Kevin Durant Rumors

[BeenLurkin]

Except we don’t have those picks anymore….maybe Utah will help us out and give em to Phoenix for us?

[Lipoli390]

I thought this was a pretty astute take on the Durant situation:

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
If I’m Phoenix I’m not trading Durant until these Finals are over. I need to be SURE OKC isn’t interested if they lose this series since they have so much more to trade than anyone else.
I don’t think they’d do it and I don’t think KD would want it. Would just need to be sure. – 9:48 PM

The only team that has made the NBA finals after trading for Durant was the Warriors back when they were already a championship team. Already being a proven championship level team is even more important now when Durant is 37 rather than 29. OKC is in a position pretty similar to Golden State back then. In addition, OKC has both a surplus of young talent and a ton of true tradeable 1st round picks. They have their own 1st in every future draft through 2031. They also have the Sixers 2026 1st only protected through #4 and Utah’s 2026 pick protected #8. They have 1st-round swap rights with the Clippers in 2027 plus Denver’s 1st that year protected only through #5 in addition to their own 2027 1st. They also have both the 15th and 24th picks in this year’s draft. They could make a compelling offer without any impact whatsoever on their current 68-win team.

By the way, is there any wonder why OKC is the best team in the League? Does anyone really think TC is as good a front office executive as Sam Presti? While other front office executives, like TC, chase aging stars well past their prime, Sam has acquired young talent like SGA and made shrewd draft picks like Jalen Williams. He made sure he had the cap room to acquire Hartenstein. He made a savvy trade, one for one, to get Caruso. You won’t find any record of Sam trading multiple first round picks or promising young players other than trading one promising player, Josh Giddy, who wasn’t that promising and had more promising young talent behind him. So there they are with the best record in the NBA, tied 2-2 in the NBA finals. They have tons of young talent that will keep them a contender for many years, and an huge reservoir of 1st round draft picks.

Before I read this article, I had been wondering why OKC hasn’t been mentioned as a team pursuing Durant. It looks like they could easily outbid the teams we’ve heard about without any impact on their team and still have ample draft capital remaining. The answer is a bit disturbing for me as a Wolves fan because if Sam Presti doesn’t have the slightest interest in pursuing KD then neither should the Wolves.

[kekgeek]

Kevin Durant is still a walking bucket — an elite shot-maker from EVERYWHERE.

PPG: 26.6
USG: 28.3
Paint: 60.1%
Mid: 53.1%
3P: 43.0% - 6.0 3PA
FT: 83.9% - 5.8 FTA
TS%: 64.2
EPM: +2.6 (+2.5 OFF), 94th %tile
OBPM: +3.9 (17th)
BPM: +3.2 (29th)
VORP: 3.0 (30th)


“Out of 104 players who took at least 400 jumpers this season, Durant’s shot quality ranked 100th, but his overall jump shooting ranked 11th. The difference between his actual efficiency and his expected efficiency based on his shot diet is by far the biggest in the NBA.”


Also, Kevin Durant made 45.6% of his 296 catch-and-shoot 3PA last season. When KD’s set, it’s wet. Period.

Compare that to the following—

• Donte DiVincenzo: 40.8% on 311 3PA
• Naz Reid: 37.3% on 375 3PA
• Julius Randle: 35.3% on 221 3PA
• Jaden McDaniels: 33.2% on 265 3PA



Why is catch-and-shoot 3PA relevant to the Timberwolves?

When teams load up on Anthony Edwards off the dribble, as we saw OKC do, and force him to pass the ball, good offenses have good/great shooters that make the defense pay.

KD does that at a RARE level. He’s STILL a sniper.



Source: our old friend Camden

[Sundog]

There haven’t been too many Connelly moves that I haven’t liked or that haven’t worked out well for the Wolves. So, if he acquires Durant, fine, if he doesn’t, fine. #LetTimCook

[60WinTim]

There haven’t been too many Connelly moves that I haven’t liked or that haven’t worked out well for the Wolves. So, if he acquires Durant, fine, if he doesn’t, fine. #LetTimCook

LOL!

I’m sitting in a KOA in the middle of Virginia getting ready to cook! Chicken and potatoes on the Blackstone an s’mores for the fire.

[DNatagal]

There are 2 trades that i saw today that are interesting.

Gobert and Donte DiVincenzo to Phoenix, Julius Randle to Brooklyn, Nick Claxton and KD to Minnesota

Or

Randle to Brooklyn, Claxton and DiVincenzo to Phoenix, Durant to Minnesota.

Kind of leaning towards the first option.

