LAS VEGAS — The Nets have told Cam Thomas to level up his passing.

He responded with his best assist game since high school — at least — with seven assists to lead the Nets to a 91-84 summer league victory over Philadelphia on Sunday.

“Yeah, I just want to come on here and show that [I] could do it,” Thomas said. “It’s what they see, and whatever they see how good I am at it. I think I’m really good at it. But there’s always something.”

Thomas’ career-high in the NBA is four assists, as was his best at LSU. When asked afterward if it was his all-time best, he shrugged, “I do n’t know. I don’t keep track of that.”

All-time best or no, it was auspicious. Thomas has shown he can score, leading the summer league in scoring last year to earn co-MVP honors. And on Sunday against Philadelphia, he had 26 points, three rebounds and two steals.

“With him as great of a scorer as he is, he’s using that as his go-to — using his aggression to create the plays for him,” David Duke Jr. said. “He has great instincts. Being a good scorer just makes it that much easier to be a passer, because everyone’s going to load up on you. He understands that for sure, you can see it game by game.”

The passing was the most auspicious sign. Nets head coach Steve Nash had told NBATV he was looking to see Thomas improve his playmaking, and if it was n’t quite an organizational mandate, it was taken to heart.

“Not a mandate: Just part of every young player’s growth. Cam is an elite scorer. He’s really bought into his growth as a decision-maker, and he showed that,” Nets summer league coach Adam Caporn said. “He Showed it last game, too, but he reflected in the game and he’s getting better every game.

“And did what he does in terms of leading us in the fourth quarter and in stretches, still scoring. I see him being an elite pick-and-roll player as time goes on. He can find the roll, throw lob passes, see the floor and is so strong holding on the ball and in the key lane in tight spaces. That’s a good recipe.”

And even though Thomas’ jumper wasn’t falling — going just 5-for-17 from the floor — he played aggressively, getting into the lane to either earn trips to the foul line or create for others. The second-year guard went a perfect 15-for-15 from the free-throw line, and took over late when the Nets needed it.

Thomas had an encouraging sequence when he scored a three-point play, then drove and found Kessler Edwards for a 3-pointer, and ended it by hitting a midrange jumper.

“Just improving on what I can, really just improve on what they want to work on in the offseason,” Thomas said. “I got MVP last year so that’s not a goal or anything. If I happen to get it this year, it’d be a blessing. But I’m not really worried about the scoring, stats, MVP. I’m just worried about working on what they want me to work on so I get on the floor more in the regular season.”

That includes his playmaking, spot-up shooting, defense and even leadership. The irony is Thomas — just 20 — has 23-year-old rookies like Alondes Williams looking to him for advice.

“It’s crazy when you look at it. A few weeks ago, I thought about that because Day’Ron [Sharpe] was like, ‘We’re still the youngest on the team’ and I was like, ‘Man, you are right. We are still the youngest on the team, even though we’ve got more NBA experience.’ So just for them to look at me like that, I don’t take that for granted, because they don’t have to listen to me. I’m younger.

“I do [have] more NBA experience, so they should listen and I’ll help any way I can. So I’m happy to help.”

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LAS VEGAS — As new reports the Warriors are interested in trading for Kevin Durant pick up, so will speculation about Ben Simmons’ place on the Nets.

A Warriors package posited by ESPN included not just Jonathan Kuminga, Jordan Poole, James Wiseman and a trove of first-round draft picks, but also Andrew Wiggins. And that’s where it gets problematic.

The Nets have made it known around league circles that they want not only a host of picks (the Jazz essentially getting five first-rounders for Rudy Gobert has reset the market and devalued that draft capital), but also young players and an All-Star .

So far, they haven’t been offered a package to their liking. And after reportedly asking the Timberwolves for both Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, according to Yahoo Sports, it’s easy to see why.

But with Durant eyeing Miami and Phoenix, and the cleanest packages offered potentially by Toronto or New Orleans, the Warriors could offer everything the Nets want — with Wiggins and Simmons being the only rub.

The Nets obviously traded James Harden for Simmons, who’d inked a designated rookie max extension with the 76ers. Wiggins is on a similar deal, and while teams are permitted to have two such players on their roster, only one may be acquired via trade.

