{"id":125941,"date":"2025-02-27T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=125941"},"modified":"2025-02-27T06:55:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T11:55:56","slug":"kevin-durant-mavericks-trade-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/27\/kevin-durant-mavericks-trade-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"This Team Could Be A Dark Horse Kevin Durant Trade Destination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things haven\u2019t been going so well for <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a> and the Phoenix Suns. After a hot start to the season, they have slowly slid down the Western Conference standings. Now they are on the outside of the Play-In Tournament picture and at risk of missing the playoffs completely. Their most recent struggles can partly be attributed to a mistake they made at this year\u2019s trade deadline. The Suns shopped around Durant and now they are widely <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/13\/kevin-durant-rockets-offseason-possibility\/\" target=\"_self\">expected to part with him<\/a> during the offseason. This has opened up a new conversation about some Kevin Durant trade destinations and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/19\/kevin-durant-comments-leave-door-open-warriors\/\" target=\"_self\">where he may end up<\/a>. One team that could be interested in a Durant trade this offseason is the Dallas Mavericks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>This Team Could Be A Dark Horse Kevin Durant Trade Destination<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Likely Durant\u2019s Last Season as a Sun<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recent reports are stating that there is mutual knowledge between the Suns and Durant that he will be traded next summer. Durant knows the Suns wanted to trade him, and although he nixed trades to potential suitors, he still may want out of Phoenix this summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;They&#39;re gonna trade [KD], and he knows that.&quot; \ud83d\ude33 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WindhorstESPN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WindhorstESPN<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KendrickPerkins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@KendrickPerkins<\/a> on what will happen with Kevin Durant and the Suns this offseason. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/B985Mq41Hv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/B985Mq41Hv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPNNBA\/status\/1894848280904847712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Suns don\u2019t look like they will be able to contend as presently constructed. Durant wants another opportunity at a championship. For the Suns, they need a reset from their current roster experiment. Durant could bring them a haul that replenishes their depleted box of assets. Looking at potential trade destinations for Durant is just something both sides are going to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Mavericks Showed Interest in a Durant Trade at the Deadline<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/mavericks\/news\/dallas-mavericks-were-reportedly-very-aggressive-trying-to-acquire-phoenix-suns-kevin-durant-ahead-of-nba-trade-deadline\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">multiple reports<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during and after the NBA trade deadline linking the Mavericks to Durant. After the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> trade, they supposedly were dreaming up ways to pair Durant with his former teammate<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Kyrie Irving<\/a> and former Team USA teammate <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Mavericks were unable to get a deal done, but the cat is out of the bag that they are interested. The Mavericks are likely going to make an all-in move this offseason to try to capitalize on their new timeline with Davis on the roster. They also need people to forget how bad the Doncic trade is as quickly as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Mavericks Should be a Top Kevin Durant Trade Destination<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Playing with two stars who are both former teammates of his should be interesting to Durant. The Mavericks would certainly be one of the favorites to come out of the West if they were able to put together a big three of Durant, Irving, and Davis. We only saw on occasion what Irving and Durant could do together in Brooklyn. Adding Davis to that mix could be potent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mavericks\u2019 ability to trade for Durant is going to depend on the price Phoenix is asking for. Durant will only have one more year on his contract, but whoever trades for him would likely extend him. The Suns have also lost some leverage by indicating that he will be traded. Still, in a player-controlled league, Durant will probably ultimately decide where he goes next season. The Mavericks could be an interesting option. Maybe the Mavericks will regret not getting enough draft capital in the Luka trade if they are unable to meet the Suns\u2019 asking price. Only time will tell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Things haven\u2019t been going so well for Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns. After a hot start to the season, they have slowly slid down the Western Conference standings. Now they are on the outside of the Play-In Tournament picture and at risk of missing the playoffs completely. Their most recent struggles can partly be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":125957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,62,28,4721],"tags":[240,69,406,1133],"class_list":["post-125941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","category-suns","category-trade-rumors","tag-anthony-davis","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-luka-doncic"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125941"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125958,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125941\/revisions\/125958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}