The Durant Sweepstakes

Mainstreet

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Not a surprise, I would have been shocked if PHX had landed Durant. BKY was never going to trade Durant which is why they had their outrageous demands of 2 All Star level players and picks, no one was going to give up all that and BKY knew it. They were just biding time until Durant cooled off. BKY may change their minds depending oh where they are at trade deadline but I am sure they are not going to just gift Durant to a team. I think Jones will sit pat with this roster until trade deadline. As much as we would love a a 4th big piece at the PF position, I don't think PHX wants to take on a multiyear contract like Randle, Collins or Kuzma. I would rather wait until trade deadline before making a deal for Bogdanovic unless he could be flipped then for a bigger piece but I would just see how well we do with what we have now. Unless PHX is willing to spend money and could get a PF without giving up too much now.

If indeed, the Nets declined a trade offer from the Celtics for Kevin Durant that included Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and at least one first round pick, it's easy to see why trade discussions didn't go far with the Suns.

I do think James Jones will make a roster move, but there is no rush to fill the 15th roster spot until the right player comes along.
 

overseascardfan

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If indeed, the Nets declined a trade offer from the Celtics for Kevin Durant that included Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and at least one first round pick, it's easy to see why trade discussions didn't go far with the Suns.

I do think James Jones will make a roster move, but there is no rush to fill the 15th roster spot until the right player comes along.
I saw reports on ESPN shows that BRK wanted Brown plus either Smart or Williams and picks for Durant which if true is why I believe Durant was not leaving the state of NY.
 

Mainstreet

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I saw reports on ESPN shows that BRK wanted Brown plus either Smart or Williams and picks for Durant which if true is why I believe Durant was not leaving the state of NY.

It appears the Nets wanted to keep Durant in Brooklyn unless they were blown away by a trade offer they couldn't refuse.

Teams talk all the time, so I'm sure GMs around the league did their due diligence.
 

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I saw reports on ESPN shows that BRK wanted Brown plus either Smart or Williams and picks for Durant which if true is why I believe Durant was not leaving the state of NY.
You can’t believe anything these days. Any whispers regarding rumors gets circulated by fact on twitter.
 

overseascardfan

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It appears the Nets wanted to keep Durant in Brooklyn unless they were blown away by a trade offer they couldn't refuse.

Teams talk all the time, so I'm sure GMs around the league did their due diligence.
That's what I'm saying, Durant wasn't going anywhere unless someone was dumb enough to send 2 All Stars and picks to BRK. How do you stop GM's from calling set the asking prices so high they don't waste their time.

You can’t believe anything these days. Any whispers regarding rumors gets circulated by fact on twitter.
If it were some random Twitter guy or Flex I would agree but the rumor came from Shams and Co so I believe its couldn't have been far from the truth.
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Covert Rain

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There is a paywall on the article, but here are some tweets from Duane Rankin with comments from James Jones concerning Kevin Durant.


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This just further confirms what Gambo said towards the end. Despite what “insiders” said there was never a deal, the Suns from jump never had what the Nets wanted and there never was an offer made to the Nets for KD. They were never “in the right place at the right time” nor did they have an opportunity to get him.

The Suns likely were playing the wait and see game to see if the Nets would come down on the asking price or seeing if they could acquire enough assets via a three team deal to entice the Nets. Nothing ever materialized.
 

Mainstreet

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This just further confirms what Gambo said towards the end. Despite what “insiders” said there was never a deal, the Suns from jump never had what the Nets wanted and there never was an offer made to the Nets for KD. They were never “in the right place at the right time” nor did they have an opportunity to get him.

The Suns likely were playing the wait and see game to see if the Nets would come down on the asking price or seeing if they could acquire enough assets via a three team deal to entice the Nets. Nothing ever materialized.

Once the Suns matched the offer sheet for Ayton, they never had enough chips to trade for Durant. That probably wouldn't have changed even if they had completed a sign-and-trade.

The Nets were more interested in keeping Durant.

