Woj: Nets talking to Kevin Durant about ‘direction of franchise’ but not taking offers

Feb 7, 2023 - 8:21 PM

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Kevin Durant sat with his teammates on the Nets bench Monday night but was hustled out of Barclays Center so he didn’t have to take questions from the media.

How KD is reacting to the trade request, then the actual trade of his friend Kyrie Irving is of course the BIG question facing the Nets organization. With Durant, they will always qualify as a contender if not a potential champion. Without him, a massive rebuild awaits.

Both on Twitter and on NBA Today, Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the organization and the superstar have been involved in a “lot of conversations” in the past few days.

Woj went further in his NBA Today conversation with Malika Andrews, using the words “hard conversations” and adding “the situation is fluid,” both of which suggest the Nets have some hard work ahead of them. Woj added that the Nets remain active in the trade market, talking to a lot of teams about adding pieces that could help satisfy KD.

Durant, of course, has three more years on his four-year, $198 million deal after this one. So the Nets hold the critical cards in any talks.

Trade discussions historically heat up on the Tuesday before the Thursday. So far, despite a plethora of rumors, teams have completed only two deals, both two-team affairs: one that was a Lakers-Wizards centered on Rui Huchimura for Kendrick Nunn, the other the Nets sending Irving to Dallas for Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith.

More than one pundit has theorized that the lack of action may be teams waiting on Durant and the Nets to figure things out. Teams are reluctant to commit now only to find out the assets they sent out could have been better used on a Durant offer.

Woj did not say who Durant was talking with but Monday night, Jacque Vaughn said he has talked to Durant, but declined to say much about the conversations other than they involved the games at hand.

• Sources: Kevin Durant, Nets talking franchise’s direction - Adrian Wojnarowski - ESPN