Kevin Durant‘s trade request could push owners to seek new language in the collective bargaining agreement that protects teams with unhappy stars, even if that leads to a lockout, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The NBA is coming off a record-breaking season with $10 billion in revenue for the first time in its history, and neither side wants to see that interrupted. However, owners are determined to do something to stop the trend of players demanding to be traded with multiple years left on their contracts.
The current CBA runs through the end of the 2023/24 season, but either the owners or players can opt out by December 15 of this year. If that happens, negotiations would have to begin on a new deal.
Commissioner Adam Silver said Durant’s trade request wasn’t discussed during this month’s Board of Governors meeting, but Lewis expects it to become a very significant topic for the league. Silver recently commented on the Durant situation, saying contracts should be a “two-way street” and players need to “meet their end of the bargain.”
There’s more Durant news to pass along:
- The market for Durant seems to be contracting and the Nets are in no hurry to get the situation resolved, observes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Phoenix appears out of the running after matching an offer sheet for Deandre Ayton, and Toronto remains unwilling to part with Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes. The Heat don’t have the assets to help Brooklyn remain competitive and may have shifted their attention to a potential Donovan Mitchell deal. Washburn adds that unless Durant decides to hold out, the Nets’ best strategy is to let the situation simmer until camps open.
- Sources around the league tell Zach Lowe of ESPN that it’s virtually “impossible” to trade Durant because of the difficulty in establishing a fair value. A player of Durant’s caliber with four years left on his contract has never been on the trade market before. Lowe also hears from sources that Brooklyn hasn’t given up hope that Durant will realize this and retract his trade demand. Lowe recommends that the Celtics shouldn’t get too aggressive with trade offers unless they believe Jaylen Brown will leave as a free agent in two years.
- Tim Bontemps and Bobby Marks of ESPN examine why things became stagnant so quickly after Durant asked to be traded. Marks says the Nets are in a difficult position because they owe so many future draft picks to Houston, teams are generally satisfied with their rosters and aren’t looking for a major deal at this point of the summer, and Brooklyn’s front office is trying to make a “perfect” trade with an asking price that no one can meet.
Hey Brian Lewis: no.
I always go on the side of the athlete but they are behaving poorly right now. They see LBJ and the power they he has but ignore the fact that he’s never demanded a trade or purposely faked an injury to be traded. The nba takes care of its players by making them the best paid athletes in American sports history and the owners and league have been very supportive of player activism regarding social issues. They’ve been near left partners. The players need to be more respectful of their relationships. Yes, players can be traded at the whim of the front office. The owners pay the cost to be the boss by giving less than elite players max deals to be the gave of their franchise and even guarantee salaries to their stars like Wall, Durant, Westbrook, Kawhi even if those players can’t overturn due to injury or theirs talent levels fall off a cliff. That’s the trade off. Want protection against a trade? Then ask for a “no trade clause”. Otherwise, if I invest tens of millions into to you then hold up your end ok the bargain. If you have a legit reason to bounce like you’re towards the end of your career and you’d like a chance to join a winner then historically those wishes have been granted. Be adults.
near “perfect” partners…
I completely agree with you. Then again, this probably wouldn’t be AS big of a deal if it weren’t for Ben Simmons and James Harden and their nonsense screwing things up for everyone involved…
Philly could have easily fixed the Simmons situation by just firing Doc Rovers, who should have never been hired in the first place, should have been fired last year, and should have been fired this year. That situation is an outlier
That being said, while I’m on the side of the players for most everything, the issue of teams being able to trade me whenever they want, but I cant ask out makes no sense. I do think in certain situations behind closed doors, there are ways to express a desire to leave, but otherwise, as was said by others, you can try to negotiate a no trade clause, if that is such a hangup for you. That’s why those exist. It’s not what you’re worth. It’s what you can negotiate
@formerly
The owner is guaranteeing you the money negotiated. He’s not promising where you’ll play. But if you get hurt or your talent on court drops you still get paid. That’s paying thr cost to be the boss. If you force a trade and I have to take back contracts I don’t want then yeah, it’s a problem and unfair.
I was in agreement, if that wasnt clear…I’m saying players using the you can trade me, but I cant ask out thing is not good reasoning when if that bothered them so much, they should have negotiated a no trade clause
Firing Doc was not the aanswer. Simmons refused to work on his shooting. The problem is prima donna self-entitled players. Simmons exemplified this by signing a rookie extension to get the biggest contract and then demanding a trade to LA. I’m a pro-employee player, but it’s hard for me to empathize with many of today’s athletes who make insane money and care more about their branding, rest days, and their social media presence than they do the game or the fans.