That means the Nets either would have to loop a third team into the deal, and ship Wiggins there for some sort of return, or they would have to move off Simmons.

Privately, Nets sources have intimated the latter option is unlikely. And when asked if Simmons had gotten assurances he was in the Nets’ long-term plans and would not be traded, a source close to the young All-Star told The Post simply that “Ben is good.”

Of course, the Nets might not have much choice in the matter. Simmons didn’t play at all last season, citing first mental health and then back issues. While he did have surgery and is on schedule to be ready for training camp, according to a source, one league source said there was no chatter about the Nets actively shopping Simmons, while two said there was little market for him.

But while Durant has reportedly gone dark and not talked to other NBA stars, he’s believed to have spoken to the Golden State standouts. If Brooklyn wanted to reunite him with his former Warriors teammates, rerouting Wiggins for a hefty return would make sense.

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Kevin Durant’s recent trade request sent shockwaves around the NBA, but not everyone is buying its veracity.

ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins, for one, believes that Durant’s demand is merely a ploy.

“I’m looking at it and I’m saying, ‘Why would KD want out?’” Perkins said on “NBA Today” on Tuesday. “… And then all of a sudden, once Kyrie Irving opts into his contract, Kevin Durant comes out and says, ‘I want to be traded.’

“I came up with the conclusion that I don’t believe Kevin Durant. I don’t believe him at all. As a matter of fact, it makes zero sense to me that he wants to be traded at this point. I don’t believe he believes it. I think Kevin Durant is doing this as a scare tactic in order to help Kyrie Irving have leverage to get him signed long-term with the Brooklyn Nets.”

Perkins’ theory comes in the wake of reports that the Nets are “putting out the vibe” that they could keep Durant around until fall camp, holding out to see if the disgruntled parties can resolve their differences. Durant, after all, has four years left on his contract; there’s little incentive for Brooklyn to hasten a incentive deal unless its asking price is met.

But the flurry of activity elsewhere in the NBA landscape — highlighted by Minnesota’s blockbuster acquisition of Rudy Gobert — is fueling Perkins’ Durant-related suspicions.

“We’re talking about KD, a top-five player, arguably the best player in the NBA, and he hasn’t been moved yet?” Perkins said. “You’re sitting up here telling me right now that Kevin Durant is still on the market? … If you’re any other team around the NBA and Kevin Durant is on the market and you mean to tell me that no traction has picked up over the weekend? I don’t believe it.”

On Sunday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the market for Durant is “still taking shape.”

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The best of the best in the Eastern Conference was decided by one shot.

If Jimmy Butler had held the ball two centimeters back in his right hand for just a little more elevation, if he’d taken just a little more time to gather himself, if the slightest breeze hadn’t blown through the lower bowl of Miami’s arena at that particular moment, maybe Butler’s 3 at the end of Game 7 goes in and it’d be the Heat, instead of the Boston Celtics, moving onto the NBA Finals.

The Celtics, it should be said, went on to take a 2-1 lead in the finals over the Golden State Warriors before things fell apart. The point is, Boston’s team was pretty darned close to winning a championship. Therefore, it can be said the Heat weren’t so far away, either.

Should either of the top two teams in the East, then, be thinking of dramatically changing what they have built to acquire Kevin Durant?

Since news broke of Durant’s request that the Brooklyn Nets trade him, the sentiment in stories from around the NBA, like this one, is that there are essentially 29 teams interested. “It’s freaking Kevin Durant,” one Warriors source told The Athletic‘s Marcus Thompson, in discussing why Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green would not be opposed to a reunion with their enigmatic former co-star. The same report said Warriors decision-makers probably won’t trade for Durant, even though they could do it without tearing apart their core of future Hall of Famers.

The same cannot be said about the Celtics and Heat.

Boston has already improved since the finals without parting with a single player who made much of an impact in the last two playoff rounds. Crushed by the dual combination of poor bench play and the absence of a ballhandler who could dribble into the lane without turning the ball over in the finals, the Celtics acquired Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Daniel Theis, Aaron Nesmith, Nik Stauskas , two other players and a first-round pick. Then, Boston agreed to a free-agent contract with Danilo Gallinari, giving the franchise two legitimate scoring options off the bench after it reached Game 6 of the finals with just Derrick White filling that role consistently.

