Remain calm. nothing big (we think)
Fred Katz of The Athletic and New York Times broke some big news late Wednesday night with a report that an historic deal is likely to go down soon: the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns plan on expanding their trade around Kevin Durant to include a total of seven teams including the Brooklyn Nets. However, remain calm. By all accounts, the deal is more a consolidation of a number of previously reported deals than anything new.
League sources tell The Athletic that the Rockets and Suns are working on expanding the Kevin Durant trade into a deal that would involve a league-record seven teams. Other teams involved in negotiations at the moment include the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, league sources say.
No trade is imminent, and details are being ironed out as of Wednesday night.
According to Katz, the planned deal is a massive housekeeping maneuver to satisfy a number of the teams cap needs, mostly consolidating some moves already agreed to during free agency but which can’t be completed till Saturday, the official end of the league moratorium on signings and trades.
For the Nets, there was speculation that could mean the inclusion of last Tuesday’s three-team deal centered on the Hawks acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis? In that trade, Brooklyn acquired the No. 22 pick in the 2025 which became Drake Powell and Terance Mann. the 6’6” wing, from Atlanta, essentially for nothing more than the use of $17 million in cap space.
As Brian Lewis speculated after midnight….
One would presume the Terance Mann deal with the #Hawks could be part of this. Brooklyn may be rerouting or possibly even absorbing a small contract or two. The #Nets would be a conduit for players/trade exceptions, picking off assets around the margins. https://t.co/Rz6Pw9NMGk
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) July 3, 2025
The deal as reported could not have been a complete rendering of the final deal. League rules would require the Nets to include something of value in the trade, perhaps a draft stash of which Brooklyn has four, or cash considerations.
However, the Celtics aren’t among the teams mentioned by Katz so that would seem to eliminate the Mann deal as a possibility. Another possibility more likely is the inclusion of Thursday’s trade of their 36th pick in the 2025 Draft to the Suns for two future seconds.
So far in free agency, Brooklyn has used $35 million in cap space to acquire two first round picks, the No. 22 pick in the 2025 Draft and a future unprotected Nuggets first in 2032. They also added Mann and Michael Porter Jr. in exchange for Cam Johnson. According to Bobby Marks and Yossi Gozlan of Capsheets.org, the team retains at least another $17 million in cap space.