Rob Mahoney: The biggest open secret of the Kyrie Irving trade saga was that what became of Irving was way less interesting than what will ultimately become of his former teammate. With just a few days to go until the trade deadline, all eyes are now on Kevin Durant—the unparalleled scorer and unapologetic shitposter who, not five months ago, issued a trade request of his own. The Brooklyn Nets managed to sweep that ask under the rug and keep their season moving, but there’s no use in pretending that this is all business as usual when Irving is expected to hit the floor in a Dallas Mavericks uniform before the week is through.
KD is the last star standing from a super-team that came completely undone. Everything he signed up for in 2019 is gone. Even the version of the Nets that Durant reluctantly agreed to play for this season has undergone a massive overhaul, to the point that his most prominent teammate is now Ben Simmons. One could hardly blame Durant for reconsidering his options and his future with the Nets—a development that is less a ripple effect from Irving asking out than the start of a tidal wave that could overwhelm the entire league.
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All of which puts us, as fans of the game, in the historically precarious position of trying to understand what it is, exactly, that Durant wants. That’s not a road anyone should go down alone. So, Seerat: I’m hoping you can help me zero in on what it all means and where the league finds itself now that Durant may yet again be suddenly and dramatically available. What do you make of all this?
Seerat Sohi: Where do we even start? I feel like I spent all of Sunday in a state of déjà vu, replaying the same fruitless conversations we had all summer: How do the Nets really feel about Deandre Ayton? Should the Raptors make Scottie Barnes available? Does the Godfather, a.k.a. Pat Riley, now 77, have one more wily maneuver up his sleeve for KD? Is a Warriors reunion out of the question? And then there’s the sole option that could warm my weather-beaten basketball heart: Could Portland shape a package around Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons and pay off Damian Lillard’s loyalty with a superstar teammate? Aside from a pick it owes Chicago, Portland owns all its first-rounders, and the Nets could take their pick of high-level role players (Josh Hart, Gary Payton II, Jerami Grant) to make the salaries work. All of this is contingent on the Nets wanting players who can keep them competitive, as they seemed to this summer—and, of course, on the million-dollar question: Does Durant even want out?
The Irving trade leaves room for speculation. Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith can help the Nets now, but if Durant wants out, both guys could be flipped for future assets or play roles in the rebuild. Outside of Luka Doncic, Dinwiddie in particular has been a rare source of consistency in a Mavericks season featuring up-and-down defense, injuries, rotation changes, and some truly head-scratching coaching decisions. You never know which Mavericks team you’ll get on a given night, and now they’re throwing the NBA’s biggest wild card into the mix.
Best-case scenario for the Mavericks: Irving is on his best behavior in hopes of signing a big contract this summer, and the Mavs win their first post–Dirk Nowitzki title with Doncic and Irving blazing through the wide-open West like some bizarro version of the 2016 Cavaliers. Worst case: Things go so badly that Doncic finally looks under the hood and realizes this trade was, as our pals Michael Pina and Bill Simmons pointed out, the culmination of a mistake that began with the four-year, $55 million deal they never offered Jalen Brunson—easily the most reliable guard in New York this season.
I’d take it back even further, to the Mavericks’ deal for Kristaps Porzingis while he was mending a torn ACL and after a woman told New York police that Porzingis had raped her. Does Mark Cuban view the NBA’s most controversial figures as a market inefficiency? No team is immune to immoral behavior, of course, and not every immoral action is made equal, but the Mavericks have never seemed very interested in drawing a line on morality. It’s all good, though. Cynthia Marshall said so.
As for Irving in Dallas, he’ll either be there forever—well, probably not forever, but maybe for a solid four-month stretch in a contract year—or go down in flames. Again.
Mahoney: You can tell me when it’s over if the highs for the Mavs are worth, well, any of the nonsense that’s about to come their way. Kyrie can’t help himself. He may inch the Mavs closer to being a plausible contender, but he also spews gasoline on what was already a flammable situation. This deal is our clearest sign yet that Dallas feels the pressure to retain Luka long term. And we know that because organizations feeling confident in their footing don’t trade for team-detonating stars who, between trade demands, plunge entire franchises into crisis. I mean, Irving’s toughest matchup this season has been against the Anti-Defamation League.
There’s a reason you didn’t hear about the Celtics, Bucks, and Nuggets making overtures for Kyrie. Instead it was the Mavs, Lakers, and Suns—uneven teams grasping at anything they could find. Honestly, it’s not even the return package that’s the issue for Dallas in this trade. It’s the sheer implosive risk of getting into the Irving business at all. And by acquiring one of the Mavs’ future first-round picks in this deal, Brooklyn is now betting on Dallas blowing up in the same way that Houston once bet Brooklyn would. The smart money is always on Irving causing more problems than he’s worth.
Otherwise, you’re exactly right about how Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith could play into so many different futures for the Nets—to the point that their inclusion in this trade only makes Brooklyn’s intent that much more opaque. Am I crazy, or did the Nets actually create some kind of leverage in this mess? There’s just enough coming back to Brooklyn in this deal for KD to potentially talk himself into sticking it out with the Nets for the rest of the season. Which, somewhat counterintuitively, makes it a bit easier for Brooklyn to negotiate when teams like Phoenix come calling.
