When the Suns and Rockets agreed a week-and-a-half ago to a deal that will send Kevin Durant to Houston, they negotiated it as a two-team trade. However, after the July moratorium lifts on Sunday and that trade can be officially completed, it’s expected to be finalized as a seven-team mega-deal, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (YouTube link).
Marks specifically mentions the Hawks, Timberwolves, and Nets as teams who will be involved, referencing the Rockets’ sign-and-trade deal for Clint Capela and Atlanta’s sign-and-trade for Nickeil Alexander-Walker as agreements that may be looped into this trade. Brooklyn made a minor draft-night deal with the Suns that includes a couple picks Phoenix is acquiring from Houston as part of the package for Durant.
While Marks didn’t name all seven teams, Fred Katz of The Athletic says the Warriors and Lakers are expected to play a part in the deal too.
The No. 59 overall pick (Jahmai Mashack) that was originally sent from Houston to Phoenix in the Durant agreement got rerouted by Phoenix to Golden State (who later sent it to Memphis), while No. 36 pick Adou Thiero will end up with the Lakers following a series of swaps involving the Nets, Suns, and Timberwolves.
There may also be a pathway to turning Dorian Finney-Smith‘s four-year, $53MM agreement with Houston into a sign-and-trade from the Lakers, though Katz’s report suggests Finney-Smith (and Alexander-Walker) aren’t being discussed in the current framework.
Theoretically, other previous trade agreements involving some of these teams could be roped in to expand the deal even further if it proves advantageous (or if it just streamlines the process of finalizing trades). We also still have more than 72 hours before the moratorium lifts on Sunday at 11:00 am Central time, so if more deals are reached in the coming days, it’s possible they could be attached to this one too.
To be clear, while putting together these swaps as a single mega-trade could result in minor additional pieces such as cash, a draft-rights player, or a two-way player (Katz mentions Daeqwon Plowden of the Hawks) being involved, it won’t meaningfully alter the players and picks changing hands.
It simply means that several trade agreements previously reported separately will be combined into one move to get them all done at once. That should make life easier for the league, which won’t have to process a bunch of separate trades that include certain players or draft picks.
It also means the trade will likely set a new NBA record for most teams involved in a single deal. That record was last set a year ago when six teams got together to complete the transaction that sent Klay Thompson to Dallas, Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield to Golden State, and Josh Green to Charlotte.
Our breakdown of 2025 offseason trades can be found right here if you want to try to figure out how to get eight, nine, 10, or all 30 teams somehow involved in this deal.
KD will never admit it, but he never should have left GS.
He wasn’t the man in GS and while it did not bother him at first since he got rings. But is probably what made him want out.
Also the awards voters openly saying they were ignoring anything Steph and KD did, because the Warriors “broke the league” and it wasn’t “fair” so instead they gave Steph’s rightful MVP’s to Harden and Westbrook, two guys who have never even sniffed a title, in years Curry won the title. Gross.
Steph Curry should have at least 5 MVPs and Steph and KD should have been co-FMVPs in both years they won. If you think KD was also very good and MVP you would be correct, but if you look at who the opps triple teamed to leave KD wide open….there’s your most “valuable” guy.
I’m pretty sure being called a btch by you’re teammate, publicly, with no one from the team bothering to hand your neck or at least admonish Green for saying it played a MAJOR role in KD wanting out. They came to recruit him, he didn’t go to them. To be treated like you’re not needed and to be called a btch is too much for almost anyone to take. Maybe that could slide if it were in the locker room and not discussed in social media and the public forum. KD has his pride and he knew he carried that team to two chips. Keep in mind that the GSW never beat a healthy Cavs team with LBJ, Kyrie and Love in the lineup.
Heres a like for posting the ultimate truth Warriors fans will never acknowledge “GSW never beat a healthy Cavs team with LBJ, Kyrie and Love in the lineup.”
Keep in mind, you forget that they could have easily beat them when fully healthy too. I love how you act like a “what if” is some “gotcha”. Like, Kevin Love is a true nothing burger of a player. He stinks. Why even bring him up? Makes your argument look bad.
What’s this?
link to basketball-reference.com
lmao that is a regular season game genius
No, just like Joe Pesci said in Casino it was the dollars it was always the freaking dollars
KD has sensitive feelings and draymond is a meany face
Depends what your goal is. Dunno why KD gets this heat. If LeBron wanted to win another championship, why’d he re-up with the Lakers?
Lebron did not signed with boston after boston beat his cavs in 2010. He signed with the Miami Heat to form their own big 3.
