Kevin Durant

[guest81]

Why is Connelly outbidding himself again(for a player that doesn’t want to be here) no wonder some people hate this guy here.

Although I would be pretty gagged if it turns out that Minnesota is actually the third team in the deal and the hold up isn’t that Durant doesn’t want to be in Minny but that Houston doesn’t up the ante to satisfy Connelly.

Something like
Durant to Houston
Rudy/DDV to Phoenix
Smith Jr/Reed/10/filler (green ) to wolves?

How is he outbidding himself if there's been no deal yet?

[moss_is_1]

Assuming that it’s Rudy Gobert (would explain why Phoenix feels pressured to take Minnesota’s offer), I am really concerned about Minnesota’s defense falling off of a cliff. Rudy Gobert, for any of his faults, is a walking top-three defense whenever he is on the court.

Kevin Durant is still a solid defensive player (he anchored one of the worst defensive rotations we’ve ever seen into being just mediocre/subpar), but even declined, Rudy Gobert is an absolute freak in comparison.

(Mike/Tyus?) / Anthony Edwards / Jaden McDaniels / Kevin Durant / Rudy Gobert

That starting lineup with a solid young bench has a tremendous amount of balance. With Rudy gone, it’s so hard to see his impact be replaced. Julius Randle being the outgoing player makes infinitely more sense for Minnesota, but I don’t see him being so intriguing for Phoenix that they feel pressured into declining other offers.

That said, I feel like it’s more likely that both are traded, than it just being Rudy Gobert (Randle>Both>Gobert is my ranking), so I wonder what that multi-team trade would end up looking like. If not, I have no idea what Minnesota is doing roster-wise.

For what it’s worth, I still completely maintain that the Julius Randle packages are obvious slam-dunks. Even if the trade flops completely, it lines Minnesota up to reload salary-wise relatively quickly. I’m a little nervous about what a four year contract for Julius Randle looks like, and this is a way to mitigate that tension while still taking a big swing in the short-term.

I gotta hope there's contingencies in place if we're shipping out Rudy. There's no way they think a center rotation of Naz Reid and Luka Garza has a chance of being feasible for a western contender.

[shrink]

Randle, Naz and KD are all PF’s. Gobert is our only center.

If Rudy is the best player offered, Randle would probably also be the best player offered if he replaced him.

[Klomp]

I gotta hope there's contingencies in place if we're shipping out Rudy. There's no way they think a center rotation of Naz Reid and Luka Garza has a chance of being feasible for a western contender.

No chance of contingencies. They are so overwhelmed by the aura of Kevin Durant that the team believes he is all they need. They don't even need to try to fill out the roster, because it's a guaranteed championship.

[Klomp]

One thought, as it pertains to Durant's possible 2026 free agency: I know everyone gets consumed by maximizing assets, but I will point out that having a $57 million expiring contract wouldn't exactly be the worst thing heading into next offseason. Sure, it means it's an unknown, but another deep playoff run this year plus a chance at significant cap space in 2026 is a route that is at least worth considering.

[jpatrick]

One thought, as it pertains to Durant's possible 2026 free agency: I know everyone gets consumed by maximizing assets, but I will point out that having a $57 million expiring contract wouldn't exactly be the worst thing heading into next offseason. Sure, it means it's an unknown, but another deep playoff run this year plus a chance at significant cap space in 2026 is a route that is at least worth considering.

I’m not sure Minnesota cap space in 2026 will be that valuable. Unlike this offseason, half the league has significant 2026 cap space. If we, as Minnesota, are bidding against 10 other teams for the elite free agents, I don’t see that going well for us.

Cap space for us is best used in trades, but we are pretty short in assets to trade for people that we could take into cap space.

[Klomp]

I’m not sure Minnesota cap space in 2026 will be that valuable. Unlike this offseason, half the league has significant 2026 cap space. If we, as Minnesota, are bidding against 10 other teams for the elite free agents, I don’t see that going well for us.

If we are a team that has made potentially three deep playoff runs and have a 25-year old Top 10 player?!?!

[BlacJacMac]

This just seems like a bad use of assets. In a vacuum, I don’t mind a DDV/Gobert/filler for Durant deal. I wouldn’t want to throw in even Dilly in that deal, especially knowing Durant is not completely on board.

