Fred Katz of The Athletic and New York Times broke a big one late Wednesday night: the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns plan on expanding their trade around Kevin Durant to include a total of seven teams including the Brooklyn Nets. However, remain calm. By all accounts, the deal is more a consolidation of a number of previously reported deals.
According to Katz, the planned deal is a massive housekeeping maneuver to satisfy a number of the teams cap needs, mostly consolidating moves already agreed to in free agency but which can’t be completed till Saturday under league rules.
Advertisement
For the Nets, there’s speculation that could mean the inclusion of last Tuesday’s three-team deal centered on the Hawks acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis? In that trade, Brooklyn acquired the No. 22 pick in the 2025 which became Drake Powell and Terance Mann. the 6’6” wing, from Atlanta, essentially for nothing more than the use of $17 million in cap space.
As Brian Lewis speculated after midnight….
The deal as reported could not have been a complete rendering of the final deal. League rules would require the Nets to include something of value in the trade, perhaps a draft stash of which Brooklyn has four, or cash considerations.
Advertisement
However, the Celtics aren’t among the teams mentioned by Katz so that would seem to eliminate the Mann deal. Another possibility: the Nets trade of their 36th pick in the 2025 to the Suns for two future seconds.
So far in free agency, Brooklyn has used $35 million in cap space to acquire two first round picks, the No. 22 pick in the 2025 Draft and a future unprotected Nuggets first in 2032. They also added Mann and Michael Porter Jr. in exchange for Cam Johnson. According to Bobby Marks and Yossi Gozlan of Capsheets.org, the team retains at least another $17 million in cap space.
More from netsdaily.com: