At this moment, the entire fan base of the Philadelphia 76ers is salivating over the idea of Kevin Durant joining James Harden and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. A Big 3 of that magnitude would make the Sixers the favorites in the Eastern Conference.
Durant requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets back on June 30 and the Nets have yet to find the right deal that makes sense for a superstar of his caliber. The asking price is understandably high and the Sixers might not have the pieces to match it despite Durant wanting to play in Philadelphia.
On “NBA Today”, ESPN’s Bobby Marks broke down why a trade of Durant to Philly is unlikely:
Marks on why it’s unreasonable
When you look at certainly with Philadelphia and certainly Brooklyn here, it’s going to be a challenge, right? Certainly, we’re talking about Kevin Durant here, when we look at it from Brooklyn’s perspective, but when you’re looking at it from Philadelphia, basically the only player from a salary standpoint is a player like Tobias Harris, so when you look at Harris, and certainly players like as Matt said, Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, you’re limited as far as what you’re going to be able to trade out. You’re not going to trade out, certainly James Harden can’t be traded until December you’re not going to trade Joel Embiid here. Remember, they’ve already traded Brooklyn two first round picks, 2023 and 2027. They owe Oklahoma City a first in 2025. So when you look at it, only the first that they can trade it out is 2029. And if you’re the Nets’ perspective, you have their picks already. So why are you going to make this team a lot better? So when maybe that pick turns into the early 20s, now it’s going to be the 28th or 29th pick in the draft. So the pieces are there certainly when you look at Harris and Maxey and Thybulle for Durant, but from a draft pick perspective, it doesn’t make sense. If you’re going to trade Kevin Durant to a team in your conference. You want Jaylen Brown back, right? That’s the guy that you want back in a deal and you want draft picks. This for me, doesn’t make sense at all.
The clip
Looking at this from Philadelphia’s perspective
The Sixers might have made a phone call to the Nets about Durant, as every team in the league has, but Marks is right. The draft pick compensation would be really tough to make something like this work. The Sixers cannot move a first-round pick until 2029 and that is not a lot to entice Brooklyn to move Durant to Philadelphia.
You never want to say never, but this is as close to not happening as it possibly can. Daryl Morey can try and find a third team and get them involved so he can bring Durant to the Sixers, but other teams are not going to willingly help Philadelphia get a deal done with the Nets.
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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire
