Kendrick Perkins came to play.
The former NBA big man put the take in ESPN First Take during Tuesday’s Nets postmortem. Perkins called for Kevin Durant to force his way out of Brooklyn and demand a trade to escape the Kyrie Irving-Ben Simmons-Steve Nash circus.
“Kevin Durant deserves better. If I’m Kevin Durant, I want to get away from this madness,” Perkins said. “I want to go somewhere where I know a guy is going to show up to work, my counterpart is going to be there 100% of the time. I don’t have to guess what he’s thinking, I don’t have to guess if he is actually fully committed.
“If I was Kevin Durant, I’m getting the hell out. … Wouldn’t you be mentally exhausted if you were Kevin Durant?”
Stephen A. Smith offered a valid counterpoint: “Why do that when it’s much easier to sit up there and say, ‘I want [Irving] out?’ That to me is easier than relocating.” But Perkins argued Durant went to the Nets because he wanted to play with Irving, not because he wanted to be in Brooklyn — so he is not necessarily fully committed to the franchise.
OK, so let’s say Durant does want out and does ask for a trade. Where should he go?
“I’d tell you what, I wouldn’t mind seeing him play alongside LeBron James,” Perkins said. “I wouldn’t mind him taking his talents to the Los Angeles Lakers.”
“That will never happen,” Smith shot back.
“I’m just telling you,” Perkins said. “I would never say never.”
Does Big Perk know something? He was Durant’s teammate in Oklahoma City, after all.
Look, it seems highly unlikely Durant will want a trade, or the Nets would actually trade him. He’s under contract for four more seasons. And thanks to this Nets season, the superteam era appears over. So how would the Nets even get enough of a return to justify trading Durant?
That all said … Durant to the Lakers is too perfect a take. Just exquisite. We need this to become a real thing.