Was Kevin Durant ever even close to being traded?

Kevin Durant blew up the NBA’s summer with his June 30 trade demand. It became the story of the summer, dominating headlines and even holding up some trades.

But was Durant ever really close to being traded?

Not if you listen to the fallout after Durant agreed to return to the Nets this season.

When Durant made his first trade demand, two places were attached as his preferred destinations: Miami and Phoenix. When Shams Charania of The Athletic went on the Miami-based Le Batard & friends “STUpodity” podcast, he said the Heat were never close to a deal (hat tip Hoopshype).

The last time, Stugotz, the Heat called the Nets [about Kevin Durant] was right around Summer League or even maybe even before that. They never really aggressively pursued a deal because I think at the end of the day, they knew they would have had to gut multiple players.”

Translation: It would take Bam Adebayo being on the table for Miami to get a deal done. While Heat beat writer Ira Winderman has said in the past some in the organization may have been open to the idea, key voices were not. Bottom line, the Heat were never going to include their 25-year-old All-Star, All-Defensive player because they needed him with Durant and Jimmy Butler to truly contend. The offer never got above a Tyler Herro-based package, which was not of great interest to Brooklyn.

As for Phoenix, Monty Williams told Dana Scott of the Arizona Republic that he didn’t talk to the Suns’ players about the rumors and didn’t necessarily want to see his team broken up.

“When I first heard about the Kevin Durant stuff, I was kind of blown away by it just because, you know, we’ve been so blessed here to have guys want to come.

“At the same time, ‘At the expense of what?’ was my thinking.