Lowe Adds Trail Blazers as Potential Kevin Durant Trade Destination

All-NBA forward Kevin Durant might become available for trade as the Brooklyn Nets become candidates for a roster tear down and the Portland Trail Blazers could be suitors. ESPN analysts Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks came together on the Lowe Post this week to add teams to the list of teams that might be interested in Kevin Durant. Those three teams included the Washington Wizards, New York Knicks and Blazers, once more contracts become tradeable in January.

Here’s the transcript of the comments:

Marks: I went through it, I was looking like Portland.

Lowe: There you go, you got my last Cinderalla team, talk me through Portland.

Marks: This is all after these restrictions are lifted here and they would have to lift protection, they owe Chicago a top 14 protected first for the next six years, so they’d have to lift the protection off that. But if I’m looking at their roster, is Shaedon Sharpe off the board? Is he off the board in any deals here? Their young prized rookie here. They’ve got salary filler, like Josh Hart, guys like that, rotational players. I would put Jerami Grant in the deal. Is Grant, Hart and Sharpe too much?

Lowe: I really do like Shaedon Sharpe, that’s a lot and obviously we’re implying that all three picks, three swaps whatever is involved for Durant. I do think they would probably pull Simons off the table. Simons can’t be traded until January 15

The problem with putting Nurkic in is I have no center at all. I have Drew Eubanks and small-ball fives like Winslow and Trendon Watford who hasn’t been playing this season. Do I need to get Claxton back. I find it hard to believe the Nets are going to draw a Claxton line in the sand. Do I need to find another center somewhere, probably, do I care necessarily.

That’s a lot though, I like what I’ve seen from Sharpe so far. Grant, I’m getting Durant anyway, so I don’t care, Hart is a good starting rotation player for them. You have to think about it. I mean, you paid Damian Lillard all this money, he’s 32, he’s going to be 36 by the end of the this contract, making $60 million. So you’re in for whatever the phrase is, a penny, or a pound, or a nickel, or whatever the hell the phrase is. You might as well be in for a lot more. Portland and Washington are my like maybe didn’t have the juice in the summer but...

You can listen to the discussion here 41 minutes in.