Kevin Durant has NO DESIRE to be traded to the Timberwolves 👀 Shams Charania’s update | SportsCenter

Kevin Durant has NO DESIRE to be traded to the Timberwolves 👀 Shams Charania’s update | SportsCenter

here we go at his future up in the air right now Matt Barry it is look there was a list of teams that Sean Sheranio has reported on that could be interested in him the final three looked to be the Heat Spurs and Rockets as trade destinations you may remember the initial list of interested teams also included the Knicks and the Timberwolves phoenix tried to deal him to the Warriors at the trade deadline but he vetoed the deal so as we bring in Sham Shirania who’s reporting at news and chana with us Shams I want to start with you uh give us the latest on where things stand with KD and where he could land i’m told the Phoenix Suns remain in active conversations around the league on a Kevin Durant deal but their focus over the last several days has been on three teams and that’s the Miami Heat Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves we know his preferred destinations though are the Rockets Spurs and the Heat and so the the Suns have been working with Durant’s business partner Rich Kimman on just figuring out exactly where he could end up could it be one of his three preferred destinations could it be a wildcard team because listen at the end of the day his expiring contract of $54.7 million is going to play a part in this and I’m told Durant has no desire to be in Minnesota with the Timberwolves how does that shape how the Minnesota Timber rolls and other teams that could have interest that are outside his preferred list decide how to move forward with these Durant discussions yeah cuz then you see the preferred list you’re like well wait a second does he want to come to us if we’re not one of those three teams and tonight look we’re not arguing KD is not an elite player he certainly is but he is turning 37 in September so given his age which landing spot makes the most sense for both him and the teams on his list hey we don’t say he’s old we say he’s seasoned okay all right he’s might be turning 37 but he’s still averaging 27 like six and five so those are great numbers now if there is one song to serenade Kevin Durant to a new city it’s Welcome to Miami Benito Amy because I feel like that’s just a perfect fit again this is a team that was 21st in offensive rating they need a boost of someone that can score and he’s an automatic bucket especially from the mid-range then it comes to timelines the reason why I removed Houston my city from the list is because this is a veteran a young veteran squad you know Tyler Herro Bamaba he can sort of help guide them to the next iteration of greatness and last the East is wide open i feel like that’s better than the West so I’m looking at Miami as a perfect fit for Kevin yeah the West is loaded you can name six teams out west that could win a title and you certainly want to go to an East where you could probably pivot your way through there a little bit easier speaking of a pivot the big trade yesterday and what it all means for the teams and players involved desmond Bane gets traded to the Magic the Grizzlies get a lot of draft picks contavius Codwell Pope and Cole Anthony in return jobs what does this trade mean for the futures of John Morant and Jiren Jackson Jr i’m told the Grizzlies are signaling signaling privately that they will continue to build around John and Jiren Jackson Jr the Grizzlies view this as a pivot away from that core of Desmond Bane John Morant and Jiren Jackson Jr and allow this team to have a little bit more youth a little bit more financial flexibility moving forward and then most importantly a massive hall of draft picks four unprotected first round picks one un uh slightly protected pick swap and they really want to continue to build around those two and that allows them to have a level of flexibility and one big thing here is also the extension of Jiren Jackson Jr which they believe this trade helps with as well so on the other side of this Chennai what are your expectations for how Jaw and Jiren will perform next season in a new system and without Bane as their teammate well Sean said it’s a pivot for me i’m going to call it a competitive reset because we all know that the era of big three superstars that’s gone now it’s really focusing on two tremendous stars and building around them i mean we’re here in Oklahoma City where you see the value of a team team oriented type of basketball not just superstars out there but what do I expect from John Jiren Jackson Jr i mean they already combined give you 55 points per game and the last place you want to be is in the middle you guys know I love songs like “Baby why don’t you meet me in the middle?” No no no no you don’t want to be in the middle especially in the Western Conference or in the NBA overall you want to be ascending upward or you want to be resetting or rebuilding so I think this is a good evaluation point to build around their two stars instead of trying to aggregate around three because we all know the impact of the separ second apron it’s very hefty and look SGA was absolutely awesome in the fourth quarter of game four 15 points in his last 15 minutes last five minutes I should say did the Thunder kind of find the right formula to preserve SGA for the moments that matter most chen they absolutely did but I’ve been saying it all series long that this series will not come down to the number one option it’s actually coming down to who’s the best number two and in game four we found out it was JDub number two he had 27 points and his ability to score off of drives was huge was crucial he had over 30 points in the last two games off of drives his average possession length was six six seconds long which is the longest effort of his career which means he had the rock and they knew that he could bring him home especially the first three quarters and then they allowed SGA the MVP to cook in the fourth that is a beautiful