Nuggets, Cavs Reportedly Among Kevin Durant Trade Suitors Before Rockets-Suns Deal
Multiple teams with NBA title aspirations were among the many suitors for Kevin Durant before he was traded to the Houston Rockets.
Per ESPN's Shams Charania, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Toronto Raptors were among the "wild card" teams in the Durant sweepstakes.
Durant's primary suitors were the Rockets, Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Rockets and Phoenix Suns agreed to a deal on Sunday that will send Durant to Houston for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft and five second-round draft picks, per Charania.
The wild-card suitors were at a disadvantage because Charania previously reported Durant was only willing to commit on a contract extension to the three teams on his preferred list of trade destinations: Houston, Miami and San Antonio.
Another problem specific to the Nuggets and Cavs is they don't have a first-round pick in this year's draft. Cleveland doesn't control its first-round picks again until 2029.
The Clippers do have a first-round pick this year, but it's at No. 30 overall from the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of the swap rights from the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trade.
Among Durant's preferred destinations, the Spurs had the best pick in this year's draft at No. 2 overall. However, San Antonio has shown no interest in moving out of that spot with the assumption it will be used to select Dylan Harper.
The Spurs also may not have wanted to throw their timeline out of whack with Durant (36 years old) being nine years older than De'Aaron Fox (27) and 15 years older than Victor Wembanyama (21).
Denver and Cleveland are right in the thick of a contention window and looking to upgrade around their main core of players. The Nuggets have Nikola Jokić, arguably the best player in the NBA, and playoff savant Jamal Murray.
The Cavs were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with 64 wins during the regular season, but lost in the second round to the Indiana Pacers. Their loss can be partially explained by injuries to several key players, though postseason success has eluded their main core of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in two seasons together.
There are still opportunities for teams like the Nuggets and Cavaliers to make moves with the hope of improving for next season, but kicking the tires on Durant at least suggests they wanted to take a big swing for the fences.
