With the Jazz likely too good to tank out for Victor, would Danny Ainge pull a big swing using all the picks he’s accumulated so far?

The theory goes, Kevin Durant is still unhappy in Brooklyn and will ask for another trade. When that happens only a handful of teams will have enough assets to make it make sense for Brooklyn and Utah is one of those teams. Danny Ainge bows out the Wembanyama sweeps and instead puts together an instant contender with KD.

Here is a Utah Jazz/Brooklyn Nets trade that brings Kevin Durant to the Jazz:

Brooklyn Nets Receive:

G Collin Sexton
G/F Malik Beasley
G/F Talen Horton-Tucker
2023 First-Round Pick (UTA)
2025 First-Round Pick (CLE via UTA)
2026 First Round Pick (MIN or CLE via UTA)
2027 First-Round Pick (UTA)
2028 First-Round Pick (Swap – UTA)
2029 First-Round Pick (UTA)

Utah Jazz Receive:

F Kevin Durant

Sometime soon, Kevin Durant is going to ask again for a trade. He’s going to get traded to one of the teams with the most assets in the NBA, Danny Ainge will package up all the accumulated picks, and the Utah Jazz will trade for Durant #KevinDurant #NBA #NBATwitterLive #utahjazz

— Connor Rock (@connorjamesrock) October 24, 2022

Danny Ainge seeing this Kyrie drama and realizing he can trade all the picks he acquired trying to tank the Jazz for Durant and accidentally create the best team in the NBA pic.twitter.com/Im8hkd2bNU

— california bucks (@Russell_Palmer2) November 4, 2022

At 7’4+, Victor plays like a rich man’s Kristaps Porzingis with his ability to stretch the floor and use his height to dominate the offense and defensive side of the ball. He can move way better than Kristaps and is already a more developed shooter of the ball at the same age.

If your team has the chance to draft the kid known as ‘Wemby’ the fortunes of your franchise will forever be changed. Think of Lebron in the 03 draft, Tim Duncan in 99, this is that kind of potential.

The NBA has already started the tank wars with the lottery odds being the following:

Worst team 14%
Next worst 14%
Next worst 14%
Next worst 12.5%
Next worst 10.5%
Next worst 9%

So if you want a 1-10 chance or better you need to be one of the 5 worst teams in the league. So who is winning the TANK WARS after the first month of the season?

Houston 14%
Detroit 14%
Orlando 14%
Brooklyn 12.5%
Sacramento 10.5%

Now the NBA wouldn’t encourage the Nets to tank out, trade KD and Kyrie and reboot with the greatest prospect in 20 years in the biggest city in the US? Naaaah, that could never happen. That’s NEVER happened in the NBA…

That’s probably a good move because any team KD goes to will have to trade 3 good players and like 5 draft picks to get him. I’m not really sure what kind of future that would mean for Kevin say, in Phoenix with no Bridges, no Cam Johnson, no Ayton, and CP3 retiring soon with no draft picks coming soon.

All in all, it was probably a wink wink deal to make Sean Marks pay Kyrie Irving the extension he wants.

Here are the details:

“Steve Nash and I, together with Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday. We have agreed to move forward with our partnership. We are focusing on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: build a lasting franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn,” the press release from general manager Sean Marks read.

Here is the news on Kyrie staying with the Nets and KD:

Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving is opting into his $37 million player option for the 2022-23 season, @TheAthletic @Stadium has learned. Irving is bypassing on multiple opt-in and trade scenarios to fulfill his four-year commitment to the Nets and Kevin Durant.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 27, 2022

The Nets are going to move forward and no longer depend on Kyrie who chose to only participate in away games last year due to various mandates. The Nets traded James Harden after his frustration with this and it seems like the front office themselves are ready to move on permanently without Kyrie.

Here is the word from Kristian Winfield:

Irving’s camp has requested and received permission from the Nets to speak with other teams about sign-and-trade packages, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

The belief among both league and player circles is that Irving is gone and the Seven-Eleven Era is over before it ever began.

Word is the Nets are at an impasse and don’t know if they are going to offer Kyrie or not. According to NBA experts, if the Nets don’t offer Kyrie then Durant may seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Here are the thoughts on KD leaving Brooklyn if Kyrie leaves:

Kyrie Irving’s search for leverage on his contract discussions with the Brooklyn Nets won’t be found with the threat of a $30 million pay cut to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the sum of the franchise’s deepest fears: Irving walks, and Kevin Durant wants a trade.