But that leaves Randle hanging. Durant is a PF. He’s not a SF. He’s not a C. Same with Randle. Do we just let Randle walk? Is there a sign and trade out there for Randle? Sign and trades bring back minimal assets, at most. So if the deal ends up in Randle walking and it becomes, in essence, Gobert, Randle, and DDV, that’s not worth a 37 year old Durant who is going to want about 60m/year IF, big if, he extends here.

I trust TC. But I’m leery of this move. I’d like Randle, DDV, Dilly so much more as a package.

I'd look at a deal centered around Randle and Goga Bitadze - who has oddly fallen out of the rotation in Orlando despite being a huge positive on both ends of the floor.

[jpatrick]

This just seems like a bad use of assets. In a vacuum, I don’t mind a DDV/Gobert/filler for Durant deal. I wouldn’t want to throw in even Dilly in that deal, especially knowing Durant is not completely on board.

But that leaves Randle hanging. Durant is a PF. He’s not a SF. He’s not a C. Same with Randle. Do we just let Randle walk? Is there a sign and trade out there for Randle? Sign and trades bring back minimal assets, at most. So if the deal ends up in Randle walking and it becomes, in essence, Gobert, Randle, and DDV, that’s not worth a 37 year old Durant who is going to want about 60m/year IF, big if, he extends here.

I trust TC. But I’m leery of this move. I’d like Randle, DDV, Dilly so much more as a package.

I'd look at a deal centered around Randle and Goga Bitadze - who has oddly fallen out of the rotation in Orlando despite being a huge positive on both ends of the floor.

I would be on board with that. I don’t think Orlando would want anything to do with Randle though. He doesn’t fit their roster or their expensive roster. They’d also have to send 30m in salary back.

I wonder about Porzingis. When he’s healthy, he’s really good. Being healthy is never certain though. Would they want Randle as a one year Tatum replacement, which would keep them competitive, and roll with Kornet at center, who was pretty good in the playoffs? Salaries about match.

[Klomp]

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[BlacJacMac]

This just seems like a bad use of assets. In a vacuum, I don’t mind a DDV/Gobert/filler for Durant deal. I wouldn’t want to throw in even Dilly in that deal, especially knowing Durant is not completely on board.

But that leaves Randle hanging. Durant is a PF. He’s not a SF. He’s not a C. Same with Randle. Do we just let Randle walk? Is there a sign and trade out there for Randle? Sign and trades bring back minimal assets, at most. So if the deal ends up in Randle walking and it becomes, in essence, Gobert, Randle, and DDV, that’s not worth a 37 year old Durant who is going to want about 60m/year IF, big if, he extends here.

I trust TC. But I’m leery of this move. I’d like Randle, DDV, Dilly so much more as a package.

I'd look at a deal centered around Randle and Goga Bitadze - who has oddly fallen out of the rotation in Orlando despite being a huge positive on both ends of the floor.

I would be on board with that. I don’t think Orlando would want anything to do with Randle though. He doesn’t fit their roster or their expensive roster. They’d also have to send 30m in salary back.

I wonder about Porzingis. When he’s healthy, he’s really good. Being healthy is never certain though. Would they want Randle as a one year Tatum replacement, which would keep them competitive, and roll with Kornet at center, who was pretty good in the playoffs? Salaries about match.

It would probably have to be a 3 team deal with Randle going elsewhere (Miami?)

[shrink]

I’m not sure Minnesota cap space in 2026 will be that valuable. Unlike this offseason, half the league has significant 2026 cap space. If we, as Minnesota, are bidding against 10 other teams for the elite free agents, I don’t see that going well for us.

If we are a team that has made potentially three deep playoff runs and have a 25-year old Top 10 player?!?!

Just a reminder .. if Durant walks, we dont get $54.7 mil in cap space. We will be lucky to stay under the second apron, which is $53 mil over the salary cap. If Durant walked, at $54.7, and we would have $1.7 mil in cap space.

Durant could be an expiring, but we’d have to trade him by the deadline. And remember, expirings don’t have value, they are merely a mechanism to acquire bad salary for assets, or for the trading with good assets (which MIN would have few left), for another player. We wouldn’t even be able to trade him for $54.7 with an asset into another team’s cap space to get a TPE, because new rules prevent teams from carrying that much cap space past the first day of the season.

[Klomp]

I’m not sure Minnesota cap space in 2026 will be that valuable. Unlike this offseason, half the league has significant 2026 cap space. If we, as Minnesota, are bidding against 10 other teams for the elite free agents, I don’t see that going well for us.