Sohi: Speaking of Phoenix, Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes reported that the Suns offered Chris Paul, Jae Crowder, and picks for Irving. Thoughts? Prayers for the Point God? Haynes also says the Lakers offered both their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks, but Brooklyn preferred the Mavericks’ offer. Maybe it’s because, as Marc Stein reported, Durant is a fan of Finney-Smith. Or because Nets owner Joe Tsai didn’t want to send Irving to his preferred destination. Nice incentives, my guy.
Despite that, what Brooklyn found, to your point, is a steadiness that eluded them in the Irving years. On that note, it’s endlessly hilarious that all these teetering franchises would look to Irving for stability. I guess chaos attracts chaos. Another thing they share: the collective delusion that despite Irving abandoning his best friend, he somehow won’t do this to them one day. There have been suggestions that Ty Lue, LeBron James, Nico Harrison, and Jason Kidd all believe they could somehow bring the best out of this wayward star.
James in particular, even as he reaps the punishment for believing he’d be able to get Russell Westbrook to embrace a tertiary role, seemed sold on Irving. This whole saga has inspired a lot of relationship analogies, so I’ll throw my hat in the ring: There’s no point in breaking up with your ex to date someone just like them. But as humans, we’re doomed to repeat the same patterns. Now, LeBron has turned the mirror on himself.
If he’d just stop blaming himself and do an online attachment theory test, maybe he’d see he dodged a bullet. If you’re going to hamstring your future flexibility and dish out unprotected picks six years into the future, you may as well wait around for a more reliable star to become available.
Speaking of future picks: Dallas sent one to the Nets, who could flip it to shore up the roster. What the Nets have lost in star power they’ve gained in balance, depth, and defense. Still, there’s a hole in their frontcourt rotation that’s making the mouths of Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo water. The Mo Bambas and Jakob Poeltls of the world are available, but what they add in rim protection they lose in spacing on a roster that’s already playing Simmons and Nic Claxton big minutes. Let me ask you this: Do the Nets now have enough in their coffers to make a run at Myles Turner and his 39 percent 3-point shooting stroke?
Mahoney: A swing like that might depend on the Nets’ willingness to give up Claxton, who’s not only been a solid starter this season but is also the best prospect on the roster by far. Yet if you’re Brooklyn, you have to consider that kind of move and others like it. The shadow of what KD wants hangs over everything the Nets do now, but whether he’s on the team after the deadline or not, Brooklyn is competition committed. The Nets don’t have control of any of their first-round picks until 2028. All they can do, then, is try to win as many games as possible in the meantime—charging boldly forward even as the stars of the team ask, one by one, to be traded away.
It’s wild to think that within the week, Durant and Irving could go from anchoring the fourth-place team in the East to joining rival Western Conference squads. Clearly, the Suns are in the mix for Durant, just as they were for Irving this week and for Durant the last time he asked out of Brooklyn. I’m similarly charmed by the Blazers entering the fray—not only for the Lillard pairing, but also for Portland finally getting its man some 16 years after passing over KD in the draft.
Yet we’ve been talking for weeks about the possibility of the Grizzlies throwing a bunch of draft picks at the Raptors for OG Anunoby, and now Durant is just sitting right there. And you could play the same game with the Pelicans, who have all of their own future firsts and six more picks and swaps to bait the hook for a potential trade. And then, of course, there are the Warriors—who represent a reunion with an old flame (to further stretch the relationship metaphor) and a chance to finally set things right.
There are so many possibilities on the board for Durant right now, which means there are so many splitting paths for the title race. But beyond that: The very possibility that Durant will be available will warp the deadline trade market in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
Sohi: I’ve been saying for the last week that there would never be a better time to sell high on Anunoby, and this is why: the looming threat of another unhappy superstar demanding the market’s attention. A week ago, it was reported that Memphis and New Orleans were each invested in not letting the other snag him. You have to wonder whether they’ll be playing that game with Durant now, if he’s available. Usually, the first big deadline move creates a domino effect, but the Irving trade could pause movement while teams figure out what Durant wants. Everything, as ever, is contingent on everything else.
Then there’s the matter of how these trades reveal intentions in a league where secrecy is a tactical advantage. The Suns have tried to downplay it, but Paul’s name has been floating in the rumor mill for a while. Now that he’s reportedly been offered for Irving, I wonder who else will inquire about his services. Dealing him elsewhere could be easier for the Suns than trying to look him in the eye for the rest of the season.
As the dust begins to settle, I wonder whether the new-look Mavericks will make teams recalibrate their decision-making at all. The Lakers, Clippers, Suns, and Blazers needed reinforcements yesterday, and they’ll need reinforcements tomorrow. The West is open, and I don’t think Irving moves the needle for Dallas. On the one hand, he is the most talented player that Doncic, who’s having a historic season in his own right, has been paired with. On the other hand, it’s Irving. To borrow, yet again, from Tay Tay: I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things; your enemies will defeat themselves before you get a chance to swing.
