The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers shook up the basketball world in the middle of the night on Saturday by swapping Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis in a deal so surprising that even other NBA players couldn’t believe it. That includes Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, who knows a thing or two about changing teams.
“Insane,” said Durant, who learned about the trade during the middle of the Suns’ loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. “It’s crazy, crazy. Never thought Luka Doncic would get traded at his age, mid-season. The NBA is a wild place, man. If he can get traded, then anybody is up for grabs.”
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Durant, who is always willing to share his thoughts about the latest news around the league, expounded on how this trade highlights the fact that the NBA is a business and teams are held to a different standard than players when it comes to loyalty.
“It’s always been transactional,” Durant said. “Players are held to a different level of loyalty and commitment to a program, but the organizations don’t get held to that same standard from the outside world, whether from media members or fans. We all should be held to that same standard. It’s a transactional game. It’s a lot of money involved, a lot of business involved. We shouldn’t be too shocked about trades or guys moving to different teams, or coaches moving to different teams. It’s just the nature of playing basketball and us making this much money.
“It’s pretty wild times in the NBA, especially around the trade deadline. I know everybody’s gonna be watching their phone the next week. We’ve got five days, I know everybody’s gonna be following the updates.”
This year’s trade deadline is set for Feb. 6, and there’s still a chance that more stars get dealt. Jimmy Butler and De’Aaron Fox have recently led the headlines, while the likes of Zach LaVine and Durant’s Suns teammate Bradley Beal have also received plenty of attention.
From Durant’s perspective, the Doncic-Davis trade makes it more likely that other franchises will take a big swing and may spark a flurry of deals before the deadline.
“You start seeing stuff like that, as an organization, you might get a little more courage to do some stuff,” Durant said. “You see another team trade away somebody like that. This got to be the biggest trade I’ve seen since I’ve been in the league or since I’ve been watching the sport. This is insane. So yeah, every other team might get confidence and say f— it, I’ll trade a few of my top players if this ain’t working.”
It seems that the Suns, who sit in ninth place in the Western Conference at 25-23, want to be one of those teams, but Beal’s no-trade clause is complicating matters.
