phoenix? First, the Suns are among the favorites to win a bagouze, an asset that Kevin Durant rarely puts aside in his selection process. Two, the Arizona franchise was one of the best able to offer a serious package to Sean Marks. With a Deandre Ayton on the start – cold with Chris Paul and Monty Williams, but above all asking for a max contract – the hypothesis of an exchange in which the first pick took the direction of Brooklyn stood up. Until last night, when the Suns decided to match the Pacers’ offer to Ayton, and therefore extend the 23-year-old interior for a record sum. It is now becoming very complicated for the Suns to trade a package allowing the reception of the All-Star, without Brooklyn crying robbery, while maintaining a decent payroll.
The Suns still have the assets to make a Kevin Durant trade happen, even with Deandre Ayton’s new max salary potentially on the roster.
A package centered around Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, expiring salaries and all of their future draft picks is enough to make it work legally.
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) July 14, 2022
He’s not stupid, this Mr. Sidery. Not stupid, but somewhat utopian. The Suns actually have enough to send Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, peanut bars and draft rounds to Brooklyn. In the payroll, through extensive calculations and the eviction of a few role players, that might do it. But on paper, the Nets probably aren’t ready to host a package without an All-Star. And in Phoenix, although the association between Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Deandre Ayton is the dream of many a kid fed on Gatorade from the cradle, would it work without lieutenants able to hold the casbah? Well, that question belongs to the Suns. There is also no doubt that in the event of a proposal from the Nets in which Chris Paul and Booker are spared, James Jones would accept. We must convert this beautiful Arizona generation before the level of CP3 plummets. But the ball is in Brooklyn’s court, and I’m not sure that a better – less far-fetched – package isn’t available elsewhere. Searching well.
The Raptors and the Heat are still on the lookout, while Phoenix looses ballast in this high viper race. Nothing is done, everything remains to be done, but if with all the media noise, Kevin Durant stays in Brooklyn, there it will be difficult.
