Giannis Fears Grow, Raptors Willing To Take HUGE Risk On Kevin Durant?!

Giannis Fears Grow, Raptors Willing To Take HUGE Risk On Kevin Durant?!

hey everybody we’ve got a new update on the Giannis Anttompo trade front as well as Kevin Durant with a new team entering the mix actually trying to deploy a strategy that won them an NBA championship i’m Trevor Lane this is the Basketball Bulletin make sure you subscribe right here going to be a busy busy summer around the NBA so hit that subscribe button all right let’s start with Giannis though and this is I think good news for Bucks fans rival team starting to get skeptical that Giannis will actually ask out this was Jake Fiser the other day talking about uh what’s happening the sentiment around the NBA about Giannis Antoupo and how likely it’s actually going to be that he is going to ask the Milwaukee Bucks to trade him fischer saying the prevailing sentiment from rival teams that I’m speaking to around the combine two weeks ago two and a half weeks ago was optimism hope excitement from teams that they were going to be able to potentially make an offer for Giannis onto Doupo uh and bring him into their franchise but that confidence is now being replaced with skepticism now let me pause right there here that’s that’s not necessarily abnormal that confidence is now being replaced by skepticism why because the whole Giannis thing has been circling for so long now it’s been weeks now that we’ve been waiting for resolution one way or another is Giannis going to ask out is he not and the longer that we are waiting for him to officially ask out for the Milwaukee Bucks the more people are going to start doubting that it’s actually ever going to happen now Fischer then notes though that while front offices are starting to lose some of their patience in this situation or lose some of their optimism that Giannis is going to ask out he does say hey and it’s only as you saying this June 5th anything could happen and I’ve been told all along that if there is a decision a formal decision made to shut or open the door on trade conversations that it would likely happen closer to the end of June when the off season really really begins so we did get a few weeks ago a few weeks ago Chris Haynes had said that over the next week Giannis Antmpo was going to meet with the Bucks obviously if he did meet with the Bucks which right now that does appear to be very questionable that he actually did but obviously he did not make a decision one way or another on the trade front and now Jake Fischer saying it could be closer to the end of June when Giannis really makes his decision keep in mind we do have the NBA draft coming up on June 25th and so ideally teams trading for Giannis whether it is from the buyer or in the Milwaukee Bucks perspective the sellers position they’re going to want to try to get this sorted out right around the draft so that if there is any draft capital involved in any type of potential deal you can have that happen before those picks are actually used on draft night so something to keep an eye on here right now skepticism appears to be growing that Giannis Anttompo will actually ask out while nothing is officially resolved at this point but that may not be a bad thing here for the NBA’s market really what you need to see one way or another is resolution because what can be paralyzing for teams is if they don’t know for sure what’s going on if teams know Giannis is on the market well yes 29 teams are going to try to bid on Giannis onto Doupo and some will not make moves until they know one way or another where Giannis is going but if Giannis says definitively I’m not being traded that would also open up the market for other things to happen and what would happen if Giannis decided not to leave the Milwaukee Bucks is it would create I think more of a market for Kevin Durant who is a player who is widely expected to be on the way out of the Phoenix Suns we’ve talked about it quite a bit but now another team has appeared that could wind up being a landing spot for KD and it’s the Toronto Raptors and there’s a really key difference here in the Toronto Raptors compared to some of the other teams that we’ve been talking about we’ve been talking quite a bit about Kevin Durant and how he can direct his own landing spot because most teams will not want to trade for a player like Kevin Durant give up the kind of assets that would be required to get Kevin Durant particularly when we’re talking about matching salary kevin Durant at 54 million $54.7 million in terms of giving up all the stuff you’d have to give up most teams will not be willing to do that if they believe Kevin Durant is a one-year rental and KD in that way can direct his own landing spot by simply telling teams that he does not want to go to that he won’t stay and that will cause those teams to bow out because they won’t want to give up uh significant stuff for a one-year rental but the Toronto Raptors may be the exception to that as Jake Fischer notes on the Substack that he writes with Mark Stein the Toronto Raptors already did this once and they won a championship because of it they went and got Kawhi Leonard knowing he was going to hit free agency uh the next summer knowing there was a chance they could lose him they went ahead they gave up what they needed to in order to get Kawawaii anyway and it worked they won an NBA championship so they may be emboldened to do the same thing here particularly if Giannis is off the market the Raptors are one of the teams that over the last week have been connected with Giannis onto Dumpo if he makes it known that he doesn’t want to go anywhere then the Raptors could be among the teams that pivot to Kevin Durant the Raptors are rumored to be wanting to make a push right now they really want to get going and try to win games and they’ve got the pieces to put together a fairly interesting offer for Kevin Durant they can make the money work on this now there’s also rumors swirling that would connect Kevin Durant to the San Antonio Spurs but essentially what’s happening is the teams that truly have interest in Kevin Durant we’re starting to get a sense of who those teams are the Houston Rockets I