Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Net have agreed to resolve their differences and resume their partnership in a bid to win a title, and that might have been what the team wanted all along.
The Nets were unable to trade Durant this offseason despite much interest around the league, with their high asking price of an All-Star, a young player with huge potential, and a plethora of picks being the primary deterrent. Brooklyn didn't get any offer they liked and so they instead worked things out with KD.
However, there was a point that it looked like the two sides are heading to a legitimate break-up when Durant issued a trade ultimatum. The Nets even hinted they aren't going to give in to KD's demands of firing GM Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash, basically implying they are ready to move on from him instead.
Apparently, though, that might not be the case at all. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, there is belief around the league that the Nets never wanted to move Durant in the first place, hence the massive asking price.
“The Nets set those high price tag maybe because they didn't really want to trade Kevin Durant. I have heard around the league team executives say the Nets' asking price may have been overly high because they really didn’t want to move him, but I do believe a team like Boston, Toronto — these teams had windows,” Charania explained in an appearance on the STUpodity podcast.
“If Toronto was willing to give up Scottie Barnes, there was a deal to be had. These teams were just not willing and I think at the end of the day, both sides realized that. The realization was your best opportunity to win a championship is in Brooklyn.”
We'll probably never know if that's true or not. But for what it's worth, the Nets had every reason to ask the farm for Kevin Durant. The Utah Jazz got a lot from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Rudy Gobert trade, so it was only natural for Brooklyn to ask for more in exchange for the one-time MVP and two-time champion.
It remains to be seen whether or not Durant will still get traded, but for now, he'll remain a Net.
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