Just hours after news broke that Kevin Durant had requested a trade from the Nets, despite having four years left on his contract, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that half the league had put calls in to Brooklyn. One of those teams, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic: the Timberwolves.
Minnesota wound up making a splash on Friday, trading a huge haul for Jazz center Rudy Gobert, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
Before that move materialized, Krawczynski reports that the T-Wolves were in talks about Myles Turner and Clint Capela as backup rim-protector options, as the Gobert trade was in jeopardy. They also placed calls to Brooklyn, but the asking price proved too big, and Minnesota was unwilling to part with Anthony Edwards or Karl-Anthony Towns to make it work.
“The Nets were asking for established All-Stars and a mountain of picks. Minnesota was unwilling to part with either Edwards or Towns in a KD-centered deal, so there was no traction,” Krawczynski reports.
Watch the NBA online with fuboTV: Try for free!
The fact that Brooklyn wanted either Edwards or Towns as well as a “mountain of picks” goes along with what has been reported by the Nets’ desire to receive a historic return for Durant, given the team’s leverage thanks to the star forward’s contract.
“Brooklyn’s asking price, rival executives familiar with the situation told Sports Illustrated, is steep: two All-Star caliber talents and a cache of draft picks,” SI‘s Chris Mannix wrote Friday. “If a team doesn’t have that, one exec said, the response has been ‘well go out and get it.’”
For his part, Durant reportedly favors the Suns and Heat as potential landing spots, but if those teams aren’t willing to part with players like Devin Booker or Bam Adebayo to make it happen, the Nets could very well look in another direction.
