Kevin Duran: Player trade requests are “great for the league” Report: Miami Heat frontrunners to land Kevin Love with buyout done NBA to have All-Star captains choose reserves first in attempt to avoid last pick stigma Lakers reportedly “kicking the tires” on adding Kevin Love off buyout Watch Pelicans Jose Alvarado call his shot then drain Rising Stars game-winner

Salt Lake City – Player trade requests, in particular for a couple to leave Brooklyn, rocked the NBA at the trade deadline. Kyrie Irving was unable to obtain the desired contract extension in Brooklyn and requested a trade in response. A few days later it was the Dallas Maverick. After that, Kevin Duran more quietly asked for a deal and found his way to Phoenix.

When asked during NBA All-Star Media Day if it was bad for the league that players ask for trades, Durant replied that they were “great for the NBA”. (Video is from Ben Golliver of the Washington Post).

The Suns’ Kevin Durant says trade requests are “great for the league” despite criticism: “Teams have been trading players and making acquisitions for a long time. Now the player can dictate where they want to go, leave as a free agent or demand a trade, it’s just part of the game now.” pic.twitter.com/zyzphfrp2f

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 18, 2023

“I don’t think it’s bad for the league, it brings more attention to the league, more people are more excited. The tweets I get, the news we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded, it just brings more attention to the league and that’s really what makes you money when you get more attention. So I think it’s great for the league, to be honest. Teams have been trading players and making acquisitions for a long time now that a player can kind of dictate where they want to go and go as a free agent or demand a trade is now part of the game so I don’t think it’s a bad thing. thing.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver thinks otherwise.

“Player swap requirements are bad.” Silver said on SportsCenter this week. “We don’t want that to happen and we need to focus on that and make sure everyone sticks to their agreements.”

Of course, Silver works to please the owners, and these owners want to control the process and the players as much as possible.

And that’s the dividing line in this thread: how much do people think players should have power over this process? NBA teams make deals with players, then turn around and quickly trade them, robbing them of their roots life – even max players, ask Blake Griffin about his departure from the Clippers. Players who have the leverage to demand the trade feel that it just balances the scales with what teams can do.

It’s more of a nuance than for the fans. The way they treat a player who did his best to win and was let down by management is different from a player who was destructive or never gave his team the chance to make it work.

Durant is right about one thing – it’s a deal league now. Player movement—and rumors about player movement—get more attention and views than the games themselves. This is what the fans want. If the league ever figured out how to monetize all this transaction chatter, they would sing differently too.

UPDATE: The buyout with the Cavaliers is complete, and now Love is likely to be signed by the Heat, but he’s going to talk to the 76ers first. according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Stacked 76ers can be minutes behind PJ Tucker at four, but it will be a limited role compared to what Miami has to offer.

Plus, with the Heat still holding some of the mid-level eliminations, as well as their biennial elimination, they can offer more money than the 76ers or other teams.

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Kevin Love wants playing time, a role and an opportunity to contribute. He didn’t get that in Cleveland, where he fell out of the rotation and benched the last 12 games, so he asked for a buyout from the Cavaliers.

The Miami Heat can offer that, which is why they’ve become leaders in getting love, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

League sources say the Miami Heat were frontrunners in signing five-time All-Star Kevin Love after he completed a buyout with the Cleveland. @TheAthletic @Stadium. Concerned teams believe Miami’s ability to offer a role and playoff positioning are leading factors.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 18, 2023

Miami has begun Caleb Martin four most of the season, and while he did his best, they missed out on what PJ Tucker had given them the previous season. Behind Martin has been a constantly changing group of players as Erik Spoelstra is looking for something that works – newbie Nikola Jovic (with reaction to stress in the back), Max StrusAnd Heywood Highsmith everyone has time.

Love will have an instant role and minutes, possibly coming off the bench first, but it’s not hard to imagine moving up to the starting XI.

There are interested teams. The Suns would likely have had a role for him off the bench, and the Lakers and Warriors have also been mentioned (although roles with them are harder to pinpoint).

Miami probably makes sense, but Cleveland won’t like it – the Heat are a potential playoff matchup with the Cavaliers.

Expect this deal to be done by the time the All-Star break ends.

Salt Lake City – Because we don’t want some NBA All-Star millionaires to be offended…

This year, the NBA changed the draft format for the All-Star Game with captains. LeBron James And Giannis Antetokounmpo On-court selection of All-Stars approximately 30 minutes before kickoff. The idea was to make it look a bit more like a playground.

But to avoid any resentment from being last-picked, the captains will select reserves first and then starters, this was leaked before the game (Ernie Johnson, in particular, said this on TNT’s Inside the NBA). So technically the last player selected will be one of the starting ones.

Here are some thoughts on this:

• Really?

• In any case, everyone will know who the last substitute is, he will still be the last person chosen in the minds of the fans.

• Really?

• Why is the NBA fixing something that wasn’t a problem? In the 2019 draft, the last player selected was Bradley Bealit didn’t really hurt his ego. Domantas Sabonis was the last choice in 2020, in 2021 it was Rudy Gobert (this was the only year that this was talked about a lot, but it was more about Gobert not being that popular with the players, and not about his skills). Last season was a hysterical moment when Kevin Duran refused to choose James Harden — who just got out of Durant’s Nets — and LeBron kept him on the board, trying to get the KD to take him, so Harden was the last pick.

• Usually you choose reservists to complement the starting line-up (who will presumably get a few more minutes). Now everything has changed, and LeBron and Giannis have to choose the players who are best suited for the reserves.

• I think we’re doing it. The choice of players 30 minutes before the game should be interesting.