This was the most crazy trade deadline in NBA history, with every team in the league except the Bulls and Cavs making a deal. This is going to be a two parter, with this part focusing just on the KD and Kyrie deals. Part two will cover everything else, although in less depth.
For the rare breed that is going to be reading this and doesn’t know what happened Kevin Durant got trade to Suns for four first round picks, a pick swap in 2028, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson.
Martin Luther Irving also got moved to the Mavs for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2028 unprotected first round pick and 2 second rounders.
KD Spin:
Through thick and thin, I have found myself loving and sympathizing deeply with KD. I think that KD is one of the most honest personalities in all of sports. We want athletes to either be these fiercely loyal people that stick by whatever random city they were assigned to in their early twenties or to be these cold, calculating chess masters that only desire winning. In reality, everyone’s psyche is much more like an exploding grenade shooting into millions of chaotic directions than it is like an arrow that follows a linear path from point A to point B. KD, in my opinion, is the only pro athlete that is willing to be vulnerable enough to express the almost schizophrenic nature of inner-subjectivity.
I got why KD wanted to move from Oklahoma City to the Bay. I got why he wanted to play with Steph and Klay. I also understood why KD wanted to create his own legacy somewhere else and lift a franchise from a long history of mediocrity into something amazing. It made sense to me that KD wanted to get out Steph’s shadow and loom over the NBA as the giant that he is. Hell, I even understood why KD thought that playing with one of the most skilled dudes in the NBA would be a fun time. As each day has passed here in Brooklyn, the experience has only gotten weirder and more fraught. Yet, KD was the only one who didn’t throw a hissy fit or refuse to play.
I have generally been a Suns hater and I’m not really sure why. I really hope that KD is able to ball out with the Suns and create his own legacy. Thanks to Chuck and Shaq, so much has been made of whether KD can be the ‘bus driver’ but I think its time we start to accept that KD is creating a new legacy, one seperate and unique from the Jordan Fetish. KD is probably the only superstar in the entire league that can fit along side every other superstar. Im hoping for some crazy world where KD wins one with the Suns and then in the twilight of his career signs with a different contender and essentially becomes Heat Ray Allen. It would be a new legacy and one that would be so hard to parallel: the ultimate hired gun.
Suns Spin:
Mat Ishbia just became the shining example of new owner syndrome and I love it. Personally, if I were taking control of a team, I would want to get a lay of the land before doing anything too crazy but maybe that’s why I will never be a shrewd businessman that becomes a billionaire by my 40s.
It’s also worth considering that only about once in every 20 years a top 15 player of all time becomes available via trade. The last time was Shaq in 04 when he got moved from the Lakers to the Heat and that ended in a championship. It’s clear the priority above all for Ishbia and the Suns is to win a championship.
I guess my odd take about all this is whether it’s really desirable for your team to sacrifice everything in the name of winning a championship. On the one hand, the raison d’etre for all of sports is to win a championship and its a bit absurd to think otherwise. On the other, going through the last two years of the Lakers and what seems like will be the next 7 sounds absolutely miserable. And yes, sure, lots of the Lakers misery has been due to bad management but its also because their team building philosophy was build around having a high ceiling and a low floor.
In reality, this version of the Suns only has about three years to win a title which sounds like a lot but go talk to a Clippers fan or a Nets fan, time flies and weird shit derails you. I think a bit too much is made of 37 year old Chris Paul’s decline but this Suns core has a clear expiration date and pretty limited optionality going into the future. Maybe they can trade Ayton further down the road to reshuffle the deck? Maybe the plan is to trade Booker when KD and CP3 are gone? Either way, I might be a wimp but I would rather be a perennial 50 win team that has some shot at the championship for the foreseeable future than a favorite with a doomsday clock. Have fun Suns fan and I hope that you get one with Kevin.
Nets Spin:
As I have dived further into my Nets pseudo fandom, I have immersed myself into Nets fan discourse and oh boy do they have some interesting opinions. The most fascinating opinion is shared distain for GM Sean Marks. The fans will quibble over all sorts of decision that Marks has made but now their primary talking point is: how do you have Harden, Kyrie and KD and end up with no blue chip players?
Ben Simmons was supposed to be that guy and he was a blue chipper before the Philly fiasco but he is not that guy right now. I maintain property on Ben Simmons island. I’m not looking to buy more but I’m also not going to sell. Last night against the Bulls, in the first game since KD and Kyrie got sent out, Ben Simmons showed flashes of his old self. Everyone on the Internet was semi-seriously and semi-jokingly talking about him hoisting up a three before the end of the 3rd quarter but Ben showed a lot more aggression across the board. When the slow-footed Vooch was matched up on Ben, he saw it as an opportunity to attack the basket, a level of aggression that has been hard to find this season. That said, Ben still passed out of a number of opportunities to attack the basket. Also, despite all the Nets I have watched this season, I have yet to see Ben go straight to the basket in transition, which used to be his deadly weapon. It might be copium but there is still a possibility that Ben came become the blue chipper that he once was and this current Nets team is perfectly set up for Ben to rebuild himself.
