3-Team Proposed Blockbuster Would Send Kevin Durant To Cleveland
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't land their top target of the offseason, LeBron James. But would Kevin Durant do? A three-team blockbuster trade proposed by Sami Haider of The Sporting News (h/t Hoops Wire), would send KD to Cleveland, and the still-unsigned James Harden back to Houston.
Cleveland Cavaliers receive:
- Kevin Durant
- Fred VanVleet
- 2028 second-round pick from Detroit
Houston Rockets receive:
- James Harden (sign-and-trade)
- Jarrett Allen
- 2031 first-round pick
Detroit Pistons receive:
- Dennis Schroder
The Cavaliers have watched all the other teams in the Eastern Conference around them load up this summer. LeBron & Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia, Kawhi Leonard (presumably) to Toronto and Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami.
This hypothetical deal would see the Cavs making their own big swing, bringing in a superstar scorer to pair up with Donovan Mitchell, making them nearly unstoppable at the offensive end, especially when you add in Evan Mobley.
And while they'd be sacrificing a lot of defense under the basket in giving up Allen, they'd be vastly improving their D in the backcourt, adding veteran champion point guard VanVleet to replace The Beard. He can also replace the ball-handling they'd be losing in Harden, who is still unsigned as a free agent.
For the Rockets, Harden had his best years there earlier in his career, and there have been signals from him in recent years that he would love to get back there at some point. Adding his playmaking and scoring, plus the elite defense down low of Allen would more than make up for the loss of Durant for Houston.
For the Pistons' part in this, they'd be reuniting with Schroder, who had a nice 28-game run with them two seasons ago. He'd provide some needed playmaking depth in the backcourt behind Cade Cunningham. Cleveland is looking to move on from Schroder and the two years left on his deal.
