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The Future Of The Bulls Is Affected By Durant’s Truce With The Nets

Durant's Truce With The Nets

Durant's Truce With The Nets

The Future Of The Bulls Is Affected By Durant’s Truce With The Nets

That was obvious, even more obvious-but only slightly-than the fact that there were very few teams that could put together a package that would satisfy the Brooklyn Nets’ rightfully high asking price for a top-five player with four years remaining on his contract.

Hence, it should come as no surprise to anyone that on Tuesday, the Nets announced that Durant has backed off his trade demand for now, following a meeting with ownership, management, and coach Steve Nash.

Considering the package that the Utah Jazz received from the Minnesota Timberwolves for Rudy Gobert, it was hard to conceive of a proper return for Durant, a 12-time All-Star and two-time Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals.

As a result, Durant continues to play in the loaded Eastern Conference, despite the fact that the Nets are still dealing with Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons’ uncertain futures.

In spite of this, one of the most popular Las Vegas sportsbooks, Caesars Sportsbook, has lowered the Nets’ odds of winning the NBA championship to as low as 9-1 from 18-1.

The Future Of The Bulls Is Affected By Durant’s Truce With The Nets

That’s how good Durant is.

Is there anything that isn’t a news flash? The Bulls also lack the draft capital to augment any potential offer the Brooklyn Nets made for Durant that included at least one All-Star player and young talent.

The Bulls would still have to spend a lot of money even if they were serious about acquiring Durant. The Bulls management has made it clear that it is seeking continuity within the core of the team. As a matter of fact, that’s been the theme since the quiet trade deadline last season.

There’s a reason why management moved quickly to re-sign Zach LaVine to a five-year maximum contract and then worked the margins with moves like bringing back Derrick Jones Jr. on a value contract and adding veterans Andre Drummond and Goran Dragic to the roster in free agency.

When it came to potential packages for Durant, the Nets conducted due diligence with virtually every team in the league.

There were several league executives who worked under the belief that this outcome would prevail for the time being.

There are many ways in which the situation with Durant and the Los Angeles Lakers resembles what happened with Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2007.

After that, there was a period of time when Bryant requested to be traded, but he ultimately returned to the Lakers after it became clear that any team that traded for Bryant would be gutted by the kind of return the Lakers were looking for.

During that time, the Bulls played a prominent role in the event. The reports that the Bulls were refusing to part with Luol Deng were greatly exaggerated, however.

For starters, Bryant wanted to end up with the Bulls only if Deng played for them as well. Moreover, the Lakers engaged in mostly non-serious trade talks mainly to appease Bryant, who eventually calmed down after a lack of serious trade talks.

For now, Durant has done the same.

As a result, the Bulls won two of three meetings against the Nets last season and finished two games ahead of them and in sixth place in the Eastern Conference as a result.

Despite a win over the Cavaliers in the play-in round, the Nets were swept out of the first round by the eventual conference champion Boston Celtics after finishing with the seventh seed.

As we all know, the Bulls lost in five games to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.

There is still a lot of competition in the East. There is no doubt that the Nets have a strong chance of doing well in the conference, as their chances improved on Tuesday.

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