Kevin Durant Opts to Stay with Brooklyn Nets, Withdraws Trade Demand

Watch Here - https://youtu.be/j1ACIkfid-U

Speaker 1: [00:00:12] got to say, I'm really glad that we didn't invest a lot of time into Kevin Durant topics over the last. Month and a half, two months, because this feels like a win. As we found out today that Kevin Durant is officially going to be staying with the Brooklyn Nets in the 2022 2023 season. Met with Josiah. Met what? Steve Nash. Met with the general manager, Sean Marks and it's official again, he will be a Brooklyn net this coming season. They agreed that he will agree to his four year contract that he signed last year. That's what I got out of it, that they agreed that, yes, this binding contract you signed, we will actually fulfill it. It's just the irony of this whole situation, something you actually put your signature on. Does it really mean anything in the NBA regardless? I mean, we refrained, but I should say we did technically record a video literally the day before. That didn't age well because Kevin Durant decided to change the news cycle here on a Tuesday. What do you think of this situation which I mentioned in this video? I got to say, I thought that he was going to be on their opening day roster. And I feel vindicated in saying that as he won't be signed and won't be a hit. [00:01:29][77.0]
Speaker 2: [00:01:30] You are correct. And let's just say like I know it's bad on that respect. And I released a podcast this morning talking about Kevin Durant. But here's the other part about this, is that the news that Kevin Durant was coming back broke at about 8:00 in the morning, West Coast time, which means in every major market along the West Coast of America, there were sports talk radio shows talking about yesterday's news of the Memphis Grizzlies getting involved and other possible destinations for a trade. So don't worry. Everyone got fooled by Kevin Durant. Some people even worse, because they were live on radio when this news came out. So everyone got fooled by it this one day because nobody saw this coming. [00:02:09][38.9]
Speaker 1: [00:02:09] I saw Bill Simmons literally put out there on the ringer Twitter account. Thanks for all the content over the last two months. Thanks for all the meaningless content over the last year. Yeah. [00:02:18][9.2]
Speaker 2: [00:02:19] Let's go. Meaningless sports content to fill the void. Because Kevin Durant wasn't willing to make it so ugly that he was going to hold out into training camp, which wasn't about to do. [00:02:29][9.5]
Speaker 1: [00:02:29] It wasn't that. My point, though, that I saw came, it ran and it didn't look at a player that would actually sit out games. I didn't think he was of Ben Simmons character to actually miss meaningful games. I mean, sure, maybe he gets that I, I have a back spasm and maybe that's still on the table. I don't know. I just didn't see him doing that. I didn't see him making it that ugly other than maybe a cryptic social media post. Maybe, like I said, maybe going out like Sean Marks or Steve Nash in private or maybe we got another Twitter burner account. [00:03:03][33.9]
Speaker 2: [00:03:04] Dude, you what part about Kevin Durant and social media screams cryptic to you. Kevin Durant just fights people in the comment section like that's just Kevin Durant's thing is lack of. [00:03:13][8.9]
Speaker 1: [00:03:13] Subtlety after he got outed, I should say that was like outed with the Twitter account. [00:03:18][5.0]
Speaker 2: [00:03:18] At what point that was like five years ago now, at what point do we kind of move past the burner account thing and be like, Kevin Durant's just an Internet troll now he puts his name on shit. Now. [00:03:26][8.0]
Speaker 1: [00:03:28] I would not be surprised if you told me a few more burners develop throughout the course of the season, especially if things get a little wonky with the Brooklyn Nets season. If we see a bench pull up between him and Steve Nash, I still think all that stuff is kind of still on the table. [00:03:41][13.1]
Speaker 2: [00:03:41] Oh yeah. No, Brooklyn can be had for a price. I think that that's very much in the past. [00:03:45][3.9]
Speaker 1: [00:03:46] But just nothing like a trade can. It will develop over the course of the season. I'm saying that I just think that it could become just an ugly situation because I don't know. How do you like go back into a workplace after you said, I want this dude fired and just make it work? [00:04:01][14.9]
Speaker 2: [00:04:01] I know. Probably not. Well, no. [00:04:03][1.8]
Speaker 1: [00:04:03] I know we're talking about you have to be professionals. This happens, the news cycle comes and goes. But that was a very public report when it came out there for Steve Nash. [00:04:12][8.3]
