The NBA is a star-driven league. Having stars is a gargantuan predictor of whether or not a team will be successful. You need high-level talent in order to be a truly high-level team.
As such, teams that want to try to legitimately contend for a championship look to get stars when they don’t have them, so when Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant demanded a trade on June 30, suddenly he became someone who just about every team in the league wanted to try to get.
What has followed has been a very slow moving offseason on the trade front, because teams have held out on other deals in hopes that the players currently on their squad would be ones the Nets might want in exchange for Durant.
Well, Nets general manager Sean Marks announced on Tuesday that “(Head coach) Steve Nash and I, together with (owners) Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and (Durant’s manager) Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday. We have agreed to move forward with our partnership.
“We are focusing on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn.”
With that, Durant is now suddenly off the market.
Certainly the second-best player in the league on the trade market after Durant before Tuesday was Utah Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell.
Many have bemoaned that no deal has happened involving Mitchell, but now that Durant’s situation is firmed up, does that make it easier for a Mitchell deal to happen soon?
There is one school of thought that this might actually complicate the Mitchell matters. Before Tuesday, the New York Knicks were seen as really the only team that could put together a compelling enough trade package for Mitchell.
Now that teams aren’t holding out for Durant, though, could more try to get in on the Mitchell sweepstakes and present an offer that the Jazz would like better than what the Knicks can give?
It’s very possible, but perhaps the Jazz’s trade of Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves can be instructive in terms of what the Jazz may want for Mitchell.
Yes, the Jazz got a couple of very solid players back from the Timberwolves, but it’s been clear that the package of five first-round picks that they received was what they prized most in the deal.
If the Jazz are indeed going to trade Mitchell, doesn’t it stand to reason that what Jazz CEO Danny Ainge will be most after again is picks instead of players, barring a team offering someone truly elite or with elite potential?
As such, the Knicks likely remain the team best equipped to present an offer for Mitchell that would be of most interest to the Jazz.
Ergo, the change in the Durant situation doesn’t seem as though it will ultimately have much of a significant impact on Mitchell trade negotiations.