The Suns’ decision to match the Pacers’ offer sheet for Deandre Ayton very well could mean they are not pursuing Nets star Kevin Durant, who requested a trade.
Durant reportedly has listed the Suns as his top destination.
Now, however, Ayton cannot be traded until Jan. 15, by NBA rules. And he would likely be among the players the Nets would have wanted in exchange for Durant.
“It takes a big chip off the board for them from an asset standpoint to try to get something done,” ESPN’s Tim Bontemps said on The Hoops Collective podcast, via RealGM. “To me, this signals that the fact they didn’t get a sign-and-trade done and just kept Deandre, to more or less indicates that one way or another they weren’t getting Kevin Durant. At least in the short-term.”
And the more things go along, the more it seems that Durant and the Nets just might end up stuck with each other.
“I think the position they’re taking is that they’ve made their offer for Kevin Durant. And their offer is their offer. And it’s not an offer that the Nets are interested in,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on the podcast.
“I’m not even sure the Suns can put together an offer that the Nets would be interested in by themselves. I think this is where the other teams are as well. I think the other teams have said ‘Brooklyn, here is our offer. I don’t have any incentive to raise our offer because I know nobody else is raising theirs. I think that is what Indiana was trying to catch them in. Indiana was trying to catch them in that.
“This is them partially saying ‘We’re not counting on Kevin Durant. We have a 64-win team. This is going to take us into the tax.'”
All in all, the Suns now seem to lacking the assets to deal for Durant. So if he is to be traded, it probably won’t be to the team at the top of his so-called wish list.
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