Report: Kevin Durant to meet with Nets owner Joe Tsai amid trade stalemate

Kevin Durant is still a member of the Brooklyn Nets, which wasn't exactly Durant's plan about a month ago. The Nets star's request for a potential landscape-changing trade has so far gone unheeded, and now he is slated to meet with team owner Joe Tsai to discuss the situation, according to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.

The Nets have declined comment, per Marc Stein.

Kevin Durant remains in self-created trade limbo

There have been plenty of offers reported for Durant, but none that seemed to meet the Nets' price. And that may be the rub of trading Durant, it is borderline impossible to match the value of a superstar like Durant in a market that saw Rudy Gobert be worth four first-round draft picks and a pick swap.

Of course, teams might be wary of selling the farm for a 33-year-old player who just demanded a trade from a team after three seasons (and two healthy ones). The Golden State Warriors, maybe the team best equipped to trade for Durant, have already indicated they are out.

The Nets also aren't going to be keen on trading Durant when they have little reason to try to rebuild over the next several years, as another team owns basically every one of their first-round picks until 2027.

If you're a Nets fan, you're hoping the meeting leads to a reconciliation. That may be impossible, though, as the root of Durant's discontent is reportedly the Nets' refusal to give Kyrie Irving a long-term max contract after a season shaken by the point guard's refusal to get vaccinated. That situation has not changed, though there were previous rumblings of an Irving trade.

Irving opted into his $36.9 million player option for next season, then can hit free agency next summer, while Durant is under contract until 2026 after signing an extension last August.