
The biggest impact of this trade is that it now guarantees that the Suns can have a premier offensive creator on the floor at all times, assuming coach Monty Williams staggers Durant and Booker in the rotation. He will work just fine alongside Paul and Booker. He’s played - and excelled - with Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Irving and Harden.
#Nba transactions portable#
2 Durant is perhaps the most portable superstar in league history, able to seamlessly fit alongside any type of teammate with relative ease. The Suns have just about as good a top four as there is in the NBA, with Durant and Paul flanking Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. Who Gave Up More In The Debt Ceiling Negotiations: Biden Or Republicans? Now Brooklyn and its two erstwhile stars (along with their new teams) are all plotting separate courses as they sail off into the NBA’s future. That is certainly not what they envisioned when snaking in and landing the pair of superstars in the summer of 2019.
#Nba transactions series#
In all, the Nets had more superstar trade demands (four, including two by Durant) than playoff series wins (one) during the pair’s time together. Across the (parts of) four seasons Durant and Irving spent with Brooklyn, the Nets played nearly 2.5 times as many minutes with both players off the floor (6,166) as they did with both players on it (2,587). Alas, each spent significantly more time sidelined due to injuries (Durant) or injuries and various off-court shenanigans (Irving) than they did in the lineup. In the short time the duo played alongside Harden, they were even more unstoppable. They blitzed opponents by more than 8 points per 100 possessions ( according to PBP Stats) with an offense that would have ranked as the best in league history by a significant margin. When they actually shared the floor together, the Nets were outrageously good. Irving made it onto the floor for just 20 games in that first, Durant-less campaign, then did not play with the Nets in the NBA bubble, took an unsanctioned, midseason sabbatical (during which he was spotted partying with Drake), got injured during the team’s one real playoff run, refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and elected to sit out more than half the season last year, got suspended for refusing to condemn a virulently anti-Semitic film to which he posted a link on social media and finally torpedoed what was left of this season with his trade demand. Durant missed the entire first season while recovering from his torn Achilles, then played in only 129 of 208 possible games across the next two-plus years. There’s really no way to spin it for the Nets: The KD-and-Kyrie era in Brooklyn was an unmitigated disaster. Warren to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, 1 first-round picks in 2023, 2025, 20, and the right to swap first-round picks in 2028.

Almost exactly a year after shipping James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers and just a few days after unceremoniously dumping Kyrie Irving on the Dallas Mavericks, the Nets sent Kevin Durant and T.J.

Will they fare better apart, in Dallas and Phoenix?įor the second consecutive season, the Brooklyn Nets made a league-shaking deal at the NBA trade deadline.

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant never even came close to fulfilling their promise together in Brooklyn.
