Who holds all the leverage as Phoenix Suns, Kevin Durant trade talks percolate?

hi Gambo birdsy what’s going on not a lot my friend how we doing over there we good good good yeah good thursday already thursday i know this week’s flown by right the whole year’s flying by it’s very true but we’re almost half the year’s over we were we were looking at the calendar yesterday during one of the commercial breaks and the uh the summer vacation season is about to begin you and I you there’s a stretch there where you and I go a long time where we’re not going to see much of each other like six weeks well we because we’ve been and you know not to pat ourselves on the back but we’re going to pat ourselves on the back we make it a priority to make sure one of us are always here you know like that’s that’s a big deal to us and and I think it’s starting to be a big deal to some of the other shows as well we just want to make sure one of us are always on the air and it’s not two fillins and we’ve been like that for the 13 years we’ve been together so yeah because you’ve got a lot of vacation time and I’ve got a lot of vacation time there’s We’re going through a stretch where But this is not that week next week is not that week uh and we’ve got a lot of important things to talk about so let’s weigh in on our top story today on the Burns and Gambo Show burns and Gambo the weighin i appreciate you asking the question i know you have to ask it uh but as you know when it comes to contract negotiations uh player contracts and so forth we don’t discuss those um but it’s something that in terms of our team and so forth we’re always talking about building our team it’s Brian Gregory general manager of the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday at the Jordan intro press conference asked a question about KD politely declining to answer a question about Kevin Durant kevin Durant’s future and the trade possibilities are our top story of the day what do you know i don’t know how else to step this up other than to say what do you know i will start with this are you ready yes i expect that Kevin Durant will be traded from the Phoenix Suns next week good night everybody next week huh wait that’s it no you can’t leave you know look seriously I know I know that you walk on water around here but you cannot walk out after 3 minutes and 49 seconds you’re not that special all right cool c cool your jets i expect that Kevin Durant will be traded from the Phoenix Suns next week i I there’s a lot of stuff out there some of it’s accurate a lot of it is not accurate um but I do expect that this look we we’ve said it all along he’s going to be traded by the draft uh outside shot outside shot something happens sooner but I’m going to say that next week my expectations are Kevin Durant is traded that is sooner the draft is two two weeks two weeks next week is a week before the draft like like what when I was assuming the week of the draft i I I was even up to the day of the draft having even like slight guilt about being on vacation the week of the NBA draft i I the the the fact that it might happen i mean to me a week before if it if next week is potentially the week I think that’s significantly before I mean the NBA finals might still be going on if that’s the case right that’s that’s two weeks from yesterday is the first round of the NBA draft so that that is that is getting this thing done in kind of a neat and tidy fashion i think if you’re the Phoenix Suns there are six teams that that we know of that have been talked about that have uh that we believe that there are discussions going on between Kevin Durant’s people and the Suns and these teams and those teams are the Spurs and the Rockets the Miami Heat the Minnesota Timberwolves the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Clippers now there could be another wild card or two right there could be another couple wild card teams i’ve said that other people have said that i think Sham said that yesterday yes he did could be a couple of other teams that are trying to get into the mix in three team deals and four team deals there is no shortage of suitors for Kevin Durant for everybody that was concerned that his age might cause that to happen there is no shortage of suitors there are a lot of teams that are interested in getting Kevin Durant and uh I do believe his preferred destinations are the Texas teams san Antonio and Houston i believe that’s where he prefers to go is San Antonio and Houston but I want to talk about something as to why I don’t think that KD holds all the leverage we always talk about leverage when we talk about trades right who has the leverage who does the player have the leverage the team have the leverage a lot of times the players have the leverage i don’t believe that there are teams out there that are unwilling to trade for Kevin Durant um and not have and not do the extension a lot of talk has been on Toronto would Toronto do that yes I think other teams would too okay okay i think other teams would too let me explain why let me explain why kevin Durant has one year left on his deal if a team trades for him any of these teams we talked about and he’s like “Hey I really don’t want to go there it’s a cold weather city or I don’t like it there i really just want to go to Texas.” The team trading for him retains Kevin Durant’s bird rights that team can offer Kevin Durant more money than anybody else if Kevin Durant wants to leave after a year okay you’re free to leave but the only teams that could give him max type money are teams that would be under the cap now the cap will reset in a year but it’s usually your you know your Utah Jazz your Brooklyn Nets your Washington Wizards those type of teams that are under the cap now it doesn’t mean you can’t get under the cap there are probably good teams that could get under the cap they wanted to make a run at Kevin Durant yeah right but not not everybody is so you’re going to look at next year who’s under the cap that’s where Kevin Durant could go for max money whoever’s under the cap if Kevin Durant said “You know what screw it i don’t want to be here and I’m not going to go