It's possible things could change near the trade deadline.
 

Finito

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Once the Suns matched the offer sheet for Ayton, they never had enough chips to trade for Durant. That probably wouldn't have changed even if they had completed a sign-and-trade.

The Nets were more interested in keeping Durant.

It's possible things could change near the trade deadline.

Durant never really had any leverage. He wasn’t willing to nuclear and say he wasn’t coming back.

He’s under contract for the next 4 years and the Nets know they got him by the balls.

Does JJ actually have a back up plan? We’re gonna find out. He better
 

Mainstreet

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Durant never really had any leverage. He wasn’t willing to nuclear and say he wasn’t coming back.

He’s under contract for the next 4 years and the Nets know they got him by the balls.

Does JJ actually have a back up plan? We’re gonna find out. He better

I'm not sure there was ever a backup plan. James Jones will probably remain opportunistic.

Hopefully a trade develops or a player becomes available worthy of the MLE.
 

Covert Rain

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Once the Suns matched the offer sheet for Ayton, they never had enough chips to trade for Durant. That probably wouldn't have changed even if they had completed a sign-and-trade.

The Nets were more interested in keeping Durant.

It's possible things could change near the trade deadline.
Suns didn’t have much of a choice. Nobody showed interest in Ayton and the Nets didn’t want him. Can you imagine if the Suns had let Ayton walk knowing we were not in play for KD?

Holy crap this forum would meltdown.
 

AzStevenCal

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Suns didn’t have much of a choice. Nobody showed interest in Ayton and the Nets didn’t want him.
I think it was Woj that said acquiring DA would have put the Nets up against the hard cap and they were unwilling to do so.

Anyway, I don't think you can measure the worth of someone like Ayton based on an apparent absence of offers. It was obvious we were going to match and even if you think DA is worth a max, he's hardly worth a max AND what it would require to get him from us.
 

Covert Rain

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I think it was Woj that said acquiring DA would have put the Nets up against the hard cap and they were unwilling to do so.

Anyway, I don't think you can measure the worth of someone like Ayton based on an apparent absence of offers. It was obvious we were going to match and even if you think DA is worth a max, he's hardly worth a max AND what it would require to get him from us.
I didn't say anything about Ayton's worth. I am saying there wasn't a market for Ayton. Likely because nobody wanted to deal with the prospect of the Suns matching Ayton, wasting all that time and coming up empty while missing out on other players.

This board would have gone nuclear had we let Ayton walk and being where we are today (minus KD).
 

AzStevenCal

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I didn't say anything about Ayton's worth. I am saying there wasn't a market for Ayton. Likely because nobody wanted to deal with the prospect of the Suns matching Ayton, wasting all that time and coming up empty while missing out on other players.

This board would have gone nuclear had we let Ayton walk and being where we are today (minus KD).
I don't really see a difference in the two points but okay, in the end we're saying pretty much the same thing.
 

Covert Rain

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I don't really see a difference in the two points but okay, in the end we're saying pretty much the same thing.
I am not sure how you don't see the difference. Your implication was that I was holding it against Ayton or suggesting he had no value (aka worth as a basketball player). I am saying there was no Market for him which has a ton of other implications (like his contract situation). Those are clearly two different things.
 

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Durant never really had any leverage. He wasn’t willing to nuclear and say he wasn’t coming back.

He’s under contract for the next 4 years and the Nets know they got him by the balls.

Does JJ actually have a back up plan? We’re gonna find out. He better
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As much as I think they need a shakeup (2-3 rotation player upgrade) I don’t think there’s anything that could come close to KD in terms of a backup plan. We could probably get Randle and two picks from the Knicks for taking his contract but leaves Ayton with nothing to do offensively. I’ve brought up Orlando and Sacramento as teams that might have a wing/backup guard upgrades (Barnes/Isaacs, Anthony/Mitchell) but that would cost more than expirings. I’m guessing Jones will meet Ainge’s price for Bojan and call it an off-season.
 