believe will be in the mix the San Antonio Spurs the Toronto Raptors another team that’s going to have interest in KD assuming again Giannis is not actually on the market or the Giannis situation is resolved and he gets traded to another team it’s also worth noting that Toronto was one of the teams that went after Kevin Durant in 2022 during the off season when he first wanted to get away from the Brooklyn Nets it’s also worth noting that there is a strong sense that Toronto is under pressure to make significant steps forward in their development and especially given the state of the Eastern Conference this is something we’ve been talking about the Eastern Conference is in really rough shape right now particularly with the Boston Celtics now effectively on their way out who knows as I’m recording this the Pacers are up 10 on the Thunder maybe they wind up winning the whole thing i still have the Thunder winning at all but the Pacers could ultimately get it done but there’s nobody in the East right now that’s saying “Oh these teams are too good we need to wait to build our roster.” No it’s the opposite you’ve got a lot of teams in the East right now saying “Well damn the Celtics are gone jason Tatum unfortunate as it is suffered an Achilles injury they’re going to sell off some players the East is wide open so why not us?” I think Toronto is going to be one of those teams they lost a bunch of games last year 30 and 52 missed out on the playoffs they don’t want to do that again they understood that they needed to tank last season they didn’t bring Brandon Ingram back after trading for him and by the way the fact that they participated in pre- agency essentially going and doing a little pre-summertime shopping by getting Brandon Ingram despite the fact that he was injured going and getting that done at the trade deadline that tells you Toronto wants to win right now and they could be among the teams in the East that say “You know what this is so wide open let’s go for it let’s go get a Kevin Durant and let’s see what happens we can be right there in the mix in the East because this is not a strong conference.” Now how would they do it well the salary that they’re rumored to be willing to part with it’s RJ Barrett his $27 million salary plus you could stack up Yaka Purle now there’s other pieces they could potentially add in but RJ Barrett and Yaka Purle right there that would get you to 50 million in outgoing salary and they’d be right there in the ballpark to go land Kevin Durant now it’s also worth noting that the Phoenix Suns are rumored to want a center as one of the pieces that they get back in a Kevin Durant trade in addition to some kind of draft capital and perhaps the Toronto Raptors could give up the ninth pick in this year’s NBA draft but Yaka Purle could be a pretty solid center for the Suns to acquire long term i’d be uh wary of giving him up frankly if I’m the Toronto Raptors but if they feel like hey we really need to make a splash this year maybe giving up Yaka Purle who does have a player option next year next season 2627 season for 19.5 million and then you’ve got look RJ Barrett i like RJ Barrett he’s a good player but if you are the Suns and you’re walking away with Yaka Purle RJ Barrett and a pick that’s a pretty damn good return I think for Kevin Durant who can be a free agent the next year to the point where I’d question if the Raptors should really give up all of that maybe I’d try for a future protected pick or something like that and Yaka Purle and RJ Barrett who both could be starters for the Phoenix Suns but imagine I mean Scotty Barnes Brandon Ingram Kevin Durant all on the same team that’s a lot of length on the wing for the Toronto Raptors to build around there you’d have some questions of course if you’re going to give up Yaka Purle in that trade though what do you do in the middle messiah Jiri would have to have some other moves planned here for Toronto it can’t just be Yaka Purle RJ Barrett you bring in Kevin Durant and you’re all set no there would have to be some follow-up moves from the Toronto Raptors but Messiah is known as one of the best GMs in the NBA so I’m not putting it past them and again this is a franchise they’ve done it before they’ve shown that they’re not scared of landing a player on a one-year deal and taking the risk that they’re going to be a rental this is an important shift in the trade market for Kevin Durant because now you’ve got a team that doesn’t necessarily need to have asurances from KD that he’s going to stay long-term for the Phoenix Suns the more teams get involved in the trade market the better you want to have some kind of a bidding war but also maybe a little bit worrisome that you’ve got teams that are now considering trading for Kevin Durant as a one-year rental because even if they’re willing to take that risk with one year they’re still not going to be willing to give up a hall to get KD certainly nowhere near what the Phoenix Suns paid to land him just a few years ago but Toronto certainly a team to keep an eye on we’ve got multiple serious suitors out there on the market the Toronto Raptors being one clearly they’re pushing to land somebody whether it’s Kevin Durant Giannis Anko or someone else same thing true with the San Antonio Spurs the Rockets can be in the mix there and I think there’s going to be a number of other buyers appearing on the market as we get closer and closer to the NBA draft but everybody let me know your thoughts in the comments down below again significant shift here should a team take that gamble and get Kevin Durant as a one-year rental and which teams aside from the Raptors should be willing to do that also the Giannis front give me your thoughts on that situation in the comments section down below don’t forget to subscribe right here to the channel till next time see you and stay safe

In this video Trevor Lane takes a look at the latest updates on the Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant trade fronts, with teams around the league starting to doubt that a trade request will arrive and the Raptors join the mix of teams interested in Durant, with one key difference….

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