KD went to the team that beats his OKC. This was why it was 2 different things, imo.
“Dunno why KD gets this heat.”
@Kowalski thing is, OKC’s future stunk at the time. Russell Westbrook is a fraud but no one noticed yet – except KD.
OKC fans being soft is why KD gets this heat.
So he got heat for going to the Warriors, then got heat for leaving the Warriors. Because that seems fair.
KD has made some really dumb decisions in the past, but it’s also a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t (unless you go on to win a championship)
@ Kowalski….Oh hell, know. You’re a bron slurper. LeBron made it fashionable. Can’t knock one without the other. Also to the Warriors fans ragging on KD, lols. Wasn’t Steph who won back to back finals MVPS. Get over it, he left. Oh nooooo.
Not a lebron fan, mate. Im just telling what happened as it was…and it was a general consensus back then among hoops fans, not just lbj fans 😆
Yeah, wtf is nrg on about? Comment makes no sense. Also, “Oh hell, know” means what exactly?
And on top of that, Durant was a top 3 player in the league still in his prime joining a team that had just set the nba record for most wins in a season. It was the most chicken s**t move ever done by a superstar.
@OhThatYoGirl grow up, a professional player joined a professional team. “chicken s**t”? They didn’t even win 3 titles with him. Grow up.
Just calling a spade a spade, Davey. He ran from the grind and it was the softest move a super star has ever done in this league.
Davey J will never understand what you said.
$53 million is hard to pass up no matter how rich you are
@bestno5 the most insane change thats happened in the world in the last 10 years was when everyone went from “All I need is $5 million and you will never see me again” to “I need to hoard as many millions as I can and I cannot stop even if I wanted”
Doesn’t he have a top 5 player in Luka and another 20 point scorer in Austin Reaves?
How much help does he need to win a championship or to even get out of the first round?
He needs Steph and Dray honestly.
KD did not ruin his legacy by leaving overrated Russ and OKC
KD ruined his legacy by leaving Steph and GSW
He kind of ruined it twice
No cap space, can’t wait until we get a 15 team s&t deal and inevitable 30team.
Least complicated NBA trade:
it’s happening. we are getting closer to a trade where every team is involved in some way
My dream!!
Name drop warriors and lakers for media fodder.
worth noting that the athletic article contradicts what was said in the video, stating that “only five players who were in the NBA last season are being discussed in the current iteration of the trade, as of now: Durant, Brooks, Green, Clint Capela and Daeqwon Plowden.”
Was just updating to add that, thanks.
If the Lakers and Warriors are involved…is Lebron going to GSW?
Keep on dreaming
Lol. He may next season, though I’m sure his ego wouldn’t allow MLE or less while Steph and Jimmy are getting paid.
Warriors 26/27 Steph, Dame, Jimmy, LeBron, Horford, Draymond. Nba version of the Golden Girls.
Its possible Boston will be in it as well due to Holiday and Pozingis trades.
Technically Portland can still Sign and Trade Ayton to the Lakers? Not sure whether this is allowed or whether they still have Bird rights after waiving Ayton. I doubt it though. DFS as a snt to the Rockets is more likely why the Lakers are involved.
Cant wait to see the Warriors being involved just because of the moves done back at the draft.
Click the link here if you want to figure out how to get the Yankees, Dodgers, and Shanghai Sharks involved in the trade.
I heard Arris Gilmore and a pair 8th rounders are going to the Bulls for Ronnie Lester and Dickie Simpkins is going to be included in the trade.
Update
All of these dumb and ridiculous rules could all be avoided by having a hard cap.
but capping salaries would mean capping profits and our current idiotic economic model of “endless growth” does now allow that…unless you are advocating billionaire team owners deserve to make more profits every year, in which case…
/slowly unveils middle finger
I’m glad that while I’ve been away we seem to have lost Ridiculous Trade Proposal Davey and gained Eat The Rich Davey. Really adds a lot of character depth that was severely lacking!
even hinting at defending billionares in our current political environment is about as
pathetic/bottom of the barrel/lickspittle/weak/sellout/cowardly/tonedeaf/sub human/candy ass/doormat/creepy/shameful/disgraceful/clueless and deplorable as it gets.
I defend billionaires. You’d rather the government owned the team?
If that was the case, then I think a little bit more would be taken out of your check to pay for them. The money would have to come from somewhere.
Billionaires buy stuff that wage earners build, and sell and repair and purchase massive yachts that chefs and other help work on. What’s wrong with that?