Speaker 2: [00:04:13] Of course. And you're only as good as your options. So I think some people who have other options at work, yeah, this is such a disrespect that they're not willing to come back to a situation depending on your options. You're willing to put up with more crap when you're in a work situation. And so, you know, Kevin Durant comes back, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving still have all the power within the organization. This was the case even before they requested a trade. I think the Kevin Durant trade came about because of the fact that Brooklyn wasn't willing to sign Kyrie Irving to a long term contract extension. And it felt like they were trying to reassert the power within the organization, the power that they gave all of to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and for a little bit James Harden, but specifically Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant had all the power. And I think that that was what played out where they they went through that process. It didn't succeed and they were going to go to another place for basketball reasons, not for power reasons, for basketball reasons. And none of the options Kevin Durant wanted actually worked out. [00:05:16][62.9]
Speaker 1: [00:05:16] I'm seeing all these conspiracy. Theories today that the trade request was only to weaken their enemies, to have the Celtics publicly put out there that Jaylen Brown was on the table to have the Heat show their best package or the Sun showed their best package. Maybe that's how the Nets get back on top because OC coming back today, looking at the Nets, looking at their prospects for this upcoming season. Okay, so we got Kevin Durant. We have Kyrie Irving. And then of course, coming back to them. Maybe Ben Simmons, though, maybe you have a big three out there. So the Nets should be a playoff team. I just don't know how much of a better team they are than the team that got swept out of the first round last year. I don't know if they're championship caliber in the Eastern Conference based off so I saw last season. [00:06:02][45.4]
Speaker 2: [00:06:03] I think that like from a basketball standpoint I don't know what's going to happen with Brooklyn because I don't know who's going to be there. I don't know who's going to be playing games once the playoff rolls around because it's just it's crazy. But like on paper, definitely better than the hawks regardless of upgrades. Definitely better than the Bulls, definitely better than Toronto, about as good as Philadelphia. Like those are just kind of the teams. The category they're in is like there are four really good teams still in the east. It's Milwaukee, I guess five, Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. And do you slot them in however you slot them in? I just have no idea who's going to show up for Brooklyn. I don't know what their work dynamics are going to look like and how they come back from this. [00:06:44][41.9]
Speaker 1: [00:06:45] So I think I remember kind of how more or less the season broke down for them last year. I believe they had a one and three record against the Heat, their one and three record against the Celtics. And they had a one and three record against the Bucks, but they had a three and one record against the 76 or so. You're assertion that they are probably about as good as the 70 Sixers probably is. Right. You mentioned their big three matching up against Embiid and Harden this coming season, or maybe that's just stylistically a good matchup for them because the old phrase styles make fights. Maybe that's just one that they would wish if they were granted the postseason. They probably wish they would probably just knock out Boston in the first round. That might have made their life a little bit easier, albeit maybe the options are going against Milwaukee or well, at the time with Khris Middleton hurt, sometimes he could walk into matchups, so that's maybe their opportunity to rise above in the Eastern Conference. They're going to get pieces back from injury. Joe Harris is going to be back for them. So that's going to help them on the wing. As long as everyone stays healthy, they should be a better team. But that is a that is a big question mark for this Nets team. Right. We have a lot of players who traditionally throughout their career have not stayed healthy or stayed in one place or kept them mentally together throughout the course of a season. Looking at you. Kyrie Irving Well. [00:08:06][81.1]
