Kevin Durant Requests Trade Out of Brooklyn
Things are starting to look bleak for the Brooklyn Nets as Kevin Durant has just requested a trade out of the organization. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported less than an hour ago that KD has officially requested to be traded out of Brooklyn.
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After leaving the Warriors in 2018 after winning the Championship with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, KD joined the Nets. Due to a right-calf strain KD suffered in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Durant missed the rest of the Finals and announced on June 30 2019 that he would be joining the Nets. Durant missed the entirety of the 2019 season due to injury. Over the last two seasons (2020-2021), KD has only played 90 games. Though his efficiency on the floor certainly didn’t decline, Durant has been held-back by injuries since leaving Golden State.
Durant joined the Nets alongside Kyrie Irving, who signed with the Nets just seven days later on July 7 2019. Kyrie’s season has been tumultuous and his stance on receiving a vaccination for COVID-19 prevented him from playing home games in Brooklyn (and away games in MSG) due to New York City’s health mandates during the course of the regular season. Before the 2022 trade deadline, the Nets shipped James Harden to Philadelphia in exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, and Andre Drummond. The controversy surrounding Simmons’ decision to force his way out of Philly chaotically certainly made him unattractive for other NBA players who could become his potential teammates. Certainly, you can imagine a serious player like KD didn’t want to deal with any of this pre-existing drama. Ironically (and tragically), Ben Simmons expressed how “scary” the Nets would look next season with him, Kyrie, and Kevin Durant together on the floor.
Once Simmons signed with the Nets, one can only imagine how frustrated KD was. The straw that broke the camel's back was likely the 4-0 annihilation sweep the Nets suffered at the hands of the Celtics, despite KD and Kyrie being together on the floor. The pair couldn’t get it together for a single consolation victory before losing in disgrace in the first round of the 2022-NBA playoffs. Speculation arose about last week about Kyrie Irving potentially looking to opt-out of his player option and look to rejoin LeBron James and the Lakers. Somewhat surprisingly, Kyrie opted-in with the Nets late last week.
While the quest for the Nets to reach the NBA finals with a star-studded roster might be coming to an end, Kevin Durant has decided to move on from the chaos and the instability the team has subjected him to throughout the season. At 33 years old, KD is on a quest to win more chips, and he officially made it clear that it wasn’t going to be with the Nets next season, or any season after that.
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