{"id":127868,"date":"2025-03-10T16:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T20:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=127868"},"modified":"2025-03-10T16:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T20:20:15","slug":"nba-insider-discouraging-update-dallas-mavericks-kevin-durant-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/10\/nba-insider-discouraging-update-dallas-mavericks-kevin-durant-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Insider Provides Discouraging Update On Mavericks’ Pursuit of Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February, the Dallas Mavericks shocked the world and sent Luka Doncic<\/a> to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> ahead of the trade deadline. Over a month later, many still do not understand why the Mavericks made this move. Regardless, trading Doncic was very risky for the Mavericks. After shipping Doncic out, they now must shift their focus to the future. Recently, the Mavericks appeared in trade rumors for star players, such as Phoenix Suns<\/a> forward Kevin Durant<\/a>. However, according to an NBA insider, Mavericks fans may want to temper their expectations.<\/p>\n

According to NBA insider Marc Stein (subscription required<\/a>), the Mavericks’ interest in Durant has “been overstated.” Furthermore, Stein reported that the Mavericks are prioritizing keeping Kyrie Irving<\/a> around for the long run. Irving, who is officially out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL, has a $43.9 million player option for the 2025-265 season.<\/p>\n

Dallas has been repeatedly described as a potential Durant suitor, before the deadline and since, but I continue to hear that reports of its interest have been overstated. The Mavericks, based on my best read, are not currently planning for a three-star construction. Securing Irving’s future as their backcourt anchor after stunningly surrendering Luka is a priority \u2014 Irving holds a $44 million player option for next season \u2014 and it is likewise obvious that Dallas would have to gut its depth to make a competitive trade offer for Durant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Depending on what they give up, Durant to Dallas is very intriguing. Acquiring the two-time champion would reunite him with Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson<\/a>. Additionally, pairing him alongside Anthony Davis<\/a> is interesting as well. However, it seems that this is not a priority for the Mavericks.<\/p>\n

NBA Insider Provides Discouraging Update On Dallas Mavericks-Kevin Durant Trade Rumors<\/h2>\n

A Kevin Durant Trade Is Inevitable<\/h3>\n

Whether it is to Dallas or not, it seems like a guarantee the Suns will trade Durant at some point in the summer. In February, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that the Suns will “probably” trade<\/a> Durant in the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, [Durant]\u2019s probably going to get traded this summer. He knows it, the Suns know it, the rest of the league know[s] it, they\u2019re going to enjoy him while they have him. It\u2019s not really controversial in all honesty\u2026 you have an extremely expensive team that is not winning, and the player that is their most expensive player, who is playing great but not impacting them on a positive level, you do not need a high-level analyst to tell you that they probably need to trade him, which is why they were exploring the trade market for him\u2026I would expect this summer for Durant and the Suns to work together to find a new home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being 36 years old, Durant is still a top player in the NBA. After finishing ninth in MVP voting last season, the Texas alum is putting together another solid campaign. This season, he is averaging 26.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 blocks per game. Additionally, he is shooting 52.9% from the field and 39.8% from the three-point line.<\/p>\n

Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February, the Dallas Mavericks shocked the world and sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of the trade deadline. Over a month later, many still do not understand why the Mavericks made this move. Regardless, trading Doncic was very risky for the Mavericks. After shipping Doncic out, they now must shift their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":123096,"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":[1608,30,2,62,3,4721],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-127868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-kevin-durant"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127868","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\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127868"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127875,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127868\/revisions\/127875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}