{"id":71159,"date":"2025-06-02T02:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T02:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/71159\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T02:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T02:38:08","slug":"pacific-notes-durant-lakers-kings-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/71159\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Notes: Durant, Lakers, Kings Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Durant<\/a> is one of the biggest names of the offseason following reports<\/a> that the Suns\u2018 36-year-old star has likely played his last game in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Arizona Republic\u2019s Duane Rankin<\/a> broke down six 2025 playoff teams, what their fit with Durant would look like, and what they could offer as a trade return for the Suns.<\/p>\n

The first destination Rankin looked at is the Timberwolves, who reportedly<\/a> took a closer look at Durant at the 2025 trade deadline than was previously known. While Rankin says the Suns should be most interested in Julius Randle<\/a>, his proposed deal includes Rudy Gobert<\/a>, Mike Conley<\/a>, and young depth like Rob Dillingham<\/a> and Jaylen Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other trade options considered involve a one-for-one trade with the Warriors for Jimmy Butler<\/a>, a deal that lands the Grizzlies\u2018 Ja Morant<\/a> or Desmond Bane<\/a> in Phoenix, two centered around young upside swings for either the Rockets\u2018 Jalen Green<\/a> and Jabari Smith<\/a> or the Pistons\u2018 Jaden Ivey<\/a>, and a depth-replenishing trade with the Heat for Andrew Wiggins<\/a>, Duncan Robinson<\/a>, and Kel\u2019el Ware<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Suns face cap-related limitations on any deal, Durant will undoubtedly have his share of suitors once the trade markets open.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Pacific Division:<\/p>\n

After rescinding their trade<\/a> for the Hornets\u2018 Mark Williams<\/a>, the Lakers were stuck without a playable starting center in the 2025 playoffs. Going into the 2025\/26 season, filling that hole will be priority one, especially given Luka Doncic<\/a>\u2018s love of playing with a lob threat, writes Khobi Price of the Orange County Register<\/a>. Price quotes general manager Rob Pelinka\u2019s address to the media following the season. \u201cIt would be great to have a center that was a vertical threat, lob threat, and someone that could protect the interior defensively\u2026 There\u2019s also spread centers that can protect the rim. We\u2019ll look at those as well. I wouldn\u2019t want to limit the archetype, but we know we need a big man.\u201d Price lists the Mavericks\u2018 Daniel Gafford<\/a> and the Nets\u2018 Nic Claxton<\/a> as prime trade targets, while the Hawks\u2018 Clint Capela<\/a> stands out as a top free agent target.
\nThe Kings announced six pre-draft workouts for Monday, June 2nd, reports Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee (via Twitter<\/a>). That list includes Marcus Williams<\/a> from USF, Alijah Martin<\/a> out of Florida, Chibuzo Agbo<\/a> from USC, Texas\u2019 Arthur Kaluma<\/a>, David N\u2019Guessan<\/a> from Kansas State, and Daniel Batcho<\/a> of Louisiana Tech. While a majority of the candidates are big men, Williams and Martin are both 6\u20192\u2033 well-rounded guards. Martin is the only ranked player on ESPN\u2019s Top-100 board<\/a> from the group of candidates, coming in at 61, after averaging 14.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 36% from three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant is one of the biggest names of the offseason following reports that the Suns\u2018 36-year-old star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[3518,500,14646,7,16675,984,2619,497,4958,178,1346,1018,861,11938,313,376,981,938,4056,371,6,2728,977,373,986,477,4055],"class_list":{"0":"post-71159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-alijah-martin","9":"tag-andrew-wiggins","10":"tag-arthur-kaluma","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-chibuzo-agbo","13":"tag-clint-capela","14":"tag-daniel-gafford","15":"tag-desmond-bane","16":"tag-duncan-robinson","17":"tag-ja-morant","18":"tag-jabari-smith","19":"tag-jaden-ivey","20":"tag-jalen-green","21":"tag-jaylen-clark","22":"tag-jimmy-butler","23":"tag-julius-randle","24":"tag-kelel-ware","25":"tag-kevin-durant","26":"tag-kings","27":"tag-mike-conley","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-nic-claxton","30":"tag-rob-dillingham","31":"tag-rudy-gobert","32":"tag-sacramento","33":"tag-sacramento-kings","34":"tag-sacramentokings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114611454192261277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}