SI:AM | The Nets Blew It All Up
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. New Yorkers can celebrate one thing today: the return of cheap Nets tickets.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏑 A 22-year-old college head coach
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A deadline blockbuster
Brad Penner/USA Today Sports
In a stunning move that broke after midnight on the East Coast, the Nets completed their sudden demolition by trading Kevin Durant to the Suns.
In exchange, Brooklyn will receive Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder, as well as four first-round picks and a 2028 pick swap, while T.J. Warren goes from the Nets to Phoenix to complete the deal.
Only hours earlier it appeared the biggest move of the day had already been made, with the Lakers finally unloading Russell Westbrook. (He got sent to Utah in a three-team deal that sent D’Angelo Russell to the Lakers and Mike Conley to the Timberwolves.) But then the Nets shocked the world by trading away an All-Star for the second time this week.
Kyrie Irving’s trade demand torpedoed the Nets’ season. With him gone, there was little reason to hang on to Durant. KD had already asked to be traded over the summer before he and the team agreed to a truce that even at the time seemed temporary. The Nets got some decent pieces back in the Irving trade, but a team built around Durant, Ben Simmons and Spencer Dinwiddie wasn’t going to be a serious contender in the East.
For the Suns, this is a dream come true. The Nets’ dysfunction allowed Phoenix to acquire one of the most prolific scorers in the league to instantly vault itself to the top of the conference. Rohan Nadkarni loves the deal for the Suns:
Phoenix almost certainly becomes the favorite in the West, with an improving Chris Paul, an All-Star–level Devin Booker and Durant forming a formidable trio. Those are three of the deadliest half-court scorers in the NBA, and they will be hellish to defeat in a playoff series. And after years of the postseason burden seemingly catching up to Paul, he now has two ultra-elite perimeter scorers to make his life much easier.
The silver lining for the Nets is that the trade allowed them to recoup much of the draft capital they lost in the ill-fated trade to acquire James Harden. They’re set up to be able to rebuild in the years to come, but for fans, losing one of the best players in league history is going to sting for a while.
The other trades made so far
Other than Durant, there were three more trades made yesterday. I already mentioned the Lakers-Timberwolves-Jazz deal that sent Russell Westbrook out of Los Angeles. He’s reportedly expected to be bought out by the Jazz, making him free to sign with another team after the deadline.
The Raptors acquired center Jakob Poeltl from the Spurs, bringing him back to Toronto after he was sent to San Antonio in the Kawhi Leonard deal. They reportedly intend to sign him to a contract extension before he becomes a free agent after the season.
The Knicks got Josh Hart from the Blazers in exchange for Cam Reddish, Svi Mykhailiuk, Ryan Arcidiacono and a lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick. The trade reunites Hart with his college teammate Jalen Brunson, who was hyped to hear the news.
Deadline day is just getting started, though. There will surely be plenty of other moves before today’s 3 p.m. ET deadline. Kyle Wood is keeping track of them all here.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Chris Mannix has a list of contenders that need to make a move before this afternoon’s deadline.
- Rohan Nadkarni evaluates the Lakers’ trade for D’Angelo Russell, which might not be enough to make a playoff push.
- Kevin Sweeney’s latest men’s bracketology has North Carolina teetering right on the edge.
- The Tar Heels also made waves last week by hiring a 22-year-old as their new head field hockey coach, but as Pat Forde writes, the decision was an easy one.
- An NFLPA doctor guaranteed Damar Hamlin will play football again.
- Jaylen Brown broke a bone in his face during the Celtics’ win over the Sixers.
- In the Winners Club newsletter, Kyle Wood offers some picks for fun Super Bowl prop bets. You can subscribe to the newsletter for free at SI.com/newsletters.
- This weekend’s Super Bowl may wind up being one of the most expensive in history, with the average ticket price topping $8,000.
The top five...
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Jordan Poole’s buzzer beater at the end of the first half. (He had 38 points on the night.)
4. Filip Chytil’s backhand goal for the Rangers.
3. Killian Hayes’s assist to Jalen Duren.
2. The commentary during tennis player Alexander Bublik’s complete meltdown.
1. The end of this Division III basketball game. New Jersey City University hit two threes in the final five seconds to win.
SIQ
This is a bit of trivia I came across this week that I suppose I should have known but still cannot believe: Which former Supreme Court justice also led the NFL in rushing twice?
- Potter Stewart
- Felix Frankfurter
- Harold Hitz Burton
- Byron White
Yesterday’s SIQ: Which NFL team announced its intention to move to Los Angeles the same week that the Browns’ move to Baltimore was approved?
- Seahawks
- 49ers
- Bengals
- Chargers
Answer: Seahawks. Seattle owner Ken Behring was engaged in a dispute with King County (Wash.) officials over the condition of the Kingdome. He wanted the county to spend $150 million improving the stadium, citing concerns about the dome’s ability to withstand an earthquake. Behring also pointed to a clause in the team’s lease stating that the stadium had to be maintained as a “first-class facility,” arguing that because the stadium was closed for three months in 1994 due to falling ceiling tiles, forcing the Seahawks to play three games at the University of Washington’s stadium, the county hadn’t held up its end of the bargain.
Behring announced Feb. 1, 1996, that he was moving the team to Los Angeles. On Feb. 2, he closed the team’s offices outside Seattle and two days later dispatched a fleet of moving trucks to take equipment to the Rams’ vacant former facility in Anaheim. All the while, Behring was telling the press about the potential places his team could play, zeroing in on the Rose Bowl for its first season down the coast.
The problem for Behring was that NFL owners had voted unanimously following the Rams’ and Raiders’ departure from Los Angeles to be able to handpick which team would be allowed to move to the L.A. market. The Seahawks, who had won just three playoff games in their history, were not the team other owners wanted to place in that valuable market.
With the support of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the county won a restraining order prohibiting the Seahawks from moving. Less than two weeks after announcing the move to California, team employees were back in their Washington offices.
