How Past Commercial Efforts on Shaq, Kobe, and Kawhi Could Inform Kevin Durant’s Commercial Landscape

When Kevin Durant notify brooklyn network He will love to trade leaving the franchise, it kicked off one of the biggest talks in NBA history.

How do we know this? Because, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, half of the teams across the league have made claims. But this isn’t the first time an all-time great has changed teams in the NBA. In fact, over the past 20 years, it’s happened over and over again, from Shaquille O’Neal to Kevin Garnett to Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howardjust to name a few.

So, to deal with exactly what Kevin Durant’s trade might look like, here are three lessons learned from some of the biggest commercial demands in NBA history.

Lesson 1: Don’t expect another team’s best player

Naturally, a team in Brooklyn’s position would demand the other’s best young player. That’s exactly what Los Angeles Lakers in 2004 when they began discussing the parameters for landing O’Neal. Their goal? A rookie guard shooter named Dwyane Wade.

Enthusiast quickly hung up the phone.

In the end, Los Angeles called back with another request: to focus on the trade around emerging young striker Lamar Odom, who has teamed up with Wade to lead. Miami Heat reached an impressive second round in last season’s Eastern Conference playoffs, and who the Heat pursued for years before making him a restricted free agent last summer.

The Heat agrees.

And so it was solved. Miami sent its second and third best players, Odom and Caron Butler, to Los Angeles, along with draft picks, in exchange for O’Neal’s services.

So while the Nets will no doubt be looking for a high-profile player from every Durant suitor, it’s more likely the package looks like a bigger version of what Miami has given up: promising young players. Hope plus loads of draft options will come to Brooklyn.

Lesson 2: The stars often have a voice

When a star player makes a request for a trade, they tend to have an opinion on how the negotiations are going.

Consider the negotiations that eventually failed between the Lakers and Chicago Bulls in 2007. Kobe Bryant decided he wanted to play for the Bulls, but in every package the Lakers proposed, striker Luol Deng was central back to Los Angeles.

There’s just one problem: Bryant won’t approve a deal to Chicago with Deng on the deal. Why? Because he didn’t want to end up in another situation where he wouldn’t have a chance to win the championship.

And so the whole deal stalled.

What does this mean for what is happening with Durant? Two reasons: 1) Teams won’t put themselves in a position where they have to sacrifice so much of their roster that they can’t compete for the championship. And, 2) For his part, Durant wouldn’t be thrilled at the prospect of joining a team that wouldn’t be able to compete either.

Lesson 3: Sometimes it takes a surprising piece of the puzzle

When a team is trying to get a player of Durant’s caliber, they don’t always have everything a team like the Nets are looking for in exchange.

That’s something LA Clippers studied in 2019 – the last time the league endured an earthquake like this – when Kawhi Leonard chose to join them.

However, when Leonard informed the Clippers of his decision, choosing them – among other teams – Toronto Raptorswith whom he just won the NBA and Lakers championships, he has a stipulation: He wants to play with Paul George.

There was only one problem: George had a multi-season contract with Oklahoma City Thunder.

That means the next call the Clippers made was not to throw a party to celebrate Leonard’s arrival — but instead, to the Thunder, where the executive vice president and general manager of Oklahoma City, Sam Presti, has attracted a large number of players, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexanderand countless draft options to bring George to Los Angeles.

During these negotiations, there will be teams capable of some property that Brooklyn desires – but not all. It will be hard for any team to tick all the boxes that could be the biggest comeback for a star player the league has ever seen.

But what the Nets can do, like Leonard did three years ago, is tell those teams what they want and work with them to supplement the profits to get the deal over the line.

Each negotiation is unique. But when we look at how the Kevin Durant deal could have come to be, history reveals various factors the Nets will work with to find an acceptable deal for their superstar.