With less than two weeks to go before the 2025 NBA Draft, the Kevin Durant trade sweepstakes appear to be heating up.
On Wednesday, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Durant's business partner, Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman, has "met multiple times" with the Phoenix Suns over the past week, and both sides are "sifting through trade scenarios." Charania also said the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks are "mainly" the five teams that have expressed interest in Durant to date.
However, Charania added that "several wild-card suitors have made inquiries on Durant in the past seven to 10 days."
On Friday, Charania said on The Pat McAfee Show that a Durant trade could happen "in the next few days" and that there was "serious traction" on trade scenarios. He added that "the focus of the Suns' conversations" have been on the Heat, Wolves and Rockets thus far.
Charania has yet to reveal the identity of the "wild-card teams" that have also expressed interest in Durant. That's what we're here to suss out today.
Rebuilding teams like the Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets presumably miss the cut. They're far enough away from title contention that the soon-to-be 37-year-old Durant doesn't align with their timelines. Suitors need to be convinced that he's the missing piece who can immediately propel them into the championship mix.
Who might those mystery teams be? Let's take some wild guesses.
Los Angeles Clippers
On Friday, ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps reported the Los Angeles Clippers were an "additional team to monitor" in the Durant sweepstakes. They noted the Clippers "have the contracts to make another move to augment the roster around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, presuming the latter either opts into his contract or signs a new deal this offseason."
The Clippers currently project to be $20.4 million under the first apron next season, which could allow them to take back more salary than they send out in a trade. (Doing so would trigger a first-apron hard cap, though.) Durant made $51.2 million this year and is set to earn $54.7 million next season, so the Clippers either would have to send out at least $40.7 million in salary if they finalized a Durant trade before June 30 or $43.6 million after.
The combination of Norman Powell ($19.2 million), Bogdan Bogdanović ($17.3 million) and Kris Dunn ($5.2 million) combined to make $41.7 million this past season, so the Clippers could use those three as their main salary ballast in a Durant deal. If they waited until after the new league year, though, they'd have to include an additional salary or swap out Dunn for Derrick Jones Jr. ($10.0 million).
The Clippers do have the No. 30 pick in this year's draft, but they've otherwise already traded away control of their first-round picks through 2029. If the Suns wanted a picks- and prospects-heavy package, other teams could blow the Clippers out of the water. But if the Suns signed off on Powell, Bogdanović and Dunn for Durant, the Clippers could trot out a starting five of Harden, Leonard, Durant, Ivica Zubac and either Jones or Nic Batum. That's a loaded (albeit top-heavy) foundation.
Toronto Raptors
Part of the issue with a Durant trade is that he's entering the final year of his contract. If he doesn't sign an extension with whichever team acquires him, he'll become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The Toronto Raptors might not care. After all, they took this exact same gamble with Kawhi Leonard in 2018, and it resulted in the first and only championship in franchise history.
The Raptors just acquired Brandon Ingram at the trade deadline and signed him to a three-year, $120 million extension. However, because that extension isn't more than 120 percent of what he was previously earning, he doesn't have the typical six-month trade restriction. He's trade-eligible right now thanks to the NBA's new extend-and-trade rules.
If the Raptors didn't want to flip Ingram ($38.1 million) in a Durant deal, R.J. Barrett ($27.7 million) is their other big chip from a salary perspective. They'd likely have to include Jakob Poeltl ($19.5 million) for salary-matching reasons as well in that scenario, which would leave them perilously thin in the frontcourt. The Raptors project to be only $1.2 million below the first apron as well, so they wouldn't want to take back more salary than they sent out to avoid getting hard-capped at that threshold.
If they could finagle a three-team deal in which they sent out Ingram or Barrett along with Poeltl and the No. 9 pick and land both Durant and a stopgap center in return, that might be their best-case scenario.
Memphis Grizzlies
Three years ago, the Memphis Grizzlies were what the Oklahoma City Thunder are now. They had three up-and-coming stars in Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane, and they were fresh off a 56-win season that seemingly announced they had next in the Western Conference.
Since that time, injuries and a pair of Morant suspensions have derailed their progress. They missed the playoffs entirely amidst an injury-ravaged 2023-24 campaign, and a late-season swoon cost head coach Taylor Jenkins his job this past year.
General manager Zach Kleiman insisted in mid-February that the Grizzlies were still committed to Morant, but that was before they nosedived after the All-Star break. Would they still feel the same way if Morant was their ticket to acquiring KD?
The Grizzlies project to be miles under the first apron this offseason. In fact, they could even have a bit of cap space, which they'd presumably use to renegotiate and extend Jackson's contract. Either way, they wouldn't have to send out an equivalent amount of salary to acquire Durant.
Would Morant ($39.4 million) and Brandon Clarke ($12.5 million) alone be enough to get it done? That would leave the Suns with a glut of expensive guards, although Bradley Beal should not be factoring into their long-term thinking either way. Could the backcourt duo of Morant and Devin Booker help them navigate out of their self-created mess?
If the Grizzlies weren't confident in Scotty Pippen Jr. taking over as their full-time point guard, they'd have the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to spend on a floor general either in free agency or via the trade market. And they'd have a new Big Three of Durant, Bane and Jackson, which would make life easier on whoever's running the point for them next season.
New Orleans Pelicans
The New Orleans Pelicans are at a crossroads.
