Nets Reportedly Wanted Bam Adebayo In Potential Trade With Miami Heat

The Brooklyn Nets continue to hold out for the best offer possible for Kevin Durant, and multiple teams have already been linked to making a trade for the superstar forward.

However, one team is not entirely keen on selling the farm for him.

Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald recently revealed that the Nets are continuing to listen to offers for Durant and the Miami Heat are not willing to include Bam Adebayo in any deal.

“Though the Nets would have interest in Bam Adebayo in a Durant trade, the Heat have not included Adebayo in offers for Durant and appears disinclined to do so,” they wrote.

“According to a source, the Heat could revisit a potential trade for Durant if it becomes a more realistic option down the road but is not in a holding pattern awaiting clarity from the Nets.”

Durant asked for a trade out of the Nets on June 30 and nearly a month later, it is becoming apparent that no team would want to go after a superstar of his caliber entering the twilight of his career.

The belief around the league at this point is that the Phoenix Suns remain as frontrunners for Durant’s services since it is the team that he reportedly wants to play for moving forward, while the Heat were also mentioned as the other franchise.

The pair also added that since the Heat want to have Durant playing alongside Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, it is expected that they will have to give up reigning Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro in any package for Durant.

Further complications in any Durant deal came around recently when it was reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic that the Nets turned down the Boston Celtics’ offer of Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and a future pick swap.

The Nets were asking the Celtics to include Marcus Smart, a few other draft picks, and another rotation player–a price that is simply too much for any team to pay for an aging star.

Brooklyn is understandably not budging from their asking price and they run the risk of dragging out the entire thing well into the start of the season.

For franchises interested in Durant, the process will continue to drag until one of two things happen: the Nets get their desired haul or Durant takes extreme steps to ensure he forces the Nets’ hand to move.

The Durant saga continues to keep rolling and updates will surely trickle out in the coming weeks whether negotiations fall through or if it does happen.