{"id":41348,"date":"2025-03-10T07:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=41348"},"modified":"2025-03-10T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:16:16","slug":"trade-report-the-lakers-are-among-the-teams-that-will-pursue-kevin-durant-in-the-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=41348","title":{"rendered":"TRADE REPORT: The Lakers are among the teams that will pursue Kevin Durant in the summer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Lakers Not Among Kevin Durant Trade Suitors?<\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/USATSI_24862527_168404789_lowres.jpg\" alt=\"Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The NBA is expecting movement among the stars this offseason, with Phoenix Suns forward\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0widely believed to be on his way out of Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, Durant doesn\u2019t sound like wants to pack his bags. Nonetheless, the Suns are\u00a0in a bit of a pickle, and trading him may be their only way out.<\/p>\n<p>If so, there are five teams that are usually linked to the future Hall of Famer \u2014 the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks, the Golden State Warriors, and the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n<p>However, there are three other teams that have been suggested as potential destinations as well \u2014 the San Antonio Spurs, the New York Knicks, and the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth mentioning that\u00a0there are conflicting reports\u00a0about the Rockets\u2019 interest in Durant though. Furthermore, The Athletic insider Jovan Buha has thrown cold water on the idea of Durant landing with the Lakers.<\/p>\n<h2>Lakers Not Among Kevin Durant Trade Suitors?<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI have not heard anything about the Lakers being interested in Kevin Durant,\u201d Buha says. \u201cI think that might just be a situation where someone throws the Lakers out there to get some buzz with it.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFor the Lakers, a hypothetical trade for KD would have to be something like Austin [Reaves], Rui [Hachimura], Dalton [Knecht], Gabe [Vincent], Maxi [Kleber], a pick, and a couple pick swaps. That\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jGmL1AsypBQ?si=5Tc6_JWf8I_UxbUR\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Lakers are basically giving up everything that they could trade. For KD, you can make that case, but if you\u2019re Phoenix, if you have an open bidding with at least multiple teams, you can get more than that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Never Say Never<\/h3>\n<p>The concept of Durant heading to the Lakers may seem far-fetched. Nevertheless, after L.A. managed to swing a trade for\u00a0Luka Doncic, it\u2019s more improbable than implausible. Furthermore, given\u00a0how secretive their front office was\u00a0about trading for Doncic, the media not hearing anything substantive about Durant being an offseason trade target doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, the Suns likely would have a better option than what the Lakers would want to offer. Unless Doncic requests a trade in the offseason,\u00a0a legitimate possibility, they\u2019d have to accept a package headlined by\u00a0Austin Reaves\u00a0and\u00a0Rui Hachimura.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, Reaves and Hachimura are starter-level players with the potential to put up star-caliber numbers. Nevertheless, they\u2019re not cut from Durant\u2019s cloth.<\/p>\n<p>If Phoenix accepted an offer featuring Reaves and Hachimura, they\u2019d likely have been enticed by first-round picks. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they can only surrender their 2031 first-round pick.<\/p>\n<h3>Competing Offers<\/h3>\n<p>Neither the Heat, Timberwolves, Mavericks, Spurs, Warriors, Knicks, nor Rockets may\u00a0<em>want<\/em> to offer much more than Los Angeles from a personnel standpoint.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Miami could put together a trade package centered around\u00a0Andrew Wiggins, a one-time All-Star.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota could\u00a0create a package\u00a0centered around\u00a0Julius Randle, a three-time All-Star. Dallas\u2019s trade package could feature\u00a0Klay Thompson, a five-time All-Star.<\/p>\n<p>New York\u2019s package could be headlined by\u00a0Mikal Bridges\u00a0or\u00a0OG Anunoby. Notably, Bridges spent the first four-plus seasons of his career in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p>If the Suns wanted to go younger, they might accept a package centered around San Antonio\u2019s\u00a0Devin Vassell.\u00a0Chris Paul, who helped lead the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals, could also be included in the offer.<\/p>\n<p>In that same vein, Phoenix could turn their attention to Houston\u2019s\u00a0Amen Thompson\u00a0or Golden State\u2019s\u00a0Jonathan Kuminga.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, none of these players are on the 15-time All-Star\u2019s plane. Nonetheless, many are more established or capable scorers or defenders than Reaves or Hachimura. Sans the Knicks, each of the aforementioned franchises can also offer at least two first-rounders for Durant.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, as Buha states, the Suns will probably have better choices in a bidding war for Durant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lakers Not Among Kevin Durant Trade Suitors? The NBA is expecting movement among the stars this offseason, with Phoenix Suns forward\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0widely believed to be on his&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TRADE REPORT: The Lakers are among the teams that will pursue Kevin Durant in the summer? - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=41348\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TRADE REPORT: The Lakers are among the teams that will pursue Kevin Durant in the summer? - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lakers Not Among Kevin Durant Trade Suitors? 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