Speaker 2: [00:08:06] That's the point. I'm thinking it can't go much worse than last year, right? Like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons as not together like just as a total played 80 games between the three of them the entire season last year. So it can't get much worse than last year in terms of not being available like the vaccine mandates are lifted. So Kyrie Irving wins in the end after everything that happened, Kyrie Irving wins, except he doesn't get a new contract. [00:08:30][23.6]
Speaker 1: [00:08:30] So now, man, I hear Monkey Pox is in the water these days. [00:08:33][2.6]
Speaker 2: [00:08:34] Kyrie Irving wins in the end and Kevin Durant is going to come back. So it can't be much worse than last year. But that's the same thing I said when I was breaking it down. It's like they're in that group of five and I have no idea who's going to be available. I have no idea who's going to be playing. I have no idea what's going to happen with that team. It's just as long as they have those three pieces, they're a championship contender. That's a big. [00:08:57][22.9]
Speaker 1: [00:08:57] Narrow chance of a. [00:08:58][0.8]
Speaker 2: [00:08:58] Big ol if. [00:08:59][0.4]
Speaker 1: [00:08:59] I won't go as far as a championship contender, but I can say that they can be in that group of second round. I would say that would be a solid floor to put them at. [00:09:07][8.0]
Speaker 2: [00:09:08] Yeah, I could agree with you on that. [00:09:10][1.7]
Speaker 1: [00:09:10] I agree with you there. I think part of the thing in the Miss evaluation and it's kind of like think of it in this way, it's kind of like college football, preseason rankings. Last year we had them as the championship favorite coming into the year and then they show that they were definitively not in that tier. So now we're trying to reevaluate them based on actually seeing the results of this team working together. Did they get dramatically better throughout the course of last year or the off season? It all is going to boil down to really Ben Simmons. What is Ben Simmons? After a year of not playing? That's going to be a big question mark for me because if is Ben Simmons from a few years ago, then that that could work. You said that could be a team that could elevate to a championship level the be it I've never seen Ben Simmons I don't have a reference point of him being in a championship level to being with the Philadelphia 70 Sixers. But he could but he can be part of that one, potentially. Oh, hey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm disrespecting the seven foot Rondo. [00:10:11][61.2]
Speaker 2: [00:10:13] I meant the Sixers, man. The Sixers were a Kawhi bounce away from going to the final. The Sixers were the number one seed in the Eastern Conference in 2021. [00:10:22][8.9]
Speaker 1: [00:10:23] And yet it's been the sixth 20 years since they've been to a conference finals. [00:10:27][3.9]
Speaker 2: [00:10:28] Oh, no, you're correct on just the idea that they weren't close. It's just it's it's brutal on Philadelphia. But to your point. Yeah. No idea what's going to happen with Ben Simmons. No idea how many games Kyrie Irving is going to play because Kyrie Irving just didn't want to work last year, which is fine and it's all fun, it's all chaotic. And I have no reason to to evaluate that. A big three of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams is better than a big three of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons. It's just it's crazy to me that Brooklyn has all these moving pieces. And yet if they all play together, they're going to be so good. They're going to be so good and so fun. And you know, you said Ben Simmons is what it all comes down to. And, you know, that's saying a lot about the availability of Kyrie Irving. And like Kyrie Irving is going to be the person it all comes down to, which is crazy that they have all these moving pieces. And like I said, I have no idea what's going to happen to them next year. I'm going to need a like 50 game sample size to figure it out. But it's crazy to think about that they're going to come back together after all this. [00:11:32][64.1]
Speaker 1: [00:11:32] What's that phrase that Aaron Rodgers used a couple of years ago? The Nets are a beautiful mystery. That's how I look at them coming into this year. Although on next to Beautiful, they're just a mystery to me. Anyway, guys, if you have an idea of what the Brooklyn Nets are going to be this year, go ahead and drop that below. In the comments, what did you think of this whole finessing by Kevin Durant withdrawing his trade request at the last minute? I'd like to hear your thoughts on that as well. Leave a light on this video. Hit that subscriber in from JuJu Talks Sports and Kyle Ledbetter. Stay safe, happy and healthy. We'll see you next time. [00:11:32][0.0]
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