Kevin Durants wants out of the Brooklyn Nets and ESPN has already created an article full of mock trades that’d send him out to a new team.
One of those trades include the Oklahoma City Thunder, who’d send out Derrick Favors and three first-round picks for Ben Simmons in a three-team deal with the Nets and Denver Nuggets.
The full details are below:
Nuggets get:
Kevin Durant
Derrick Favors
Nets get:
Michael Porter Jr.
Aaron Gordon
Three first-round picks (via Oklahoma City)
Thunder get:
Ben Simmons
The explanation for the trade from the Thunder perspective is below:
“The Thunder have been stockpiling picks and cap space for opportunities just like this. Simmons, for all his well-publicized foibles, is still only 25 years old and immensely talented. He’d join Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey and Chet Holmgren as another young star with great potential, and he’d enter a less pressurized environment where his game would have a chance to flourish.
Plus, even with the draft picks they gave up, the Thunder would still have an unprecedented trove of first rounders to continue to build around their now impressive young nucleus.”
While public opinion on Simmons is at an all-time low and is better than what most people think he is, the fit with the Thunder doesn’t make much sense since the team already has plenty of guards and forwards to give minutes to.