The Brooklyn Nets made a tough decision during the 2022-23 NBA season when they traded forward Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns after he requested to be traded for the second time. Brooklyn didn't want to end their rebuild so soon given that Durant and Kyrie Irving were still in their primes, but it looks like the Nets came out on the good end of the deal.
"Kevin Durant made his first trade request in June of 2022, naming the Suns as his preferred destination. No deal came to pass, so KD made a second request at the 2023 deadline," Grant Hughes wrote of Durant and the Nets for Bleacher Report. Due to various reasons, Durant wanted out of Brooklyn and even though the two parties tried to make the relationship work in the beginning of the 2022-23
campaign, it became clear that something had to change.
"Somehow, with the whole world knowing he was unhappy and dead set on landing in Phoenix, the Nets still extracted an absolute haul," Hughes continued. "Usually, when a player narrows his choices to one team, the lack of a bidding war keeps the return lower. Not so here, and the Suns will be feeling the pain of shipping out five first-round assets for the rest of the decade."
Prior to the trade deadline for the 2022-23 season, the Nets traded Durant and forward TJ Warren to the Suns in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, Phoenix's first-round picks in 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029 along with a first-round pick swap in 2028. Durant is now trying to win a title with the Houston Rockets and Warren is no longer in the league as of this writing.
On the other side, Crowder is no longer in the NBA either, but Brooklyn was able to get five first-round picks from the New York Knicks for Mikal Bridges while also getting one first-round pick and forward Michael Porter Jr. from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Johnson. While the Nets are still in the midst of their rebuild, it looks like they were on the good side of one of the most lopsided trades in recent NBA history.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets appear to be on good side of Kevin Durant trade to Suns