To get Durant from the Nets, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens would probably have to include Jaylen Brown as a centerpiece. Brown will turn 26 at the start of next season, was an All-Star two seasons ago and may have been one last season if not for an early-season injury. The Celtics drafted him third in 2016 and reached the Eastern Conference finals in his first two seasons, both with Stevens as the head coach. Brown has blossomed into a two-way force who averages north of 20 points and is one of the key components of the ferocious, switching defense the Celtics used to bludgeon their way up the standings last winter. He’s gone to four conference finals and now has a taste of the finals.

When healthy, Durant is widely considered to be one of the best – maybe the best – player in the entire league. Which, with all due respect to Brown, means Durant is the better player. As recently as last summer, he put Team USA on his back and carried it to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. (Celtics star Jayson Tatum, it should be noted, was on that team). But Durant is nearing his 34th birthday, has played in just 90 of 226 games over the last three seasons, and the Celtics are not on his list of preferred destinations – or, at minimum, behind the leaders. Durant has also shown he likes to move around.

Acquiring Durant comes with some risk, but also, it demands Stevens part with a player in Brown who he helped raise in the NBA, one who helped the Celtics get this far already, and one who is All-Star caliber while just entering his prime .

The Heat are in a different place, and not just because they are reportedly one of Durant’s preferred destinations.

The lore of “Heat culture” has endured under president Pat Riley. If anything, it’s grown since Miami’s big three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh broke up in 2014. The Heat remained competitive and never went into tank mode, while players spent hours a day at practice while being required to buy into a defense -first, toughness-matters philosophy. When Miami finally acquired its first in-his-prime star since LeBron in Butler, the story of Heat culture held because Butler is kind of a hard-ass. He’ll fight at practice if he must, and he loves to defend.

“We’re not for everyone,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has said over and over, to the point where he is sick of saying it.

What gets glossed over by that mantra is the franchise’s insatiable desire for stars. The idea of ​​Durant, or even Kyrie Irving, joining the Heat no doubt interests Miami’s brain trust. Get them to South Beach and figure out the rest later.

Take PJ Tucker, who is not a star, but is a versatile, tough, defense-first bulldog whom the Heat fell in love with during his one season there. Spoelstra raved about him as the playoffs progressed, marveling at Tucker’s kneeness to not even allow his coach to talk to team trainers about Tucker’s health (he had an ailing). Tucker, Spoelstra said, was the epitome of what the entire franchise had stood for, for decades.

“He is a Miami Heat guy,” Spoelstra said the night the Celtics eliminated Miami from the playoffs.

When it came time to keep Tucker this summer, though, the Heat didn’t go the extra mile. They reportedly offered him a free-agent contract worth more than $8 million per year, over three seasons but would not go up to the 76ers’ three-year, $33 million figure. Doing so would have triggered the hard cap, which would have limited the Heat’s ability to conduct a big trade now or at the February deadline. Culture at that cost wasn’t worth it.

Because of a separate league rule, the Heat cannot trade Bam Adebayo for Durant as long as Ben Simmons is on Brooklyn’s roster. Both players are being paid on a “Designated Rookie Max” extension, and you can’t have more than one on the team.

So unless the Nets trade Simmons, the Heat’s path to getting Durant may mean a trade package with Butler at its center. Relations between the franchise and Butler improved dramatically from March, when an ugly blow-up on the bench between Butler and Spoelstra included challenges issued for fights and Spoelstra slamming his clipboard as Butler walked back onto the court. Those relations improved because Butler carried Miami to the brink of the finals. He scored 47 points in Game 6 in Boston and was brilliant again in Game 7, coming so close to winning that game on his last shot.

The Heat have treated their stars well over the years, from Wade and Shaquille O’Neal, to Alonzo Mourning, to LeBron, to Bosh. They will reward you for loyalty. They also showed this season they would loosen some of the rules of “Heat culture” to accommodate players like Butler, or Kyle Lowry, or even Tucker, as I documented while covering them on their playoff run.

