Thursday afternoon reports surfaced from the Nets front office that Kevin Durant has requested a trade out of Brooklyn, his preferred locations are reportedly Phoenix and Miami. This request has long reaching implications for the rest of the NBA. Earlier in the week, reports had already surfaced about Durant’s teammate Kyrie Irving asking to pursue a trade from Brooklyn as well before eventually saying he would be accepting his current contract’s player option. With Kevin Durant’s trade request that player option may not mean he’s staying in Brooklyn.
Multiple teams are said to be interested in Irving, both the Mavericks and Knicks pursuit of Irving would rely heavily on current Dallas Maverick point guard Jalen Brunson’s decision about his future. It’s been reported that Brunson is leaning heavily toward leaving the Mavericks for a 4 year $100+ million contract with the Knicks. If Kyrie Irving was suddenly available and wanted to stay in the New York area you have to believe that getting Irving would take priority over Brunson. If that is the case then Brunson would likely return to Dallas or hold out and see if there are any other suitors around the league with deep pockets. If there is not hope that the Knicks could receive Kyrie Irving then the belief is that Brunson is headed that way.
Brooklyn’s search for a Kyrie Irving trade partner will likely gain more suitors than the potential trade for Kevin Durant if only because Kyrie is on a 1 year contract compared to Durant’s 4 year contract. If the Mavericks were able to flip some of their assets for Kyrie it would no doubt be the biggest acquisition in the history of the franchise outside of the draft day deals that brought in Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Dončić respectively.
The Mavericks are fresh off a surprisingly deep playoff run into the Western Conference Finals. They have to ask themselves if trading away a bulk of the players that got you there is worth it. Chances are the team would be forced to trade some of their most productive and important players from last seasons playoff run. Is 1 guaranteed year of a big name superstar like Kyrie Irving worth that? If the answer is a resounding yes, then do it Nico.