Kevin Durant will stay in Brooklyn, according to a statement from Nets general manager Sean Marks.
“[Coach] Steve Nash and I, along with [governors] Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai met with Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in Los Angeles yesterday,” Marks said in a statement. “We have agreed to move forward with our partnership. We’re focused on basketball, with one collective goal in mind: to build an enduring franchise to bring a championship to Brooklyn.”
Durant initially requested a trade on June 30 and reiterated that desire in a meeting with Joe Tsai in London, sources confirmed to ESPN, earlier this month. During that meeting, Durant wanted Tsai to choose between him and the brain trust of Nash and Marks.
Instead, Nash and Marks will keep their jobs, while Durant will remain in Brooklyn as the four-year, $198 million extension he signed last offseason this season.
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The Nets have spent most of the offseason dealing with the upheavals of stars Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Irving, who played in 29 games last season after opting out of the COVID-19 vaccine, created a list of teams he would like the Nets to consider working a sign-and-trade deal with . However, no viable trade materialized and Irving opted out of the final year of his contract. The Nets could still trade him as his contract expires (though Irving would have no formal say in a potential landing spot) and have until June 30 of next year to work out an extension before it becomes unrestricted free agent.
With Irving and Durant still with the team, the Nets will look to improve on last year’s first-round playoff exit and hope Ben Simmons will be a part of that.
Simmons was traded to Brooklyn in a deal that sent James Harden to Philadelphia, but he has yet to make his Nets debut. Simmons underwent a microdiscectomy procedure in May to treat localized pain in a herniated disc in his lower back, but is expected to be healthy for training camp.
According to Caesars Sportsbook, the Nets’ odds to win the NBA championship went from 18-1 to 9-1 after the Nets announced that Durant would be staying. The 9-1 odds put Brooklyn ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers for the fourth-best odds to win the title behind the Celtics (+450), Warriors (+650), Suns (+800), Clippers (+800) and Bucks (+800).