If getting Durant means moving Butler, a star for a star, will the Heat be willing to make that move, to say nothing of the ancillary pieces Miami would have to include?

This is also the tricky part of NBA player empowerment. Durant is forcing his way out of Brooklyn with a whopping four years and $198 million left on his contract, and he has preferred options for his next destination. Miami is one, and so is Phoenix. But with such a massive contract, and NBA rules for trading such contracts being what they are, most potential suitors would have to give up so much to acquire him. It leaves one to wonder how attractive these teams will be for Durant without some of the players that made those teams good to begin with?

Should they trade him, the Nets will be the worst team Durant has ever left. When he departed from Oklahoma City as a free agent, the Thunder had just blown a 3-1 lead to the Warriors in the Western Conference finals. When he moved on from Golden State to Brooklyn, he’d won two out of three finals with the Warriors, and it might have been three-for-three had he not torn his Achilles in Game 5 in 2019. The Nets barely made the playoffs this year and were swept out of the first round.

The two best teams in the East last season have the assets to make a run at Durant. What both teams would look like after such a trade, and how much closer they would be to winning a finals, is the discussion they’re having behind closed doors about “freaking Kevin Durant.”

(Top photo of Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant: Paul Rutherford / USA Today)

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It was on July 4, 2016 that Kevin Durant upended the NBA and nearly broke the internet by announcing he was leaving Oklahoma City for Golden State.

Six years later, Independence Day came and went on Monday with Durant — this time with a demand to be traded from the Nets — again holding the league hostage. And this is a drama that could play out for a while — for weeks, months or even into the season.

This time, unlike the Thunder situation, the Nets hold most, if not all, the cards. With four years left on his contract, and Kyrie Irving having opted in to the last year of his deal, the Nets have leverage and every intention of using it. And league personnel say the Nets have implied if they don’t get what they want, this could well drag on into training camp.

That might be less than ideal. It might also well be posturing because if the Nets can’t get their new Big 3 to actually buy in, it behooves them for teams to believe in their resolve. And nobody can really picture the basketball-obsessed Durant holding out or refusing to play like Ben Simmons did in Philadelphia.

It’s unclear exactly what conversations the Nets have had with Durant and Irving on the topic in recent days. Brooklyn has fielded a host of calls in regard to Durant, but just tepid interest in Irving with the Lakers seemingly the only viable suitor.

Nets general manager Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai had agreed to work with Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman to try to trade him to one of his preferred landing spots. But in the end, Durant and Irving are expected to be moved where and when it works best for Nets management.

Miami and Phoenix are Durant’s preferred destinations. But the Heat don’t have a ton of tradeable assets, the Suns’ package is unappealing without a three- or four-team deal and Toronto — which most people around the league say has the best package to offer — is reportedly balking at including Scotty Barnes.

Golden State is interested in bringing back Durant, and the stars have talked to their former teammate and would be on board with a reunion. But The Athletic reported the Warriors sacrificing enough pieces to tempt Marks is unlikely.

With tons of offers for Durant, but none they couldn’t refuse and no rush to move him, the Nets are putting out the vibe that they could bring the forward (and maybe even Irving) into camp and see if all parties can make this work. Or if not, all play nice until a world-beating trade proposal is made.

The Lakers are desperate to move Russell Westbrook and his gargantuan $47 million contract for Irving, but are hesitating to include the multiple draft picks the Nets would want for taking on all that money.

Yahoo Sports and The Athletic reported in the past week that the Nets could solve the problem by including Joe Harris in any Irving-Westbrook swap.

How the Nets deal with Harris may be the best indicator of how they plan to proceed. He’s the longest-tenured Net, often consulted by Marks on major decisions.

“I know the Nets absolutely do not want to trade Joe under any scenario,” a league source familiar with Brooklyn’s thinking told The Post. “But there are just thousands of different ways this can play out.”

One is trying to drum up interest in Irving from the likes of Philadelphia or Dallas. Another is including Irving in a multi-team deal. Another is replacing him with Seth Curry in any Irving-Westbrook swap.

