The Phoenix Suns‘ crafty ploy of driving up Kevin Durant‘s price at the expense of the Toronto Raptors may have been working.
Or maybe the Suns have lowered the price.
Whatever the reason is, the Suns are nearing a deal involving the 15-time All-Star, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports.
“A Kevin Durant deal is very close. Phoenix continues to work with multiple teams to get the deal they want and I expect it will happen today or tomorrow,” Gambadoro wrote on X on Sunday, June 22.
To which team? That remains the biggest mystery.
The Raptors are one of the two teams that are considered a dark horse in the Durant sweepstakes. Along with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Raptors have an outside chance of landing Durant since both of them are not on his list of preferred destinations.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Raptors “we’re willing to gamble” on Durant.
Three teams — the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets — are on Durant’s list of preferred destinations, according to ESPN’s senior NBA insider Shams Charania.
Either of the three teams is where Durant is amenable to sign an extension.
Durant has one year and $54.7 million left in his current four-year, $190 million contract. He can sign a two-year, $112 million extension wherever he lands next. If he waits six months after the trade, he could fetch more — $124 million over two years, according to Charania.
So, a trade to Toronto could mean he’s just a one-year rental.
Conflicting Raptors Offer Reported
Getty Jakob Poeltl of the Toronto Raptors is in line for a lucrative extension amid Kevin Durant trade buzz.
There have been conflicting reports about the extent of the Raptors’ offer for Durant.
Brett Seigel of Clutchpoints reported on Friday that the Raptors had an enticing offer to the Suns that includes two of their three starters.
“Even though the Raptors’ offer of either RJ Barrett or Immanuel Quickley alongside potentially Jakob Poeltl and draft picks is enticing, it is the [Miami] Heat that league personnel are signaling as the team with a better chance at a deal,” Siegel wrote.
However, the Raptors are also unwilling to part ways with Poeltl in a Durant deal, Michael Granger of Sportsnet Canada reported shortly after.
“The reports that the Raptors are monitoring his situation are credible and make sense, given Toronto had conversations with the Suns back in February about the possibility of a Durant trade.
“But to cut through some of the smoke: multiple sources have confirmed to me that Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl would not be part of any deal — however unlikely a Raptors-Suns deal might be — centred around Durant. The Suns were asking for Poeltl at the trade deadline and got a firm ‘no’ back then, but that hasn’t stopped them from asking, apparently,” Granger wrote.
Suns Pitting Bidding Teams’ Offers Against Each Other
GettyGeneral Manager of the Toronto Raptors Masai Ujiri after his team’s victory over the Golden State Warriors to win Game Six of the 2019 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 13, 2019 in Oakland, California.
Granger explained that the talks involving Poeltl must have come from the Suns’ camp to drive up the price for Durant.
“The best way to understand any mention of Poeltl being in a trade for Durant — or anyone else, but in this case with the Suns — is to recognize that Phoenix is trying to drive up the price,” Granger wrote.
The Suns, after all, are trying to recoup most of what they gave up for Durant in 2023 — four first-round picks and a pick swap on top of Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges.
“If the Raptors are presented as having a strong offer waiting in the wings, perhaps one of Durant’s preferred suitors steps up with something richer, or a team like Minnesota — another team with interest that’s outside Durant’s list — sweetens the pot,” Granger wrote.
The Suns have Wednesday, June 25, the first day of the 2025 NBA Draft, as their artificial deadline for a Durant deal. They want to execute the selection of whatever draft pick they can get in the return package for the future Hall of Famer.
The Raptors have the No. 9 and No. 39 picks in this year’s draft. Can they land Durant like they did in 2019 when they famously gambled on Kawhi Leonard leading to the franchise’s first championship?
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