[Phenom]

I thought this was a pretty astute take on the Durant situation:

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
If I’m Phoenix I’m not trading Durant until these Finals are over. I need to be SURE OKC isn’t interested if they lose this series since they have so much more to trade than anyone else.
I don’t think they’d do it and I don’t think KD would want it. Would just need to be sure. – 9:48 PM

The only team that has made the NBA finals after trading for Durant was the Warriors back when they were already a championship team. Already being a proven championship level team is even more important now when Durant is 37 rather than 29. OKC is in a position pretty similar to Golden State back then. In addition, OKC has both a surplus of young talent and a ton of true tradeable 1st round picks. They have their own 1st in every future draft through 2031. They also have the Sixers 2026 1st only protected through #4 and Utah’s 2026 pick protected #8. They have 1st-round swap rights with the Clippers in 2027 plus Denver’s 1st that year protected only through #5 in addition to their own 2027 1st. They also have both the 15th and 24th picks in this year’s draft. They could make a compelling offer without any impact whatsoever on their current 68-win team.

By the way, is there any wonder why OKC is the best team in the League? Does anyone really think TC is as good a front office executive as Sam Presti? While other front office executives, like TC, chase aging stars well past their prime, Sam has acquired young talent like SGA and made shrewd draft picks like Jalen Williams. He made sure he had the cap room to acquire Hartenstein. He made a savvy trade, one for one, to get Caruso. You won’t find any record of Sam trading multiple first round picks or promising young players other than trading one promising player, Josh Giddy, who wasn’t that promising and had more promising young talent behind him. So there they are with the best record in the NBA, tied 2-2 in the NBA finals. They have tons of young talent that will keep them a contender for many years, and an huge reservoir of 1st round draft picks.

Before I read this article, I had been wondering why OKC hasn’t been mentioned as a team pursuing Durant. It looks like they could easily outbid the teams we’ve heard about without any impact on their team and still have ample draft capital remaining. The answer is a bit disturbing for me as a Wolves fan because if Sam Presti doesn’t have the slightest interest in pursuing KD then neither should the Wolves.

To be fair, Presti wouldn't make a move for him because they are on the doorstep of a title without him and the Thunder have big bills to pay soon

[KG4Ever]

Context matters, and if you had read the dialogue between the people involved in the discussion, you may have noticed that it centered around TCs attachment to players HE had drafted. My sources tell me he didn’t draft KAT or DLo, so they are irrelevant to the conversation you inserted yourself into.

I just read your sentence in context of your post and I corrected your incorrect statement. Don't blame me if you don't qualify your statement by adding the clause "that he drafted". Now, I'm supposed to be able to read your mind so I can understand that your incorrect statement was meant to be qualified even if you forgot to qualify it. OK.

[Monster]

I thought this was a pretty astute take on the Durant situation:

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
If I’m Phoenix I’m not trading Durant until these Finals are over. I need to be SURE OKC isn’t interested if they lose this series since they have so much more to trade than anyone else.
I don’t think they’d do it and I don’t think KD would want it. Would just need to be sure. – 9:48 PM

The only team that has made the NBA finals after trading for Durant was the Warriors back when they were already a championship team. Already being a proven championship level team is even more important now when Durant is 37 rather than 29. OKC is in a position pretty similar to Golden State back then. In addition, OKC has both a surplus of young talent and a ton of true tradeable 1st round picks. They have their own 1st in every future draft through 2031. They also have the Sixers 2026 1st only protected through #4 and Utah’s 2026 pick protected #8. They have 1st-round swap rights with the Clippers in 2027 plus Denver’s 1st that year protected only through #5 in addition to their own 2027 1st. They also have both the 15th and 24th picks in this year’s draft. They could make a compelling offer without any impact whatsoever on their current 68-win team.

By the way, is there any wonder why OKC is the best team in the League? Does anyone really think TC is as good a front office executive as Sam Presti? While other front office executives, like TC, chase aging stars well past their prime, Sam has acquired young talent like SGA and made shrewd draft picks like Jalen Williams. He made sure he had the cap room to acquire Hartenstein. He made a savvy trade, one for one, to get Caruso. You won’t find any record of Sam trading multiple first round picks or promising young players other than trading one promising player, Josh Giddy, who wasn’t that promising and had more promising young talent behind him. So there they are with the best record in the NBA, tied 2-2 in the NBA finals. They have tons of young talent that will keep them a contender for many years, and an huge reservoir of 1st round draft picks.

Before I read this article, I had been wondering why OKC hasn’t been mentioned as a team pursuing Durant. It looks like they could easily outbid the teams we’ve heard about without any impact on their team and still have ample draft capital remaining. The answer is a bit disturbing for me as a Wolves fan because if Sam Presti doesn’t have the slightest interest in pursuing KD then neither should the Wolves.

