The latest Kevin Durant saga came to an end (for now) on Sunday, with the 11-time All-NBA forward being traded from the Suns to the Rockets. Houston was one of the frontrunners for KD all along, but ESPN reported that the Nuggets emerged as a wild-card team in trade talks.
We don't know exactly what was offered, where the negotiations broke down, or if things got that far, but given the team's roster situation, trading for Durant never made sense, and the Nuggets have nobody to blame but themselves. They're still paying for past roster-building sins, and this KD situation is just the latest example.
Given the actual trade return for Durant was just Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the #10 pick on Wednesday, and 5 second-round picks, the cost to acquire was not that prohibitive. The Rockets were able to keep almost all of their core players, depth, and valuable future picks, but that simply wouldn't have been possible for the Nuggets.
Nuggets have pathetic trade assets
While everyone is praising the Rockets for getting Durant and giving up very little, the sad fact of the matter is the Nuggets don't even have the ammo to match their lowball offer. The team can't even trade a single draft pick that will be made in this decade.
Beyond having arguably the worst draft capital in the league, the Nuggets' potential matching salary is almost all negatively valued. Assuming the team would want to keep Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon, they would have had to deal Michael Porter Jr., Zeke Nnaji, and Dario Saric just to match Durant's $54.7 million salary.
One could argue that MPJ is more of a neutral value, despite being overpaid, but Nnaji and Saric are virtually sunk costs. Most teams around the league would see a package of those three players as more of a salary dump than anything, meaning the Nuggets would need to sweeten the deal with assets...that are virtually nonexistent.
The draft picks wouldn't get it done, and the crop of young players may not either. Ultimately, the Suns would certainly have wanted some combination of Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, and DaRon Holmes, along with the players to make the money work.
That's creating a situation where the Nuggets would basically be gutting their already-weak depth, losing any future flexibility, and destroying any possible margin for error.
Nuggets wasted assets for years
Given all of this, it makes sense that the Nuggets didn't get into more serious talks for Durant. Giving up half the team and every remaining picks and/or young player for a highly-paid 36-year-old on an expiring contract would have been crazy.
But it's only crazy because of the Nuggets' tumultuos situation. If they hadn't traded away picks wastefully and handed out questionable contracts, perhaps they could have been more than a "wild-card".
A core led by Jokic, Durant, and Murray would have been incredible, and it wouldn't have even been that expensive. But sadly, we will never get to see it because the Nuggets have spent years wasting assets instead of stockpiling them.