But after the Nets re-signed Patty Mills for two years, $14.2 million, and used not only a first-round pick but also a trade exception to bring in 3-and-D type Royce O’Neale, it bears watching what they do with Harris. Keeping him could indicate a retooling on the fly to try to stay competitive. Dumping him signals a tear-it-down-to-the-studs rebuild.

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First, Kevin Durant’s trade demand turned the entire NBA world upside down. Now, it has put the league on hold.

With more than half of NBA teams contacting the Nets with trade packages, the normal free-agency frenzy has been slowed to a crawl. As Nets general manager Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai sift through all those offers for the foundation of their upcoming rebuilding process — and fans have started to eye names such as Donovan Mitchell — the league is essentially in a holding pattern.

After three years of acquiescence to the wishes of Durant, and even more so of Kyrie Irving, the Nets finally held firm. They did not give Irving a full max extension, and Durant was reportedly not pleased when director of player development Adam Harrington — with whom Durant has been tight since their days together in Oklahoma City — was let go.

Still, Durant was adamant he was committed to the Nets, right up until the end.

“The ones who were locked in that gym with me know what it is, they know what I’m about,” Durant tweeted Saturday. “If u haven’t been in there with me, ask around”

Sports Illustrated’s Robin Lundberg, in a reply on Twitter to Durant, who had maintained silence since Thursday, when his trade demand rocked the franchise, wrote: “This is vague and doesn’t address anything directly. We all know you are an awesome basketball player.”

Durant, who has never seen a Twitter beef he could resist, replied, “What u want addressed?”

Lundberg rattled off a number of queries: “Do you really want a trade from the Nets? If so, why? Was Kyrie a deal breaker for you? If you do want a trade, do you expect to pick your destination? Thanks!”

Durant simply answered, “Keep dreaming robin lmao” with no further explanation.

But the fact is, Durant’s trade demand is no laughing matter for the Nets. While the four years left on his deal ensures the Nets will get a hefty return, the team’s era as a title contender is over with Durant’s departure.

While Durant has reportedly stated a preference to be traded to Miami or Phoenix, it’s difficult to picture the Heat putting together the best offer by themselves without the ability or inclination to include Bam Adebayo. Marks is expected to pick the package that’s best for the Nets, not the locale that’s best for Durant.

The Nets will work with Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman more than with Irving, but they seem disinclined to be held hostage by them.

While the Suns and 76ers are believed to have made solid offers, the Raptors and Pelicans might be able to put together the cleanest packages without the need of a third or fourth team in the deal.

Both teams control their first-round draft picks seven years out. The Raptors could be able to build an trade around Scottie Barnes, while the Pelicans could offer Brandon Ingram. They also have Zion Williamson, but once he inks the designated rookie extension that he agreed to on Saturday (per ESPN), he can’t be traded to the Nets as long as Ben Simmons is on the roster.

Among the other stars that fit that category are Mitchell, Adebayo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Michael Porter Jr., Jayson Tatum and Darius Garland (presuming he signs his agreement).

The Athletic reported the Nets responded to interest from the Timberwolves by asking for Towns or Anthony Edwards, which implies they might be open to the idea of ​​moving Simmons. If that’s the case, it would open the door for the Jazz’s Mitchell as well.

Mitchell is a 25-year-old New Yorker long coveted by the Knicks. He played his AAU ball for both The City and Riverside Hawks, and grew up around the Mets ‘clubhouse because his namesake father was the team’s longtime director of player relations. Mitchell has been ubiquitous at Citi Field in recent weeks, including Saturday.

Marks and Tsai won’t rush the process. The Durant trade is their only shot to turbocharge the arduous rebuilding ahead. But with all the league GMs set to descend on Las Vegas for summer league after the July 4 weekend (Durant announced his move from the Thunder to the Warriors on July 4, 2016), the market could get unfrozen soon.

The Nets rescended the qualifying offer on Kessler Edwards, according to Hoopshype. Edwards becomes a restricted free agent, but the Nets have his non-Bird rights are still talking to the 21-year-old forward.

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Kevin Durant has spoken for the first time since requesting a trade from the Nets. What he was trying to say, though, only raises more questions.

