Kevin Durant still has eyes for the New York Knicks, but he can only suit up in orange and blue if they're willing to give up Karl-Anthony Towns, and reorient the center rotation.
Indeed, New York was left off KD's latest list of preferred destinations, which included the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, and San Antonio Spurs. But the Knicks' exclusion was reportedly by choice.
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, they actually "would have featured on that list but were ultimately omitted when New York made it clear that it has decided against pursuing a trade for the NBA's No. 8 all-time leading scorer." No further information is provided beyond that, but we can read the tea leaves.
Acquiring Durant requires the Knicks to travel down one of two paths. Either they trade at least two of OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and Mitchell Robinson, or they opt to part with Towns and a smaller salary.
Trading two (or more) of their top-six players is a non-starter. Depth was among the Knicks’ biggest issues last season. Shortening the rotation even further would be malpractice.
Some will believe that surrendering Towns falls under the same bucket. He is more than seven years younger than Durant, who turns 37 this September. But moving Towns is far from unforgivable under the right circumstances.
Kevin Durant is an upgrade from Karl-Anthony Towns, but...
Make no bones about it, in a potential KD-for-KAT swap, the Knicks are getting the better player. Durant’s timeline is more urgent (read: shorter), but he’s a more dependable second option on offense, and he’s a defensive upgrade over Towns, particularly when it comes to rim protection.
Still, you can easily make the case that KAT is more valuable to New York, because of his age, and because they don’t have another big man who can soak up 30-plus minutes per game at both the power forward and center slots.
Sure, a frontcourt of Durant and Mitchell Robinson is a potential world-beater. But KD has averaged almost 37 minutes per game over the past four seasons. The Knicks cannot expect him to shoulder the same type of workload as he continues to age. It would be akin to playing with fire.
For all the value he brought to New York’s Eastern Conference Finals push, Robinson also isn’t someone who can be counted on for heavy minutes. Not only did he sit out most of the 2024-25 campaign after offseason ankle surgery, but he’s averaged nearly 40 missed games per year over the past half-decade. What’s more, he has never cleared 30 minutes per game for an entire season.
The Knicks are one big man away from a Kevin Durant trade making sense
This is where moving KAT for KD gets dicey. But that only remains true if the Knicks can’t add frontcourt reinforcements. That will admittedly be challenging. They will not have more than the mini mid-level exception of $5.7 million to offer free agents, and don’t have any tradeable first-round picks, aside from the 2026 Washington Wizards selection that is top-10 protected and pretty much guaranteed to turn into two seconds.
“Challenging” does not mean impossible. Perhaps the Knicks can sell Al Horford on the mini MLE with the Boston Celtics about to enter a gap year. Somebody like Clint Capela or Chris Boucher should be gettable at that price point. The same goes for Mo Wagner, who will likely have his team option declined by the Orlando Magic after he tore his left ACL this past December.
Potential trades remain on the table, too—particularly if New York is willing to move off Josh Hart’s salary. Maybe he can land you somebody such as Isaiah Stewart. The Dallas Mavericks could consider taking on Hart plus sweeteners for P.J. Washington, who’s entering the final year of his contract. Failing that, maybe Dallas would attach assets to Daniel Gafford in a Hart trade.
None of this necessarily means shipping out Towns for Durant is a decision beyond reproach. It’s not. But KD clearly has eyes for New York. If the Knicks can find ways to fill out the frontcourt rotation without KAT, they shouldn't remove themselves from the Durant sweepstakes just yet.