I wouldn’t trade Jabari straight up for Durant. I wouldn’t even give them their picks back for Durant. He’s just not in our window at all.
Screw Durant. He’s had a few chances to come to Houston and turned his nose up at the idea. We’ve got a pretty damn good rebuild going and I wouldn’t ruin it chasing a moody 34 year old star when I may have young stars on the Roster. If Brooklyn calls I’d hang up. Our time is approaching and Durant’s time is almost up.
Trading back their picks for Durant is a fun thought experiment. KPJ / Green / Durant / Smith / Sengun? I obviously wouldn’t do it, but it’s amusing to consider.
Damn, we're not trading their picks back to them ...and , Maxey is NOT the centerpiece of a Durant deal! C'mon people!
Seriously, we could have offered Wall + all their picks and swaps back. That would be a quite competitive offer since no other team can offer them a chance to properly tank for top picks...
If we are trading back our picks to the nets, I rather have Ben Simmons than Ayton. This will be our lineup in offense. Move KPJ to SF and let Simmons be the point guard. Sengun Smith Simmons (Point guard) Green KPJ
At his age it would be silly to mortgage the future for Durant even if he was willing to come here. Having said that, this is a unique situation for us to get involved in a trade as a 3rd party. The nets are the one team that can guarantee that their picks will be good, so they are guaranteed to have top 5-10 value to the Nets. As is, the Nets have zero incentive to lose next season, so I think they are likely to do whatever they can to at least be mediocre. So while the Nets don't have something we may want, maybe the perspective new home for Durant does, and that team will likely be willing to move mountains to make it happen. TLDR, the Brooklyn pick has elite value if traded to the Nets, if traded elsewhere (or kept) it's likely a mid- low lottery pick.
Durant is old, injury prone and cannot lead anyone outside of a band of well oiled superstars who already know how to win to a Championship. I would NEVER give them their picks and Jabari back. That's insane.
Simmons can't shoot, don't want. The team would be playing 5 on 4 on offense. You know he had to get benched in the playoffs a few years ago because he was hurting the team offensively.