“The ones who were locked in that gym with me know what it is, they know what I’m about,” Durant tweeted on Saturday morning. “If u haven’t been in there with me, ask around.”

The 33-year-old superstar seems to be hitting back at the widespread criticism he has faced since calling Brooklyn ownership and telling them he wants out. That bombshell came as NBA free agency was about to open on Thursday and three years to the day after the former MVP and two-time NBA champion joined Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan on the Nets. But the Super Team never was, with Durant and Irving playing just 44 regular-season games together and accounting for one playoff series victory.

What Durant meant by his tweet, though, is perplexing.

Few have questioned the 12-time All-Star’s efforts or work ethics during his short time in Brooklyn. He played hard, delivered and showed up to work, which was more than could be said at times for Irving, whose refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine left him watching from the sidelines until New York City’s mandate was eventually dropped.

As The Post’s Ian O’Connor noted, Durant’s fadeaway jumper with one second left in Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference finals against the Bucks was one of the most clutch shots in New York basketball history.

If anything, it is his decision making that has come under fire, first for bolting from the Warriors and Steph Curry, who just won his fourth NBA title in six years, and then in his joining Irving. And now Durant, who won a pair of championships with the Warriors before coming to Brooklyn, has changed course again.

Where he’ll land remains to be seen, though the Nets will rake in a huge haul in return for arguably the game’s best player.

For now, Durant is making it clear what he’s all about it, which appears to be his basketball ethos. But that was never in question.

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The Spurs received three first-round picks for Dejounte Murray and the Jazz topped that by essentially bringing back five for Rudy Gobert — setting the bar for Kevin Durant. The Nets are holding out for an Elon Musk-level fortune in return for their star, who has demanded a trade, and they could get it.

No, make that they must get it. A king’s ransom return for Durant is going to be general manager Sean Marks’ one and only chance to salvage what is a disastrous situation, to make this an on-the-fly retooling rather than a long, arduous rebuilding.

This situation has essentially frozen much of the league, including the Nets, as far as deciding what they will do with Kyrie Irving. It remains to be seen where the Nets will send Durant and how much they’ll get for him. The Jazz bear watching for the answer, both as a template for the picks the Nets may get and as a potential three-way trade partner.

The Nets are believed to be looking for a young All-Star as a centerpiece for the deal, as well as a host of picks. ESPN reported that not only have more than half the teams in the league called Marks with proposals, but also some have even circled back to increase their offers before even getting a counteroffer. That’s an unusual circumstance, but the whole situation is an unusual circumstance.

Players of Durant’s first don’t typically become available. Durant has asked out of Brooklyn not only because of the melodrama with Irving, but also reportedly because he didn’t see enough infrastructure and leadership in the franchise, Yahoo’s Chris Haynes reported on NBATV. But wanting out and getting to go where he wants are two different things.

Durant has four years left on his contract, and shockingly doesn’t have a player option or a no-trade clause. That already has cut into his leverage over picking a landing spot, and the volume of offers the Nets are getting will cut into it even more. They will likely decide on one of those offers before deciding where to trade Irving and his expiring contract.

While the Nets will clearly work with Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman in finding a suitable destination, Marks has proven to be unsentimental and will ultimately take the offer that works the best for the organization.

The simplest and cleanest moves could be to New Orleans (around Brandon Ingram and picks) or Toronto (based around Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes and picks). Raptors boss Masai Ujiri traded for Kawhi Leonard in 2018 and won a title the next season. What would he give for four years of Durant?

There are glaring issues with Durant’s preferred teams, the Suns and Heat, which could force expanding the trade to involve one or two other teams. That’s not foreign to Marks, who pulled off an NBA-record five-team megadeal.

The Nets can’t take back the Heat’s best piece, center Bam Adebayo. The collective bargaining agreement won’t allow them to trade for a player on a designated rookie extension, such as Adebayo, because they already have Ben Simmons on such a deal. (Remember that quirk in the CBA. It’ll come up again. And again.)

And Durant reportedly only wants to play for Miami if it’s alongside Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, according to The Athletic.

