With no offers they like, Nets reportedly willing to keep Durant rather than force trade

NBA Summer League is winding down and league executives are heading home (or on European vacations), making this the time of year when the free agent and trade market typically slows down. This year there are some bigger names still hanging out there — Collin Sexton, Montrezl Harrell, the Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes — but this is the point in the summer when teams have largely assembled their rosters and are looking ahead.

That may be the case in Brooklyn.

Kevin Durant asked for a trade but the first round of offers did not impress the Nets, who saw what Utah got for Rudy Gobert and expected more. Now add in the offer-sheet-then-matching that keeps Deandre Ayton in Phoenix (for now) and it comes down to this simple truth — there is no bidding war for Durant.

So the Nets may head into training camp with Durant and Kyrie Irving on the roster, playing the long game. That buzz was building among team officials in Las Vegas last weekend when I was still there, and now Brian Windhorst of ESPN is talking about it on the GetUp.

“As for Kevin Durant, here’s what there is: nothing. There is no movement here. The executives are leaving Summer League. The executives are going on vacation.

“At this point, the Nets’ preferred situation is for Kevin Durant to stay with them. There is no trade they they’ve got that they like. A huge question and what the league is in some ways waiting for is what does Durant feel? He’s the one who asked for the trade. Have his feelings changed with some of the avenues for trades dimming?”

Kyrie Irving, at least publicly, is spinning that he wants to be in Brooklyn. Riiight, like he didn’t spend the entire summer trying to find a new home. Irving’s new attitude is very likely a reaction to the market