If we are a team that has made potentially three deep playoff runs and have a 25-year old Top 10 player?!?!

Just a reminder .. if Durant walks, we dont get $54.7 mil in cap space. We will be lucky to stay under the second apron, which is $53 mil over the salary cap. If Durant walked, at $54.7, and we would have $1.7 mil in cap space.

Durant could be an expiring, but we’d have to trade him by the deadline. And remember, expirings don’t have value, they are merely a mechanism to acquire bad salary for assets, or for the trading with good assets (which MIN would have few left), for another player. We wouldn’t even be able to trade him for $54.7 with an asset into another team’s cap space to get a TPE, because new rules prevent teams from carrying that much cap space past the first day of the season.

Salaries on the books for 2026-27, including all team options:
Ant 48.9
Gobert 36.5
McDaniels 26.2
DiVincenzo 12.5
Dillingham 6.9
Shannon 2.8
Miller 2.8
Total: $136,256,789

One of Randle or Reid would probably be locked in, let's say for $30M (could be more, could be less). But then, remember that Gobert and maybe one or two others would be outgoing in this trade, so you're also subtracting probably another $45-50 million from that total, between Gobert, DiVincenzo and/or Dillingham, let's say. The 2026-27 salary cap is currently projected at $170 million.

[shrink]

If we are a team that has made potentially three deep playoff runs and have a 25-year old Top 10 player?!?!

Just a reminder .. if Durant walks, we dont get $54.7 mil in cap space. We will be lucky to stay under the second apron, which is $53 mil over the salary cap. If Durant walked, at $54.7, and we would have $1.7 mil in cap space.

Durant could be an expiring, but we’d have to trade him by the deadline. And remember, expirings don’t have value, they are merely a mechanism to acquire bad salary for assets, or for the trading with good assets (which MIN would have few left), for another player. We wouldn’t even be able to trade him for $54.7 with an asset into another team’s cap space to get a TPE, because new rules prevent teams from carrying that much cap space past the first day of the season.

Salaries on the books for 2026-27, including all team options:
Ant 48.9
Gobert 36.5
McDaniels 26.2
DiVincenzo 12.5
Dillingham 6.9
Shannon 2.8
Miller 2.8
Total: $136,256,789

One of Randle or Reid would probably be locked in, let's say for $30M (could be more, could be less). But then, remember that Gobert and maybe one or two others would be outgoing in this trade, so you're also subtracting probably another $45-50 million from that total, between Gobert, DiVincenzo and/or Dillingham, let's say. The 2026-27 salary cap is currently projected at $170 million.

You might be right. However, if we trade for Kevin Durant, I think we are all in. We will make moves to put our payroll at just under the second apron, to compete with other contenders with similar payrolls or higher. I would expect these moves would not be exclusively for expiring players. It would be a pretty unusual situation for a contending MIN to go from a $208 mil payroll at the end of 2025, to $115 mil after KD walks, to get the full cap space from his departure.

[jpatrick]

[x]

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NOOOOOOOOO!!! I can’t believe we’d give up this much.

[Neeva]

Sounds like complete BS, The Suns would have accepted that yesterday.I think they are desperate to get better(serious) offers!! If by chance that offer is real than Connelly and The Suns are both idiots. Connelly for bidding way too high for an aging player AGAIN , and Suns for not accepting.

[guest81]

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NOOOOOOOOO!!! I can’t believe we’d give up this much.

I feel like if this was the offer the deal would be done

[m2002brian]

Fake News

[Domejandro]

Gambo sucks, but that’s probably roughly what the package would be, if the trade happens. I would be all-in on that with Julius Randle instead, but it’s hard to be thrilled about Rudy Gobert heading out.

The blunt truth is that there is a reason why Phoenix is desperately trying to get Kevin Durant to sign off on Minnesota, the trade is contingent on that happening.

[Loaf_of_bread]

Gambo sucks, but that’s probably roughly what the package would be, if the trade happens. I would be all-in on that with Julius Randle instead, but it’s hard to be thrilled about Rudy Gobert heading out.

The blunt truth is that there is a reason why Phoenix is desperately trying to get Kevin Durant to sign off on Minnesota, the trade is contingent on that happening.

It's still too much. MAYBE stomachable only if Randle can get us a c.. which unlikely.