After the shocking Kyrie Irving trade request — and subsequent trade 48 hours later — the Brooklyn Nets are a franchise in transition. Getting Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith back from the Dallas Mavericks might be enough to keep Kevin Durant happy for now, but it might not be. If KD doesn’t like what just went down, there’s a real possibility for a Kevin Durant trade deadline deal. And if that happens, the crosstown New York Knicks need to pounce.

What the Knicks should offer the Nets in a Kevin Durant trade deadline deal

Three years ago, the Knicks badly wanted to sign Kevin Durant as a free agent. And if you listen to some of the whispers, the biggest reason he didn’t is that KD was a package deal with Kyrie Irving, and Irving liked the Nets better than the Knicks.

Well, that decision blew up in Durant’s face (both personally and professionally), and now the superstar could be on the market again, as soon as the 2023 NBA trade deadline on February 9.

If that is the case, the Knicks need to go all in on acquiring KD, especially since they should be able to do it while giving up just two of their top eight minutes-getters and none of their top four.

The deal would look like this:
Knicks get Kevin Durant
Nets get Immanuel Quickley, Obi Toppin, Cam Reddish, Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose, their own 2023 and 2025 first-round picks, and the Mavericks’ 2023 first-rounder.

That’s a lot to give up for Durant. However, we know two things. One is that the Nets aren’t just giving players away, even Kyrie Irving. The team drove a hard bargain for him and would go even harder for Durant. And two, it takes a lot to get a true superstar, and the Knicks will have to make that sacrifice to get KD in the door.

For the Knicks, it makes total sense. The last true superstar the franchise had was Patrick Ewing, and the last championship-winning legend was Walt Frazier. No organization in the NBA is as starved for a generational player as the Knicks.

This Kevin Durant trade deadline deal keeps a good chunk of the Knicks together, and that group is playing OK, good enough for seventh in the Eastern Conference, and just one game in the loss column behind the Miami Heat.

The deal would give the Knicks a starting five of Durant, Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, Jalen Brunson, and Mitchell Robinson. And the bench would be Quentin Grimes, Isaiah Hartenstein, Jericho Sims, and Miles McBride. Not a bad top nine for an Eastern Conference contender.

The deal also works for the Nets because it is a rebuild in a box.

Adding the three first-round picks from this trade to the one from the Kyrie deal reloads the Nets’ draft-pick coffers, which also includes some Philadelphia 76ers picks from the James Harden deal. It also gives them several young players to start the rebuild with.

Immanuel Quickley and Cam Reddish are both 23, and Obi Toppin is still just 24. This trio still has time to blossom into high-level NBA players. Quickley is already doing that in 2023, averaging 12.5 points, 3.2 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game. And Toppin needs more minutes to show what he can become.

Reddish is the most naturally talented of the bunch. But after three-plus unhappy seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and Knicks, he needs to start showing some of that potential soon instead of just sulking. Brooklyn could be the perfect place to do that with a team where he is one of the bigger names.

The biggest problem here is the turf war between the Knicks and the Nets. While the Nets were just across the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey, the franchises only made four trades with each other in history.

The first one happened in 1978 and was a blockbuster. The Knicks traded Phil Jackson and a 1978 1st round draft pick (Winford Boynes) to the New Jersey Nets for a 1978 1st round draft pick (Micheal Ray Richardson) and a 1979 1st round draft pick (Vinnie Johnson).

After that, there were three small player-for-player deals. In 1981, the Knicks gave the Nets Mike Woodson for Mike Newlin. In 1982, the Nets sent Ed Sherod for a third-round pick (Bruce Kuczenski). And in 1983, New York traded a 1984 second-round draft pick (Tom Sluby) to New Jersey for Len Elmore.

Since the Nets moved into the Knicks’ backyard in Brooklyn, the teams haven’t made a single deal. If that changes, a blockbuster Kevin Durant trade deadline deal is a great way to do it.