The Nets can’t take back the Suns’ Devin Booker and aren’t believed to be enamored with taking Phoenix’s restricted free agent center, Deandre Ayton, in a sign-and-trade. But Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported Utah is exploring a trade for Ayton to replace Gobert. Phoenix could then reroute the incoming picks, along with their own and forwards Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson.

But the Jazz could be relevant in another way, because of superstar guard Donovan Mitchell.

After Utah let go Mitchell’s lifelong pal Eric Paschall, the Nets traded for his friend Royce O’Neale and the Jazz traded away Gobert, signaling they are rebuilding. That could propt Mitchell to ask for a trade. If that happens, it could tempt the Nets into moving off Simmons to make any three-way deal for Mitchell possible.

There is a tepid market, at best, for Irving. And because any deal for Durant will likely be more complex and will certainly be more important, the Nets are intent on sorting that out first before sending Irving to the Lakers or anywhere else.

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Kyrie Irving’s decision this week to opt into the final year of his deal in Brooklyn did not soothe Kevin Durant’s wandering mind.

Durant asked to be traded on the opening day of NBA free agency, even though Irving took the $37 million sitting in front of him without any trade stipulations attached. The Nets are under no obligation to trade Durant — he has four years and $198 million left on his contract. But it would be no surprise now to see him and Irving both traded before the start of training camp.

Nets owner Joseph Tsai had already reached his limit, multiple sources told The Athleticafter years of injuries, off-court embarrassments and playoff failures were followed by threats leaked by Irving and Durant during Brooklyn’s contract negotiations with Irving.

Tsai, 58, co-founder of Alibaba Group, China’s largest commerce retailer, was born in Taiwan, went to high school in New Jersey, has two degrees and four varsity letters (lacrosse) from Yale and is worth $9 billion, according to Forbes .

As an owner, he stays out of his basketball operations staff’s way, for the most part, giving his blessing on the most important decisions, and would otherwise understand/support/not be averse to the general trend of player empowerment in the modern NBA.

Tsai would understand that, under normal circumstances, stars at the level of Durant and Irving can force trades one year after signing max extensions (Durant) or try to negotiate another max contract (Irving) publicly if that’s what it comes to. Tsai has sat at a bargaining table or two in his career.

In this particular set of circumstances surrounding Durant, Irving and the Nets, things got more complicated than planned. Brooklyn spent three full seasons paying the luxury tax, failed to get out of the second round of the playoffs, fired a popular coach, traded away a lot of assets to bring in another star in James Harden and then was forced to trade him because he had lost all faith in Irving’s commitment to winning. That led to acquiring a player on a max contract who was physically and mentally unable to play at all last season (Ben Simmons), all while neither Irving nor Durant came close to playing in half of the Nets’ games. Add in Irving’s refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine and the team cohesiveness that affected last season, and it’s no wonder Tsai has reached his limit.

Here’s a look at how Tsai came to the point where both could be traded.

In the summer of 2019, the Nets pulled a major coup by attracting both star free agents. It was a package deal. Irving signed a four-year, $137 million contract, ending his two tumultuous seasons in Boston. Durant came aboard via a sign-and-trade for four years and $165 million, even though he’d torn his Achilles the previous NBA Finals with the Warriors and would miss the entire 2019-20 season. It was a risk any team would take on two championship-winning, gold-medal-winning players who are as gifted as just about anyone else in the NBA at their respective positions.

In Year 1, with Durant out, Irving started strong but suffered a shoulder injury. ace The Athletic detailed in a previous story about Irving, he sought so many opinions on his shoulder, outside of Nets doctors, that it delayed either his return, or surgery, or both for weeks. It was a frustrating time for the franchise, but Irving is by no means the only injured star to take the care of his body into his own hands. It’s the cost of doing business.

The Nets were headed for the playoffs in a pandemic-shortened season, and Irving was out for the remainder of the year because of shoulder surgery, when Brooklyn fired coach Kenny Atkinson.

The following offseason, with Irving and Durant healthy and preparing to play, the duo jumped on KD’s podcast and belittled the role new coach Steve Nash would play in directing the team. Irving went AWOL for about a week from the team early in the 2020-21 campaign, willingly violating COVID-19 protocols to attend a family birthday party. While he was out, he was spotted on a Zoom call for a local politician minutes before the Nets were to play a game.