Rovers didnt use him right, and also doesnt even know who plays for his own team. He single handedly cost them vs Atlanta in multiple ways. He should have been fired, especially b/c then he blamed Simmons for it, and took zero responsibility himself. If Rivers was fired, Simmons would have played
That being said, at first I was on his side, and then it evolved into a situation where he definitely started turning things by continuing to sit out. Then he unfortunately got hurt
Still, I put most of the blame on the Doc Rivers situation, and choosing a coach that should have never been hired, over 1 of your franchise players, is actually pretty crazy
Ain’t no bigger Prima Donna then this guy, but even at 33, he still has at least another 3 more productive years left. I wouldn’t trade a 23 or 24 year old all star player for him at this stage. You gotta trade for him, instead of trading for Donovan Mitchell.
How much damage can one man’s hubris cause? Stay tuned.
With regard to the CBA I think a lot will come down to what the Simmons ruling is.
Because if the ruling holds and Simmons is denied his salary for games missed then I think this problem solves itself. Contracts are “guaranteed”, but if teams can reasonably withhold $$$ to holdouts then trade demands become a lot more hollow.
Nah. They don’t care that much if they don’t get a few game checks fi they have $100m in the bank. Clearly they’re intereted in more than money.
The main thing that hurts the heat trade offer is whether or not they have anyone to trade them for Kyrie. Otherwise they have a top 2 offer of teams that could actually make an offer/should/would. I personally dont think Boston should, otherwise they probably have the best offer. Without Boston, I still think Toronto has the best offer, even without Barnes or OG in a deal
And as I’ve said from the beginning, I still think it just makes the most sense for them to operate like they’re not trading him, add the pieces they need defensively at the 4/5, and go into the season with what they have, and probably be a good team/just as good as any of these teams trading for him, barring health, or Nash messing it up again. I just dont see KD not showing up. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but that seems totally out of his character, and ultimately takes away from what he wants, which is to play basketball and continue to push his place in history as an already all time great 2 way player
Players can negotiate no trade clauses, maybe teams should negotiate no trade request clauses.
Asking to be traded and still showing up for camp and the games doesn’t seem ridiculous to me. The Simmons situation is different in my mind. He literally refused to play.
Players are acting spoiled. They want the guaranteed contract, but reserve the right to request a trade if not happy, but still get paid.
If Durant is unsure about the team, he shouldn’t have signed the contract. Sign for just two years then. But that won’t happen because they the players don’t want to leave guaranteed dollars on the table. Can’t have it both ways.
I think you nailed it.
The difference between LeBron and what the current crop of stars are doing is James always bore some of the risk by signing 1+1s.
So in a sense he earned his leverage in Miami and Cleveland because he was always a flight risk.
It was really Kyrie who started the trend of guys asking out with more than 1 year on their deal. And now it’s escalated to the point with Durant where the extension hasn’t even kicked in yet and he’s asking out.
If teams can trade players against their will & with years left in their contracts… why can’t players request a trade?
I am happy for players to request trades whenever they want… if teams stop trading players with multiple years left, then I am happy for players to stop!
Must not expect loyalty from players if teams don’t know the meaning of the word!
Look how Blake Griffin was treated, that was criminal… and that alone gives players the right to ask for a trade at any time.
Lest not forget that fans watch the league for the players, not the teams… players are the show as a matter of fact!
Most people watch the league for teams not players.
A Lakers fan doesn’t suddenly become a Cavaliers fan when LeBron leaves and goes back home.
Same for Thunder fans when Durant left. They didnt become Warrior fans or Nets fans.
True fans watch the team good or bad and that makes up most of any sports fan base, otherwise teams like the Kings wouldn’t have any fans at all.
Basketball is one of the few sports where I will hear, mostly from a younger demographic, that they are LeBron fans, or they are Curry fans, Durant fans, etc…
Me, personally, I’ve ridden the wave of being a Bulls fan ever since I was about 5 years old (born in ’88)….I was extremely close to giving up on the Bulls before they finally got a new GM/president of basketball operations and brought in Donovan…
Even still then, I could never just bounce from team to team..Whether it is UGA football, 49ers football, Bulls basketball, or Braves baseball I’m a lifer for better or worse..I can’t imagine it any other way, that’s just a foreign concept to me…These are TEAM SPORTS, not tennis, swimming, golf, or Nascar…
@ElDon
Do you really think teams like New Orleans would really want to trade their best player like AD unless they were informed they didn’t have a chance to resign or extend them? It’s usually players wanting to go to more high profile markets.