Mainstreet

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Suns didn’t have much of a choice. Nobody showed interest in Ayton and the Nets didn’t want him. Can you imagine if the Suns had let Ayton walk knowing we were not in play for KD?

Holy crap this forum would meltdown.

I think we all agree the Suns made the right choice in matching the offer sheet presented to Ayton.

The Nets were not going to trade for Ayton because it would have hard capped them.

If things aren't going as planned with the Suns, we will find out Ayton's true value near the trade deadline, not that I am interested in trading him.
 

Covert Rain

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I think we all agree the Suns made the right choice in matching the offer sheet presented to Ayton.

The Nets were not going to trade for Ayton because it would have hard capped them.

If things aren't going as planned with the Suns, we will find out Ayton's true value near the trade deadline, not that I am interested in trading him.
The Suns are not trading Ayton unless it’s a major piece in a major package coming back. Even then Ayton would to agree. I don’t think he is going anywhere.
 

Mainstreet

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Adrian Wojnarowski thinks Kevin Durant could revisit his trade request at some point with the instability in Brooklyn.

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ASUCHRIS

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You might convince me the acusition of a Clarkson/Kuzma would be a better solution to giving up the farm for Durant.

The Dallas series showed us that when Cam Payne is bad, we're desperately in need of another creator. I hope something is done on that front. Kuz would be an upgrade to Crowder.
Bump. Kellan appears to be on team Kuz:


(although knowing what I know now, I would have given up Ayton/Bridges/picks for Durant)
 

AzStevenCal

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(although knowing what I know now, I would have given up Ayton/Bridges/picks for Durant)
Same here but it was never an option. They didn't want Ayton and supposedly said we didn't have the assets necessary. At the time, I was thrilled to hear it but Bridges has disappeared and Durant has returned to his MVP form. I don't think it would have paid off with a championship unless we also saw the return of last year's CP but it would be better than watching us get blown out most nights.
 

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It feels like a dream that we were first in the West for a significant part of the season. Now it feels like a nightmare and that we'll never win again.
I know how you feel. But I still believe this team, fully healthy with an impactful Chris Paul is a little better than last year's roster. I'm just not sure we'll ever be fully healthy this season.

And I have no idea how much of CP3's decline is due to injury rather than age. I'm still holding out some small hope that he can become the CP3 of last season where he was mediocre for most of the game and then played like a superstar for a stretch in the 4th quarter. But even that small hope fades when the scoreboard reads 52 to 20.
 

Superbone

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I know how you feel. But I still believe this team, fully healthy with an impactful Chris Paul is a little better than last year's roster. I'm just not sure we'll ever be fully healthy this season.

And I have no idea how much of CP3's decline is due to injury rather than age. I'm still holding out some small hope that he can become the CP3 of last season where he was mediocre for most of the game and then played like a superstar for a stretch in the 4th quarter. But even that small hope fades when the scoreboard reads 52 to 20.
At least Paul has shown some flashes recently.
 

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Same here but it was never an option. They didn't want Ayton and supposedly said we didn't have the assets necessary. At the time, I was thrilled to hear it but Bridges has disappeared and Durant has returned to his MVP form. I don't think it would have paid off with a championship unless we also saw the return of last year's CP but it would be better than watching us get blown out most nights.

Ayton was never in play. He couldn’t be combined with any other players and we could only take back 19 million. Those were the rules

And from reports we never even offered Bridges
 

AzStevenCal

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Ayton was never in play. He couldn’t be combined with any other players and we could only take back 19 million. Those were the rules

And from reports we never even offered Bridges
And I doubt we would have but there were also "reports" that we simply did not have the assets that Brooklyn wanted even if we traded DA elsewhere and threw the return into a Durant trade. At the time, no way would I have traded Ayton's value, Bridges, CamJ and our picks and pick swaps for Kevin but apparently the Nets would have passed on it regardless. Keep in mind, our picks appeared to be almost worthless.
 

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