I have two multi millionaire buddies who I meet for lunch every week and they treat me like family. They tell me where to invest my money and are open to providing other life advice as well if asked.
Good dudes who own many businesses and employ many people. I don’t understand the opposition?
Nobody is critisizing the good dignified dudes who accumulate the historically large amount of wealth that our top earners enjoy and also dutifully trickle down on the rest of us. Obviously they are all just dilligently doing what is legal and ethical to increase their extreme wealth. Businesses employing people is certainly always a good thing that is practiced the world over. Who would criticize that?
What I think can be critcized is the economic system of low taxes and lower regulation on our top earners and their companies that has empowered the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the top 1%. A study by the Rand Corp estimated it to be over $50TRILLION with a T from the bottom 90% to top 1% since 1980!
So continue to hob nob and get tips and tricks from the good dudes who are reaping the overwhelming majority of benifits from our flawed system. No one is neccesarily judging you or your dudes. But something is not right here.
Thank you for your kind comment. I appreciate it. I guess through my years of study and experience, I’m not understanding the statement that “wealth is transferred from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy?”
I think if you look at the tax rates, they are a lower percentage for the lower wage earners, a little higher for middle class, and then the rich pay even a higher percentage in tax still.
But I’ll stop there because mine is not a basketball comment and say again that I thank you for the time you took to read my replies, and also for writing what you did explaining your position. I really appreciate it.
Thanks Gary.
Progressive taxation, strong unions, consumer protections, education reforms
all helped build the strong social safety net that built a strong and vital American middle class. Let’s continue to build not go backwards.
Fair enough.
Thanks Gary, you seem like a thoughtful guy and I appreciate you listening. What it comes down to for me is I don’t think we should be worrying so much about motivating and being fair to the very wealthy when our foundations are still so shaky. Cheers!
Some rumblings about the future of Monk in Sacramento involving Kuminga.
They really need to fix the trade machines to allow more teams.
And yet again the league finds another way to make me like its product less.
So it would probably be Suns, Rockets, Hawks, Nets, Timberwolves and maybe Lakers and Warriors as teams six and seven.
Lets try to speculate on additional players or team.
I see thw biggest potential value for Celtics for being team 7 or 8. They have the Porzingis trade with the Hawks and Nets, two of the included teams, that could provide an opening to salary-dump Niang? Including Horford only make sense if he goes to Warriors and they dont have to take back salary. But adding Sam Hauser could make sense. And adding the Anfernee Simmons to Trailblazers trade (for Holiday) could make sense if they can reroute him to a team like Bulls, Hornets or Lakers. Wizards, Kings and Jazz are also potential teams for Simons (Yahoo).
As for the Warriors: can they include a Kuminga sign and trade?
The Hornets (Williams trade with the Suns) could make some sense, certainly if they would take on Simmons from the Celtics.
Rockets could include Cam Whitmore, which could go to Bulls or Nuggets.
The Nets have the Michael Porter Jr trade with Denver Nuggets and had Terence Mann from Atlanta in the Porzingis trade. If they would accomodate a Bradley Beal salary dump and send Porter Jr plus Mann to the Suns, it makes sense to include them. But how much picks are the Suns willing to pay? They couls do the four Durant second rounders, the 2027 and 2029 1st round cavaliers picks plus some pick swaps on their remaining firsts. But then they give up all they have and does not seem like enough for the Nets also.
The Bulls have the Lonzo Ball trade with the cavaliers, could do a Josh Giddey sign-and-trade but doesnt make too much sense to add them for now.
Milwaukee is a team that needed some help signing Turner. Could have made sense for them to get involved in a bigger deal, but dont see a clear path. Sign and trading Lopez would only send salary back. Beal for Lillard (with opt-in and waive+stretch could net some picks but would add even more salary). Connaughton to Hornets also does not make too much sense to include.
When you get older you’ll realise the world doesn’t revolve around the Warriors and Lakers. Media lies and hits have never been more sacred than in the Twitter generation. I mean apparently LBJ is the GOAT. Conviently put out there by guys riding with Paul/LBJ. That hasn’t worked and now they’re starting on trying to tear Kobe down. Pathetic, LBJ lucky to be top 10.
I was wondering why the Warriors have been so quiet with all these guys signing everywhere.
They must be into something big?
Everyone on the planet knows they need several impact guys so maybe this is the deal where something happens?
No reason Memphis couldn’t join in on the fun and complete their trade with Golden State as part of this!