Hornets Reportedly Could Have Interest in Kevin Durant? Why It's Not the Move for Them

The Charlotte Hornets may or may not be in the star acquisition mode of their rebuild. It remains to be seen if they're going to go for it, but we can confidently say that it wouldn't be a terrible plan. They took a huge step forward, and a big move like that could propel them into the upper stratosphere.

To that end, if (and it seems now like a when), the Houston Rockets crash out of the NBA playoffs in the first round, The Ringer's Michael Pina is reporting that nothing, including a Kevin Durant trade, is off the table.

Naturally, that sounds like the sort of star move that fits with what I mentioned above. That'd be going for it, and Durant would be a major upgrade in the frontcourt over Miles Bridges. If he's available, that would make some sense.

Adding fuel to the fire, Pina reported that the Hornets are among several other teams who would have some interest if the Rockets made Durant available after just one season in Houston. "[They] would all have varying degrees of interest—pending how the rest of these playoffs go," Pina wrote.

Durant is a future Hall of Famer, an unrivaled shotmaker and so much more that would make the Hornets better. But his last few teams have learned a lesson about adding Durant that the Hornets don't need to even ponder.

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) looks on from the court in the second half | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Those teams got worse with Durant because of the astronomical cost to acquire him. The Brooklyn Nets were shockingly mediocre with him, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden because that's too much allocated into three positions.

The same thing happened in Phoenix, where he, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal didn't work. The Suns actually got significantly better after trading him. The number two seed in the West, the Rockets traded for Durant, and they regressed to the five seed and are about to be bounced by a 41-year-old LeBron James by himself.

It's simply way too expensive to try and get Durant on the team. The Hornets have plenty of assets to use, so they could primarily use first-round picks. But that's a long-term investment for a short-term gain, and there's a salary to match.

Is adding Durant for a couple of seasons (at best) worth three future first-round picks, Miles Bridges, Josh Green, and Grant Williams? Probably not, because that would destroy Charlotte's bench and restore it to its former status of having G-League players playing NBA minutes.

Plus, it's probably too soon to make such a move. For Houston, it made sense. They were the second-best team in the West and seemingly jettisoned the one young piece that they didn't really need in Jalen Green to get Durant.

Adding Durant would be too much and probably wouldn't even work out. He's the sort of player that a championship-caliber team would add, not one the likely playoff-bound Hornets would or should be interested in.

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