template that is like peak Thunder basketball if you can rest the MVP and allow him to close that would be awesome yeah just using him for shooting remember he had zero assists and that seems to maybe be the formula for the Thunder because when SGA is two assists or fewer they’re undefeated they’re 6-0 okc shut down the Pacers though in the fourth quarter speaking of assists Indiana had one assist as a team hallebertton didn’t have any what does Indiana need to do to play better offensively late i feel like it’s weird to say this in basketball because we always think of Philly but they need to trust the process they need to trust the system the system is truly amazing that’s offensively tyrie Salbert has to score early and he has to get his confidence up because when he does that late in games especially fourth quarter that’s when he finds plays you know he’s able to assist the ball them this is a team that led in assist to turnover ratio that leads the postseason assist this is a player Tyrie Saliber that leads the playoffs and assess himself so overall if they’re able to trust their system that got them here which is scoring early but then passing late and really keying on the supporting cast that to me is the recipe for success because right here it’s going to be crazy this is where the defense the Thunder defense shows up best but you need this offense to show up in the m the moments that matter the most and so far that really comes through assisting the ball it’s time for a little Chay or Chana so Chana is going to tell us if she agrees with us or not in the statements I’m about to read chana Chay means that she’s agrees pacers need Hallebertton’s playmaking more than his scoring in the fourth quarter chay or Chen Chay to this and the magic number is 11 when Tyrese Hallebertton has 11 assists his squad the Pacers this postseason are undefeated 9 and0 they need him to score in the first in the second in the third and play make in the fourth that’s the secret sauce okay chay or Chen the Thunder need SGA’s scoring more than they need his passing i know this might sound crazy but I’m going to say nay because we already know he wakes up and gets 30 points that’s in the stat sheet but when he is able to assist like he was in game two where he had 34 points and eight assists this team was truly unguardable because he is a double team magnet and his teammates are able to knock down perimeter shots and threes so he will need to focus on his passing as well okay chay or Chennai the play of Jaylen Williams and Pascal Seyakum will determine the winner of game five chay or Chennai chennet chay yay as I said earlier the number tw’s will dictate who’s number one and who will drop a banner in game three the number two was Pascal Seakum who had 21 points in game four it was JDub who had 27 and again I mentioned in those last two games 30 plus off of drives so those two guys the secondary ball handlers need to look like they have the primary mindset especially considering that the top players are going to be well defended between SGA and Tyrese Hallebert jamal Collier is with the Pacers to McMahon is with the Thunder jamal I’m starting with you here pacers have not lost back-to-back games since March 10th what are they saying about moving on from Friday’s loss now yeah Shay it stood out what Tyrese Hallebertton said uh after practice yesterday that this is his favorite game of a playoff series it’s the game where they have a chance to respond and the Pacers have been very good in these games throughout the playoffs they are 5-0 after a loss and it’s because they haven’t spent a lot of time dwelling on the disappointment and the missed opportunity of going down 3-1 but approach this game to figure out what ways they can get better what opportunities that they can improve after a loss like this and that comes down to too many offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter they feel like they fouled SGA uh too much down the stretch and could do a better job defending him and Pascal Syakam he got one shot down the stretch in the fourth quarter those are things that Pacers really feel like that they need to clean up and they’ve been very good of watching the film figuring out new ways to attack and coming out stronger learning to get better from these losses has really been a strength for them throughout the playoffs they’re going to try to continue that in a tough environment here tonight look Pascal Seyakum is the lone guy with the ring there on that team so he probably wants the ball in this kind of situation give it to him Tim even though the Thunder won game four there’s a lot that they want to clean up what specifically do they want to focus on now in game five at home howdy Shay the short answer is a whole lot mark Dagenol says they really kind of have to look at game four almost like a loss in terms of the you know the the film study and how they want to respond to that being critical of themselves offensive process forget the fact they only made three threes they only got up 17 three-point attempts defensively they they felt like for the first few quarters they weren’t as on point as they wanted to be and then a lot of this is just listen the Pacers play fast they do not play finesse the Pacers are a tough physical team they were tougher they were more physical than Oklahoma City for the first three quarters that is something the Thunder absolutely are determined to fix as Chad Holgren said this morning luck always tends to favor the aggressors and then wouldn’t really necessarily be luck now would it it would be the more aggressive team the home team has a 21-10 record in game five when the finals are tied at two and two so the Thunder got a good shot tonight we’ll see what happens jamal Tim thank you both

SportsCenter previews Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

0:00 KD’s possible destinations
2:35 Desmond Bane trade
4:26 NBA Finals Game 5 preview
8:09 Reports from OKC

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