Latest about Kevin Durant Landscape as the NBA trade deadline is approaching

On By Littum

As the Kevin Durant landscape continues to unfold on the way into the NBA trading deadline on Thursday, and Phoenix Suns continues to measure the market for the 15-time all-star and former MVP, the Golden State Warriors are not the only team to try To find a way to land the 36-year-old superstar.

League says Dallas Mavericks, fresh by their Luka Dončić-For-Anthony Davis exchange, who sent shock waves through the association, has dreams of adding Durant to their Davis-Kyrie Irving-led group. While the likelihood of Dallas pulling out this now seems unlikely, the mere idea throws that Durant joins Dallas’ star-studded group, new light on the idea of ​​Maverick’s general manager Nico Harrison after he was ridiculed for Dončić agreement .

Whether it’s Durant (now or later), or maybe even Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James in the summer, if he were to reject his player attitude for next season, 52-year-old Harrison seems to be targeting big-time stars with Who he is very well known from his past life as top Nike director. The goal, of course, is to win a championship as soon as possible.

With Durant’s agreement expiring in the summer of 2026, and Suns continues to come well under the title attempt they had imagined when they acted for him in February 2023, rival teams have monitored his situation, and the possibility of his accessibility, in quite a Long time. And not surprisingly, given Durant’s status as one of the early greatness, there is no shortage of competition.

League says the Houston rockets, whose many years of interest in Suns’ Devin Booker are likely to be revised before the deadline is also known to consider a persecution of Durant. While Rockets (32-17) has not been interested in pursuing older stars like James Harden and Durant in the recent past, the impressive speed of their reconstruction may have changed the internal equation on this front. They are currently the third at the Western conference, with every reason to believe that a game -changing addition to the deadline can vault them into real title competition status.

Meanwhile, Suns has to figure out how to fix their underpinning core. They have lost three of their last four matches, dropped to 25-24 overall and tied with Golden State for 10. In the West and continue to fall short in their long-term persecution of Miamis Jimmy Butler because of Bradley Beal Factor. As has been reported to a large extent, the heat has no interest in the 31-year-old guard who has a clause without trade, and which is randomly represented by Mark Bartelstein, father of Josh Bartelstein, who is Suns’ CEO and is said to be Very involved in these negotiations.

A league source close to Beal repeated on Tuesday that there are currently no conversations that he waived the clause and that he expects to remain in Phoenix through the deadline. Go into Durant that could give an alternative path to landing butler.

As Butler continued to angle against Suns, Phoenix may have to move Durant for the kind of return that allows it to improve his offer to Miami. At the moment, League says Suns’ messages about their willingness to act Durant is different depending on the team.

In exploratory conversations, Warriors have only been met with an exorbitant price price in theoretical structures – essentially all of future value – considering the difficult place that Suns seems to find itself. League people say that four-time all-star tips Daymond Green, who has an established relationship with colleague Michigan State Alum and Sun’s owner Mat Ishbia, is among the Warriors players that Phoenix is ​​known to recover.

After Warriors abolished Orlando Magic on Monday night, Green discussed the reality that owner Joe Lacob may have been forced to make a franchise-changing feature hit.

“We all know (Lacob is) cursed on .500,” Green said. “You would be a fool to sit back and think like, ‘Ah, man, everything (is ok).’ Not with that guy. That guy always tries to win and always pushes the envelope as much as he can.

“You should expect them to be aggressive. … Luka Dončić was just traded so everyone thinks everything is possible at this time, right? “

Suns has also indicated a level of interest for the fourth year on Jonathan Kuminga, a player that Warriors drafted seventh together in 2021, has been protective of most trade discussions for years and still considered part of the future. But Durant’s potential accessibility, and this once imaginable view of him reunited with the franchise he helped lead to two titles has a way to change the discussion.

Kuminga will be a limited free agent this summer and is searching for an annual salary up to $ 30 million. Both Warriors and Suns have messed up wage structures, but both ownership groups have shown a willingness to pay for players they want. Warriors also have a potential way to help Butler to Phoenix if they pull in the trigger of an Andrew Wiggins-centered trade in Miami that has been discussed.

But a wider Durant market generates greater leverage, especially when dealing with an increasingly impatient Warriors Front Office, which has failed in its latest star persecution and will see his star, Stephen Curry, Turn 37 next month as his team works through a 25-24 season.

That may not be what Warriors want to hear, but they are not alone here.

The athletic has live cover of 2025 NBA Trade Deadline.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)