“Charania listed the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs — not the Celtics — as teams with whom Durant has mutual interest in a new partnership.”
“This iteration of Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker just has not worked,” Charania conceded. “And so roster-wise, the changes that are likely coming to Phoenix likely start with Kevin Durant. And who out there in the NBA believes they’re a Kevin Durant away? I think the playoffs are going to play a big factor in [terms of] which team gets eliminated early, which team might feel like, if they bring in KD, they could be a step away.”
To say this lineup of Durant, Beal and Booker “has not worked” is something of an understatement. The lowest-paid player among that triumvirate is 28-year-old Booker, who is drawing “only” $49.2 million this season on his own maximum deal. Beal is virtually untradeable, thanks to an obstructive no-trade clause. The 31-year-old is under contract through 2026-27, when he’ll have a $57.1 million player option he will almost certainly pick up.
The club finished with a 49-33 record during the trio’s first season together in 2023-24, against one-and-done then-head coach Frank Vogel, and got swiftly eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves in a first-round playoff sweep.
Under another likely one-and-done head coach, Mike Budenholzer, Phoenix is 35-41 for the 2024-25 season so far and in danger of missing even the Western Conference play-in tournament. As the West’s No. 11 seed, the Suns are one game behind the No. 10-seeded Sacramento Kings (36-40).
“But Malika, one thing to keep in mind: back at the NBA trade deadline in February, Minnesota, Miami, New York, San Antonio and Houston were among the teams I’m told [reached out about Durant],” Charania continued. “There was mutual interest between Durant and those teams. I expect those teams and potentially others to be back in the fray this summer.”
Nick Wright of Fox Sports 1 indicated last week that the Celtics could make a bid for Durant, however.
In a new piece, Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports unpacks how the two clubs, both currently in the NBA salary cap’s punitive second luxury tax apron, could make moves to free up space for a Durant deal this summer. As currently constituted, the Suns and Celtics cannot pull off a deal. But with some maneuvering, that can change.
Rohrbach proposes that the team either enact a straight-up trade of reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown for Durant — who’s eight years Brown’s senior and not as good of a defender anymore — or offloading “everyone else of consequence” to create a new big three of Durant, Brown and six-time All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, who’d be earning $162 million next year.
Flipping pricey contracts like the deals of Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, plus the mid-tier salaries of bench cogs Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser (Al Horford is a free agent this summer), would take several steps. Boston would initially need to ditch at least one of Holiday’s, Porzingis’ or White’s contracts to duck under the luxury tax, and then could start aggregating salaries.
Would Boston really want to offload the quality depth that has brought it to two consecutive 56+ win seasons and earned it the 2024 title in service of adding a mercurial, oft-hurt 36-year-old superstar who has burned through all four of his NBA stops so far?
The Celtics will get their next up-close opportunity to assess Durant on Friday night, in a primetime clash with the Suns.
This year, the 6-foot-11 superstar is averaging 26.6 points on .527/.430/.839 shooting splits, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists through 62 healthy contests. And all that impeccable scoring has had surprisingly minimal impact on winning.