To be fair, Presti wouldn't make a move for him because they are on the doorstep of a title without him and the Thunder have big bills to pay soon

When comparing Connelly and Presti I think there are actually some similarities to what their strengths are and maybe weaknesses as well. Presti has built up a contender after having traded away multiple HOF players. Remember that he has had a couple missteps a long the way. I will give just one example because Presti has had real success and I'm not interested in poking a bunch of holes in his resume. He traded up to #17 and the players taken with the picks he gave up were Jaden McDaniels and Immanual Quickly. He built up plenty of opportunities to make great picks like Jalen Williams who is a pretty big differentiator and he was the 12th pick in the draft. Connelly has found ways to continue giving the Wolves opportunities to draft players despite all his moves and at times even adding veteran players. Maybe a Jalen Williams guy is on the roster he drafted or maybe he could acquire them in this draft. Presti found Wiggins at 55 Connelly added Clark at 53. I don't have absolute trust in Connelly but I trust that he can find some talent and find creative ways to make things happen that will actually work. Remember Presti traded for Paul George not knowing if he would be able to keep him beyond one year and Olidipo and Sabonis ended up being a good return for Indiana and imagine if PG hadn't stayed.

[Q-is-here]

I'm not sure I was ever totally against it, but I've come around a bit too where I'm probably closer to 60/40 in favor vs. not in favor, ha ha. It really depends on what we give up and what a contract extension might look like.

Lip, this idea that Durant is a horrible defender.....not sure where that's coming from. Granted, I didn't watch him a lot this past season and I have no doubt he isn't a great defender, but he ranks in the 59th percentile in Defensive estimated plus minus versus Randle (49th percentile). And Randle played in between Rudy and Jaden while Durant didn't get any help at Center defensively.

I think Durant will be motivated to get with the program and defend if he is on a contending team and has more help overall.

The idea that Durant is a terrible defender comes right from his defensive rating the past five seasons, which got progressively worse: 112 in 2020-21, 113 in 2021-22, 114.4 in 2023-24 and 118.9 just last season. That’s an unmistakable decline with age from bad (112) to terrible at 119. Now if you look at Durant’s entire career, it’s clear he was once an elite defender. But we’re not talking about that Durant. We’re talking about the post-Achilles Durant in his 30s whose defensive rating has consistently declined from bad to terrible over the past five years. I don’t think there’s any legitimate debate about whether the current 37 year old version of Durant is a bad defender. He’s a bad defender, period. He’s still a terrific shooter who scores a lot of points very efficiently. But that’s all he is. He’s not a playmaker. He’s not very mobile. And he’s a poor defender. Moreover, you can count on him to miss at least 20 games and you can’t know how much his game will further decline as he gets closer to age 40.

Lip, I have this discussion about every few months with FNG as well and I will continue to beat the drum until folks stop referring to it. I'm assuming you pulled those defensive ratings from Basketball Reference? That is an outdated metric developed by Dean Oliver many years ago and it largely uses team defense (and yes, Phoenix was pretty bad on defense last year) and box score stats to determine an individual's Defensive Rating.

In fact, the basketball reference folks had to put these two caveats in to the metric (my bold and underline):

- Out of necessity (owing to a lack of defensive data in the basic boxscore), individual Defensive Ratings are heavily influenced by the team's defensive efficiency. They assume that all teammates are equally good (per minute) at forcing non-steal turnovers and non-block misses, as well as assuming that all teammates face the same number of total possessions per minute.

- Perhaps as a byproduct, big men tend to have the best Defensive Ratings (although Oliver notes that history's best defensive teams were generally anchored by dominant defensive big men, suggesting that those types of players are the most important to a team's defensive success). A corollary to this is that excellent perimeter defenders who don't steal the ball a lot — for instance, Joe Dumars or Doug Christie — are underrated defensively by DRtg, and are prone to look only as good as their team's overall defense performs.

END

Now it's no secret that Phoenix struggled defensively last year and Durant himself is not capable of being an anchor on that end. Like a lot of scoring NBA PFs, he needs to do his fair share but isn't going to be expected to guard the opposing team's best wing or anchor the paint.

I've already quoted a much more modern defensive metric (D-EPM) in my prior post that suggests Durant is still average-ish to slightly above on defense. None of us really know without a more extensive eye test, but my point is that you shouldn't be hanging your hat on the B-ball reference stat to support your claim.

Lip, See above....This is the entire back and forth you and I had where I cite one of the other defensive metrics (in bold pink for your viewing pleasure!) and point out what is wrong with the metric you keep citing.