The ‘Kyrie wants out’ shocker (not) dominated NBA Trade Deadline for a day providing a nice break from the O.G. rumours to every team in the league. It seems Kyrie got offered a max contract verbally and got insulted when the fine print arrived and there were a lot of conditions packed into getting those Max dollars! I’ve no idea what conditions the Nets put in but Kudos to them for not being a sucker twice.
‘Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.’ - G.W. Bush
Any contract I offer Kyrie is going to have so many performance clauses it’ll make War and Peace look like a kids book. Not sure where Kyrie thinks he’s gonna get max money with no performance clauses but good luck! That’s what Free Agency is all about. Just don’t walk too far in one direction searching cause you might fall off the Earth.
The real story in Toronto, and everywhere else, very quickly pivoted to what does Kevin Durant want to do now? He’s obviously the Diamond on the Nets everyone would love to have. However it hasn’t been much more than half a year since I went through all the stupid KD trade talk and I’m just not going to entertain it anymore. I’m going to cut through all the BS and end it right here and now. The Raptors can’t even get into the playoffs right now. How can they trade away their future for one more player and think they are suddenly a ‘contender’??? It’s pure fantasy. This team is broken in many ways and adding $45 mil in payroll is NOT the answer. The team already can’t resign everyone and needs to shed players. Salary wise it’s pure crazy talk.
In the summer the Raptors went hard for KD and it was clear the Nets wanted far far too much in return. Not that Durant isn’t worth a King’s Randsom…he is worth it…but that it leaves ANY team trading for him a hollow shell and unable to compete for a championship immediately. You see there simply is a ‘max return’ a team can give for any player and still play basketball afterward. Doesn’t matter if Kevin is one of the best 10 players to ever play basketball and still hoops at one of the highest levels in the NBA today. I still have to put out a team that can win or the trade isn’t worth it. I also can’t give away every draft pick I have because then I can’t surround Kevin with any other pieces. Look at the Lakers and Clippers. Hollowed out, trying to win championships but can’t make quality trades because they don’t have assets to trade out. Imagine being a Luxury paying team and not being able to change the roster significantly while it’s obvious you have construction holes that you can’t win with! Balmer might find that fun but I promise every other Billionaire blows it all up before the Tax Man eats their lunch.
Look…you’re going to see a TON of Kevin Durant trade content floating all over the NBA now. It brings clicks. It gets Youtube views. It’s pure fantasy talk. The Raptors have so many problems to fix before even thinking of a Kevin Durant type move. Let’s keep it real. Masai needs to target young players with high upside potential or draft picks. The current situation is really that bad. I’ve proposed helping Brooklyn get out of Ben Simmons contract because he’s a huge renovation project that will take a couple years. He could be had extremely cheaply as well…especially if Durant wants to stay in Brooklyn with Kyrie leaving and the team needing Cap space to bring in a new Star. That’s the type of desperate, buy low move the Raptors are looking for. Not a ‘win now’ move trading away everything for Durant.
I’m confident Masai isn’t seriously thinking this team is a Durant trade away from Glory. If he is then someone take off their shoe and throw it at him next press conference. He might dodge it as well as old George did back in the White House but at least the message will have been delivered. Stop acting stupid.
In case you wanted to watch that infamous shoe throwing again...and see what happened to the thrower afterwards...here's the link! Enjoy!!! https://youtu.be/I-4EyRelUr8