Right around that time, Brooklyn traded promising center Jarrett Allen, talented guard Caris LeVert, two other players and their first-round draft picks through 2027 for Harden. Tsai and GM Sean Marks mortgaged the team’s whole future to win now, adding Harden to the All-Star tandem already under contract.

Durant was hurt for most of that season. He played in 35 of a possible 72 games. And when the playoffs arrived, Harden, and then Irving, were both injured. The Nets still almost beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, coming within Durant’s big toe of moving on to the conference finals.

Then there was the last season. You remember the highlights and the lowlights. A few things to keep in mind, though, in trying to understand how Tsai might be looking at his big picture with the Nets right now:

• Tsai is a huge proponent of the COVID-19 vaccine. He’s received at least four doses of it.

• Durant urged the organization to go back on its original stance and allow Irving to play and practice where eligible on the road, according to sources. Brooklyn was in second in the East on the day of Irving’s first game.

• Not only did the Nets get worse with Irving back on the team (falling all the way to the Play-In Tournament), but it was with Irving in the fold that Harden decided he would not re-sign in Brooklyn and wanted to be traded to the 76ers. Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond came over from Philadelphia, but Simmons never suited up — in a disappointment to the entire franchise.

• Almost as an aside, Harden declined the $47 million player option on his contract this week, with a pledge to the Sixers to sign a long-term, team-friendly deal so they can add more pieces. That literally almost never happens in the NBA. Meanwhile, Brooklyn owes Simmons more than $100 million over the next three seasons. He hasn’t played a single minute since June 2021 and is coming off back surgery.

Most of this ties directly back to Irving and to Durant. Irving has played in 103 of a possible 226 regular-season games for Brooklyn; Durant, with that missed 2019-20 campaign, can count just 90 games.

If both have played their last game with Brooklyn, it’s a safe bet the Nets are heavily involved in trades that suit all parties, if only because doing so will probably produce the largest returns.

What Tsai will not do is demand Durant to honor his contract in Brooklyn.

Because he’s had enough.

Related reading

Aldridge & Thompson: Kevin Durant wants to be on the move … again
What’s next: Potential destinations for Kevin Durant

Related listening

(Photo of Joseph Tsai: Brad Penner / USA Today)

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<p>The post Before Kevin Durant trade request, Nets owner Joseph Tsai already had reason to be furious first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Franchise star Kevin Durant has requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Durant made the trade request directly to Nets owner Joe Tsai on Thursday, sources told ESPN.

Nets general manager Sean Marks is working with Durant and his business manager Rich Kleiman on finding a trade, Kleiman told ESPN.

As the Nets prepare to move one of the most valuable trade assets ever on the market, the entire roster will be available to discuss in deals, sources told ESPN. Teams have been calling on Durant, and the Nets will certainly look for a historic return on players and draft picks.

The Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat are among two of the teams that Kevin Durant has on his wish list, sources told ESPN, but the Nets plan to move Durant where they can get the best possible deal. As Durant has four years on his contract, there’s no shortage of teams willing to unload assets for him.

Durant and Kyrie Irving had no contact with the Nets after Irving opted into his deal on Monday, and a sense of inevitability existed that Durant would eventually ask for a trade, sources told ESPN.

The Nets, picked by many before the season to win the NBA championship, finished with a 44-38 record, good for seventh place in the Eastern Conference — and a playoff berth solidified by a play-in game win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 12.

They were swept by the Celtics in the first round.

Durant averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists this season, but he saw action in just 55 games during the regular season as he recovered from an MCL injury.

In other news, the Nets have acquiring Royce O’Neale from the Utah Jazz in exchanged for a 2023 first-round pick, sources told ESPN. The pick going to Utah will be the lesser of their own, Houston’s or Philadelphia’s, sources told ESPN.

O’Neale 29, averaged 7.4 points and 4.8 rebounds in his fifth season with the Jazz.

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<p>The post Kevin Durant requests trade from Brookyn Nets, sources say first appeared on harchi90.</p>