Nets’ Best Offer For Kevin Durant Reportedly Came From Celtics

The Nets and Kevin Durant are staying together, after all, and it is believed a trade was never close.

But it appears the Celtics at least gave it their all. Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, Boston’s offer of Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and a first-round pick beat all others when it came to a potential Durant trade. Charania revealed as much on the Rich Eisen Show.

Other teams such as the Suns, Bucks, Hawks and Heat all made contact with the Nets, who reportedly spoke to nearly every other organization on a Durant deal. But they couldn’t come close to receiving what they sought in return for the future Hall of Famer.

“On the evening of Durant’s trade request, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that one team who submitted a trade proposal to the Nets for Durant called back with an improved offer,” RealGM wrote. “The trade market for Durant never actually materialized the way the Nets postured it would.”

Durant, 34, is entering the first year of a four-year, $198 million contract extension, signed last summer.

He returns to a Nets team that will actually be intact with the likes of Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris and presumably, newcomer Ben Simmons. The Nets also landed forwards Royce O’Neale (Jazz) and T.J. Warren (Pacers) this summer.

Meanwhile, Brown and White will be back with the Celtics, who reached the Finals and then traded for underrated point guard Malcolm Brogdon (Pacers). So they too are liking their chances to again contend.

“Since the Brogden trade, we’ve felt really good about our team,” Stevens said, via Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. “We’ve felt really good about building around these guys that we’ve been building around … We’re excited to move forward with our team and that’s really been our focus for a while here.”