Brooklyn Nets: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Alec Liebsch
Kevin Durant sign-and-trade
While Kyrie Irving was likely more influential in this duo landing with the Brooklyn Nets, Kevin Durant will provide the most on-court value. Even though he’s missing the first season of his four-year contract with a torn Achilles, Durant is still an all-time great just exiting his prime.
Durant could have signed with Brooklyn outright, but the Warriors wanted to garner some sort of value for him. To make this happen, the Nets signed-and-traded Russell to Golden State on a max deal, getting Durant and a top-20 protected first round pick in 2020.
Why did the Warriors have to give up a pick as well? At Durant’s demand. He saw it as unfair for the Nets go have to give up something for a player they could sign outright, so he (and the Nets) demanded the Warriors to give up more.
Though KD will be 32 when he returns from that injury, He’ll still be an awesome player. Being the second-best player in the world for multiple seasons doesn’t just vanish, especially in the prime of one’s career.
When he comes back, expect a lot of isolation. The Nets (and a few other teams) have found ways to make iso possessions efficient, and they’ll do the same for Durant, likely playing mismatch ball to get easy buckets.
When he’s not dribbling the ball into the ground, the Slim Reaper can be an excellent spot-up player too. With the Warriors, Durant hit 38.4 percent of his 5.4 3-point attempts per game. He did this playing off Stephen Curry a lot, which is pretty easy to do considering the talent level.
Irving isn’t Curry, but he’s not too far off. In the same ways that Irving can take Brooklyn’s offense to the next level, he can make Durant’s life a hell of a lot easier. In addition, the two literally chose to play together, so it’s clear they see a basketball fit too.
A 7-footer with the length of Slenderman, the skills of a guard, and one of the most butter jump shots the league has ever seen will age just fine.