It’s a business. Players, when free agents can pick the team they want to play with. Furthermore, if they don’t want to be traded, then simply add the clause in. The players know what to expect up front before signing, however teams don’t.
It’s going to become a 2 year contract only leauge. The owners become just as unhappy as the players do and practice their own set of insidious behaviors as well.
“So you say you’re unhappy with the current state of the team?! Well too bad boy you’re stuck! We’ll tell you your the face of the franchise then next season we’s gonna send ya off to Detroit!, And hey boy ya’ gonna like it!!!”
There’s nothing new here – “the latest” is exactly the same.
No matter where KD ends up, the likelihood of him winning a championship is infinitesimal.
I wonder how much of the “record” revenue comes directly to indirectly from player movement and the related coverage they are trying to solve for. Websites like these, the podcast industry, Steven A Smith types, and related content pretty much get to our food on the table from the drama. Trade drama also helps drive interest during the dog days of the season between Christmas and March.
It’s obviously not the biggest revenue generator by any means, but you have to think smart management is weighing all those factors when taking this “tough” line.
What can I say, fans love the soap opera even at times more than the “purity” of the game itself.
The NBA doesn’t set the players salaries. It is done by the market. Owners only have themselves to blame. By letting Bron start this player runs the team thing. They aren’t qualified, that simple. Shows you how stupid rich people can be. When they are out of their element.
—————————————————-
Ben Simmons reportedly fined $19M by 76ers this season, could lose $12M more
link to sports.yahoo.com
Ben didn’t make his salary last yr. He got a big up front payment. Before he decided to sit. Which he still may have to pay back
link to si.com
Ben is still trying to get paid today …..
Uh, the NBA absolutely sets players’ salaries.
It’s called the CBA and it outlines salary caps and max contracts, etc.
If the market set NBA salaries then LeBron James would have been a billionaire 5 years ago and end of roster guys would make WNBA level salaries.
Just one more note here:
The CBA in general is to the benefit of the lower tier NBA players. It’s essentially socialism but for the NBA.
So when we’re talking about “player” empowerment it might be worth noting that Kevin Durant and, say, Monte Morris have radically different interests in terms of the Union.
What Durant is doing ultimately going to hurt the lower tier players way way more than it will the top 20-30 players who ultimately get massively paid regardless.
I still believe Ben and KD make a potentially great front line. But at this point. I don’t see how you can take KD back. NY is not going to accept him back that easy. This ain’t OKC, Cleveland, Miami, or LA. The people here will get the last word. And god help him if he doesn’t play like a star.
Nets are asking for the world. At 34 I don’t see how you get that. Only a contender. Who has a shot at a ring or multiple rings. With KD on their team. Will make the best offer. But who is that now……
Heat ?? don’t have enough.
Raptors ?? If Scottie is not part of it. Not happening.
Suns ?? now with Ayton signed. Can’t get done till Jan 15. So I doubt this
Celtics ?? Celtics would be fools to mess with that chemistry now.
Hornets ?? have plenty young talent and picks. But would he go there.
I just don’t see many options for Nets.
Warriors ?? have the pieces. But why would they do it now. And give up their future.
I don’t know why Portland doesn’t go all in. I understand they are rebuilding and are waiting for Dame to ask for a trade. Unless he is busted, I would trade A Simons 23m, J Nurkic 16m, S Sharpe 6m for K Durant 46m, D Sharpe 2m and all the picks they can afford. Then trade D Sharpe 2m and D Louzada 2m and some of the exception for the well traveled N Noel. Then convert B Williams to a standard contract, then ask L Aldridge to come back. The lineup will be able to switch positions. PG. D Lillard,G Payton,B Williams. SG. J Hart,N Little,K Johnson. SF. J Grant,J Winslow,T Watford. PF. K Durant,G Brown lll,J Walker. C. N Noel,L Aldridge,D Eubanks. Durant and grant switching depending on the matchup. Then sign my two ways to a young C and a young SF.
Blazers give out the picks*
I swear if we get a lock out because of Ben Simmons and Kyrie’s antics…
It wouldn’t be the end of the world. Although Kyrie could tell you where that is
If I’m a championship team I want star players that want to be there because you’ll get better performance, synergy ect. Disgruntled players give you locker room distractions. If I’m a cellar dweller I don’t care to much. I’d prefer to know either way. It’s the public knowing that player x wants to be is where things get sketch because teams lose leverage. Outside of the player or the agent how do you stop a leak from player x’s camp that he doesn’t want to be there? Word gets around.