April 18, 2024

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Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Chai and Kevin Durant They are reportedly meeting this week to discuss the superstar’s position with the franchise.

Durant requested a trade on June 30, the start of NBA free agency. This came shortly after Kyrie Irving exercised his player option for the 2022-23 NBA season. Can Durant and Tsai see eye to eye, making the 33-year-old back down on his trade request?

Shannon Sharpe told Undisputed that he believes Tsai is meeting with Durant because the Nets haven’t gotten the trade offers they want and now see keeping him as their best option.

“It looks like Joe Tsai is trying to make peace,” Sharp said. “I think what’s happened is the trade market has kind of frozen. Deandre Ayton re-signs, goes to Phoenix, which basically means Kevin Durant going to Phoenix is ​​basically out. Jaylen Brown offer, there hadn’t been a counteroffer There hasn’t been the bidding war the Nets expected considering what Rudy Gobert went for.

So I think Joe Tsai wants to sit down with KD: “KD, bro, we want you, and how are we going to fix it? How are we going to make it better? What is it that we need to do as an organization to make sure that Kevin Durant is happy and can we bring you what you need to win a championship?’

Brooklyn is coming off an eventful season.

It started with Irving not being allowed to play at all amid New York mandating the COVID-19 vaccine to play in home games. Irving eventually appeared in a combined 33 contests between the regular season and the postseason after the Nets eventually welcomed him back for road games and the city orders were lifted.

Brooklyn traded James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers at the NBA trade deadline – just a year after acquiring him from the Houston Rockets – for a package headlined by Ben Simmons, who sat out last season due to injury and reported problems mental health. . The Nets were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs as the seventh seed.

This offseason, the Nets acquired wing Royce O’Neale from the Utah Jazz for a 2023 first-round draft pick, re-signed big man Nic Claxton and guard Patty Mills to two-year deals, and signed forward TJ Warren to one. -year agreement.

Skip Bayless believes that Durant and Tsai will be on the same level in their meeting.

“I think they’re going to tell him and sell him on the fact that Kyrie is still there, and you’ve got to fix the relationship with Kyrie because it’s going to be different next year when Ben Simmons is healthy, and that’s both mentally and physically healthy and happier. ,” Bayless said.

Durant averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists while shooting 51.8%/38.3%/91.0% last season. He missed his first season with the Nets (2019-20) due to a torn Achilles tendon, appeared in 35 of a possible 72 games the following year and 55 games last year.


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