You've heard the famous phrase: Steph Curry heals all wounds.
The departure of Kevin Durant from the Golden State Warriors in 2019 was a painful one, and there were certainly hurt feelings all around. Those took root much earlier in Durant's time with the Warriors, to be certain, and caused friction even during his final season with the team.
Yet it's also undeniable that an injured Warriors team still made it to the NBA Finals and then lost more because Durant and Klay Thompson both went down to injury than an relational problems. In recent years it's clear that Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant have patched things up, and the two were clearly close when they led Team USA to a gold medal at the Paris Summer Olympics last summer -- a team that was coached by none other than Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.
Why does it matter that Curry and Durant are on good terms? Well, as the Trade Deadline barrels ever-closer, the Golden State Warriors are reportedly working the phones calling any and all teams with an All-Star player, asking what it would take to pull off a trade.
The Dallas Mavericks inexplicably traded their own 25-year-old MVP candidate completely out of the blue. Could another star around the league shake loose? It seems at least possible, if not probably, that the Suns could trade their own superstar. Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reports that the Suns are taking calls about Durant, and that the Warriors are one of the teams calling.
Could Curry and Durant team up once more? Let's see what a trade would look like and whether such a home run swing makes sense for the Warriors to take.
Laying out a Kevin Durant trade
The Phoenix Suns are a second apron team, which limits their ability to make trades. They can trade Kevin Durant, but in doing so they cannot aggregate his salary with another player's and they have to bring back less money than they send out.
There is still a path to the Warriors trading for Durant, but it involves sending multiple players back to Phoenix and, almost certainly, a third team to take on some of that salary and prevent it from landing in either Phoenix or Golden State.
Enter the Toronto Raptors, who have been known to be open to working as a facilitator in a trade and have wiggle-room under the tax aprons to get the deal done. If they can take some salary back, suddenly a deal can be unlocked.
Here is one potential trade construction to bring Kevin Durant back to The Bay:
The Toronto Raptors take on Dennis Schroder, who makes about double Davion Mitchell's salary for this season at $13 million, and get a pair of seconds for their trouble. It's a mini-homecoming for Schroder, who started the 2023-24 season with the Raptors before he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets at last year's Trade Deadline.
The Phoenix Suns bring in Andrew Wiggins, Buddy Hield and Davion Mitchell as the primary matching salary in the deal. Wiggins and Hield are on good contracts but for multiple seasons; the Suns are one of the teams that don't seem to care about that, however. Mitchell is on an expiring deal and could be re-signed this summer.
The Suns have been said to like Draymond Green, an unsurprising piece of reporting given Matt Ishbia's Michigan State ties. He could be in this deal instead of Andrew Wiggins. Yet if the Warriors are going to push in the chips for a win-now move like this, it seems almost certain they would do so keeping Draymond in the fold for one last run.
Jonathan Kuminga is the centerpiece of the deal, a young forward for the Suns to develop as a potential co-star for Devin Booker down the line. He could also be flipped to another team for their star if the Suns want to continue their win-now approach.
Add in a pair of first-round picks, and the Suns might just make this trade. What about the Warriors - should they pull the trigger on this deal?
Grading the Kevin Durant trade for Warriors
Kevin Durant + Stephen Curry = Basketball Magic. We know that to be true. In the history of the NBA, few superstar pairings have worked so well as KD and Steph. The pressure they put on opposing defenses as shooters and scorers was immense.
Six years later, Curry and Durant cannot summon that magic as often, but it's still there. Durant would give the Warriors the second scorer they need, and 48 minutes of Hall of Fame shot-making and creation.
The Warriors can start Stephen Curry, Moses Moody, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney, with Brandin Podziemski, Kyle Anderson, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Monte Morris coming off of the bench. Lindy Waters III, Quinten Post and Gui Santos would be in the mix as well.
Durant is under contract for $54.7 million next season in the final year of the four-year pact he signed with the Brooklyn Nets. The Warriors would almost certainly offer a maximum extension to Durant (just two seasons due to the over-38 rule) and try to keep him around.
There is real downside risk here. Kevin Durant is aging and has a long history of injuries, most of them minor but some requiring extended absences. He parted acrimoniously when he left the team in 2019. His recent teams have underperformed. All of that is true.
It is also true that few players in the history of throwing a leather ball at a peach basket can score like Durant; it's effortless, it's special, it's magnificent to watch.
It would be something special to see Durant and Curry team up once more. This deal is expensive, but for a player of Durant's caliber, it seems like the right kind of payment. It's not a no-brainer, but it's worth strongly considering.
Grade: B