For everything owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks did to assemble one of the modern NBA’s most talented Big 3s, Irving’s impenetrable connection to Durant looms as a domino to the dismantling of the roster. Brooklyn is straddling the narrowest of walkways: Keeping conviction on Irving’s contract talks and keeping Durant’s desire to stay a Net.

The organization clearly wants Irving on a shorter deal, whether it’s his $36 million opt-in for the 2022-23 season — or perhaps an opt-out and new deal that could give him a raise to $42 million annually on a two-year deal.

In previous offseasons, rival agents and players would tell you of Durant’s eagerness in talking to potential free agents. So far, that hasn’t been the case with him, sources say. Outside of Irving, the Nets’ most important free agent is guard Patty Mills, who still hasn’t decided whether to exercise his $7.2 million player option. Around the Irving drama, the Nets’ environment has made it harder to keep and court role players, sources say.

All of that is fun to see how it plays out but there is a deeper issue at hand. BOTH PLAYERS numbers are retired by their new franchise.

James Harden’s #13 is retired on the 76ers.

Ben Simmons’ #25 is retired on the Nets.

It is time. The NBA needs to be the first league to implement this. Ban retiring numbers. This is out of hand. Create a patch that honors the legendary players but put the damn number back in circulation. As a fan I’m tired of seeing players in numbers I know they’d rather not wear. It’s just a bad business practice to take product off the shelf.

Don’t get me started on how bad the NFL is with their new single digit number rules. Just un-retire the numbers and enforce the uniform code. I don’t know about you but I’m already tired of seeing defensive players running around in #3 and #1.

That’s just my thoughts on this. Basketball wise the Nets fleeced the Sixers because they got two first round picks on top of Seth Curry and Andre Drummond being added to the pot. Ultimately Brooklyn knew that Daryl Morey loved James Harden too much and the party that can’t walk away will lose the trade every time. But that’s just the trade on paper. We still have to see how it all plays out.

Until then, let the guys wear their darn jersey numbers. Please!

Who said a NBA team needs chemistry?

It seems like as long as your top 3 guys like each other there is nothing stopping you from getting the maximum out of the team in year 1.

Here is how the Nets are trying to trade for James Harden to add him to Kyrie and KD:

A source is telling me that the Nets have engaged in talks with the Rockets. James Harden for a variation of: Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Taurean Prince, and Jarrett Allen.

Nothing finalized, but Harden to Nets seems like real possibility. If finalized, announced on Nov 22.

— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) November 14, 2020

When Kevin Durant debuted the show “The Boardroom” I did some research on his team and realized a couple of things:

1. KD is heavy into technology investments
2. Rich Kleiman is from the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Now granted, these things were always true in Golden State but when Thirty Five ventures moved offices to New York it just made things crystal clear:

1. Kevin Durant is going to continue to invest in technology companies.
2. Brooklyn is a tech hub.
3. The Brooklyn Nets will have a young core with playoff experience and two max slots if they renounced D’lo or made a trade.

Well, that trade happened today.

The Nets look to be a major player in 2019's mega free agent sweepstakes after dealing away Allen Crabbe and a couple of picks to Atlanta.

The move frees up enough cap space to add one (or two) of the prized players about to hit the market.https://t.co/OBrfvvvWX0

— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) June 6, 2019

KD is almost as good as a lock to the Nets and not the Knicks. Remember he also was repped by RocNation so there is a personal Jay Z factor in there as well.

Kyrie Irving is also a free agent, is from New Jersey (where the Nets played when he grew up) and is on camera talking to KD about “two max slots.”

It’s pretty much a lock folks. The Nets can now add both to their core and compete for a championship next year.

So, I was poking around on the server and found the bones of the NBA Draft section still up and running and said, why not bring it back? A few hours later everything was updated and ready to go so of course I had to throw down a quick mock for the culture.

Check out my picks below or CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR OWN DRAFT!

My 2019 NBA mock below:

1. Suns: RJ Barrett SG Duke

2. Grizzlies: Zion Williamson PF Duke

3. Mavs: Sekou Doumbouya PF France

4. Hawks: Cameron Reddish SG Duke

5. Magic: Nassir Little SF UNC

6. Bulls: Romeo Langford SG Indiana

7. Kings: Charles Bassey C WKU

8. Nets: Bol Bol C Oregon

9. Knicks: Kris Wilkes SF UCLA

10. Lakers: Jaylen Hoard SF Wake Forest