sign with one of those teams.” Your option is basically the mid-level exception for $16 million with another team i want to go to I want to go to the Spurs i want to go to the Rock i want to go here i Okay they they’re over the cap they could off like some of these teams could offer you a mid level now you might say “Screw it i’ve made $400 million.” Of course you might very well say that i’m going to go where I want to go absolutely i don’t care about the money i’ve made $400 million it doesn’t matter to me so that’s where I think that KD loses some leverage is that the team that trades for him has his bird rights i think there are several teams that are interested in trading for Kevin Durant and not caring so much about the I got to get an extension it’s interesting because ever since the Toronto option has come open uh and has been talked about we’ve talked about it on our shows all the shows have talked about it for the last couple of days my mind’s just been racing with the possibilities of a team saying to hell with it we don’t need to sign him to extension we’re going to trade for you anyway we’re going to do it a and if there’s enough of those teams that don’t care about Kevin Durant’s blessing and if the Suns don’t care about Kevin Durant’s blessing then that creates leverage for the Suns in its own separate little pool right like here’s here’s four teams and none of them give a darn about whether Kevin Durant wants to go there or not they’re going to trade for him anyway and just hope and I and and that’s exciting to me all right as excited as you can get about trading away an all-time great like Kevin Durant it’s exciting to me that there might be teams that we you know are are haven’t talked a lot about there might be players we haven’t talked a lot about possibilities that we haven’t talked a lot about because we’re not so worried about what does Kevin Durant want where does Kevin Durant want to go and again this isn’t about Toronto or whether he wants to go to Toronto or not this is just about teams saying screw it we don’t care we We want you so bad it doesn’t matter to us which is kind of similar to what Charles Barker was saying when he was on with Bickley and Marada a couple of days ago well they’re screwed right now so you go you you make the best deal for Kevin that’s the first thing you make the best deal i hear they’re like working with him and whatever i’m like “No you don’t work with him you make the best deal for the team.” So you make the best deal for the team uh because you got to start your rebuild you make the best deal for KD no matter don’t worry about his feelings you make the best deal for yourself cuz you know some people going to take a chance with him some people not cuz he only got one year left on his deal and he’s 37 years old probably not get not going to get a lot but somebody might be stupid and give you a lot mhm mhm so you make the best deal for the Phoenix Suns that’s kind of what you’re talking about here i think they’re going to make the best deal for the Phoenix Suns i think Suns fan can fans can rest assured that um it’s not Kevin Durant only wants to go here and that’s it he’s got like I only want to play for this team that is not what is happening that is not what is happening there are teams multiple teams that will that would be willing to trade for Kevin Durant because okay you you you don’t want to sign an extension with me now okay we’re going to trade for you we’re going to try to win with you we’ll try to win you over that happened to Seakum in Indiana sure they Indiana traded for Pascal Seakkum they gave him a half a year to win them over and he said “You know what i like it here i kind of like it here i like these guys i want You could trade for Kevin Durant see how it plays out at the end of the year we have your bird rights nobody can pay you more so if money isn’t Nobody can pay you more than us so if money is what you want you’re not going to make any more more than you will here and if you want to leave as a free agent you could look at the teams that are under the cap you could sign for big money with them but do you really want to go to any of those teams so I think that the Suns are in a pretty good shape next week i’m expecting it’ll be next week very very You’re not on vacation are you no I already covered this i’m not on vacation okay not on vacation uh no we’re You’re on vacation you’re on vacation next week it’s just like peace out bro there will be no basketball on my mind next week see you later man cuz the rest of us don’t vacation like you do the rest of us are just like “Peace out man see you i’ll talk to you when I get back.” Yeah aa thanks for watching Burns and Gambo click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never miss a video from Arizona Sports

The Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant’s business partner Rich Kleiman have met “multiple times” to consider trade scenarios, reports Shams Charania. John Gambadoro says he expects Kevin Durant to be traded next week and shares why he doesn’t believe the superstar forward holds all the leverage amid trade talks.

Report: Kevin Durant trade talks percolating, span more than 5 teams: https://arizonasports.com/nba/phoenix-suns/kevin-durant-trade-7/3586744/

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6 comments
  1. Good the Suns don’t owe KD a preferred destination trade package. Yeah it sucks that Beal came in and sabotaged the salary cap, but it’s not like KD came here and took the Suns to the Finals so they do him right. No no. Get best offer out there. No lowballing deals.

  2. I can’t wait till yall see KD has the leverage. If they didn’t they wouldn’t even consult him… they would’ve done that mid season if so. Lastly KD is an Icon. Siakam and Butler aren’t that.

  3. The Politest Way For Me To Say This? It's Damn Sure Not The Suns And KD Think It Is… Just A 37 yo 1 Year Rental.. Often Injured, never a leader.. his value has diminished that simple. Suns will not even get close to what the suns gave for him.. In Texas, KD Value Is Below A 2 Week Old Cow Patty.

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