Look, if three of the best players to ever play the game were all on the Bulls and still basically in their primes and all the Bulls had to show for it was ONE playoff series win I would be pissed. I get why Nets fans are pissed off but I don’t think chopping Marks’ head off really gets them anywhere. Nets fans claim that they didn’t get enough for KD and Kyrie so let’s go through it step by step.
The Kyrie Deal
The Kyrie deal was AMAZING for the Nets. We are talking about a guy who has not had a good playoffs since 2017, forced his way out of two teams BEFORE the Nets, won’t get vaccinated, claims the earth is flat, has bones made of glass, never played 11 (!!!) games in a row during his 3.5 year tenure on the Nets and is a known anti-semite (‘I have jewish family members’ is like saying I have a black friend, it’s not a pass dude). Oh wait, I forgot to mention that he is also on an expiring contract and demanding full max money this summer! I legit would not trade you, the reader, for Martin Luther Iriving.
Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith are good NBA players that can help the Nets to put out a fun and competitive team for the foreseeable future while the Rockets own the Nets’ picks. Alternatively, both players, especially Finney-Smith, are desirable players that the Nets can flip for young assets really whenever. Not only that, but who knows what the Mavericks are going to be in 2028. Luka might not be a Mav by then or godforbid that could be the random year Luka gets a big injury and the team plummets, who knows. Also, apparently, you can duct tape together 2-5 second round picks now for a rotation player so those 2 second rounders are something.
The KD Deal
People want to say that the Nets should have been able to get more for KD given that he is a top 15 player all-time still at peak performance but I just don’t really know how the Nets could have gotten more. When KD demanded a trade this summer, we all spent a lot of time essentially evaluating the market and it became clear that the number of teams who had enough assets to pay the price for KD and still have enough left over to compete was extremely small. I won’t bother going through every team but the list was essentially the Suns, Raptors and Grizzlies.
KD being on the trade market was sort of like a beautiful mansion going up for sale in a small town. Sure, it’s three times as big and nice as the second best house but there is next to no one in the town who can afford to pay three times the price of their home and keep the lights on in the new mansion. As a result, despite being three times ‘nicer’, the mansion only ends up selling for 1.5 times the second nicest house. The new owner of the mansion is overjoyed to be in their dream home but is already sweating about how the hell they are going to pay the mortgage.
All of that said there are two small details of the Suns-KD trade that I just don’t understand. First, why was TJ Warren just thrown into the deal? Sure, he doesn’t really help the Nets and he is on an expiring contract but it feels like he was thrown in just as a nice thing to do for the Suns which I find odd.
Second, and much more importantly, how did the Suns not end up with ALL of the pick swaps. The Suns only got the 2028 pick swap, bizarre. Sure the swap in 2024 is unlikely to convey and maybe even the one in 2026 is too but I just don’t see how the Suns had the leverage to keep those. It’s a small, underrated aspect of the deal that I think has fallen through the cracks. It also gives the Suns the opportunity to have a ‘mulligan’ year ala the Warriors when they got the second pick. The Nets also couldn’t have thrown in Seth Curry or Royce O’Neale or Yuta to shore up those swaps? Weird stuff.
Mavs Spin:
My take should be pretty obvious by now: I fucking hate this for the Mavs. Sure Luka and Kyrie is an amazing pairing of talent for a team that was desperate for some more juice but this was just not the move. I think dont think Kyrie can be trusted AT ALL so I hate the idea of re-signing him to a long term deal. Additionally, I don’t think this deal puts the Mavs over the top for this season so its not really a ‘win-now’ move per se. Not only all of that, but trading the 2028 pick makes it so that the Mavs now only have 2 picks and 2 swaps to play with until 2029 which might not be enough to get you OG or Mikal Bridges…
In my opinion, this was a total panic move. Sure, Luka might have been growing restless but the Mavs should have waited until the summer, when they will have the full mother load of picks to trade for a star. Hell, if the Mavs really had their eye on Kyrie they could have just tried to make a play in the summer and kept their assets. I hate that Luka’s young career is going to be wasted on KP and Kyrie, sad stuff.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, the Nets were in a relationship with the hottest, coolest and smartest person. The relationship ended up being erratic, toxic and down right unlucky. The Nets got to walk away with their sanity, and some trauma, but there is not much more you can hope for. Just like in any failed relationship, there is some other universe where you both had a little better conflict resolution and bit better luck. There is some other universe out there where KD’s foot is just 6 inches further back. But we can’t go back, we can’t harp on what could have been and we must walk away high hopes for our future.
The Reedbound 