Toronto Raptors made an offer for Kevin Durant

The Toronto Raptors-Kevin Durant rumblings have been hot and heavy. Though most of it conjecture. Until now.

On a recent episode of the Kevin O’Connor Show, Kevin O’Connor and Dan Titus discussed “sleeper teams” interested in acquiring Kevin Durant.

According to KOC, “the one team that keeps coming up, and has likely already made an offer, is the Toronto Raptors.”

KOC goes on to explain that “it does seem like the Raptors have already made a pursuit of Kevin Durant…they have a ton of salaries that they can put together…They have RJ Barrett…They have Immanuel Quickley. They got so many different configurations that you could put together…”

Sounds like somethings a’ brewin’.

The biggest question regarding Kevin Durant’s trade candidacy is the cost. He’s a 37-year-old, oft-injured, 7-footer on an expiring deal. Any team acquiring KD, will likely have to pay him similarly to the way Golden State paid Jimmy Butler after trading for him this past deadline.

KOC suggests a “very clean” package of Jakob Pöltl, Quickley, and a first-rounder, or two, to get the deal done. That would leave for a very forward-heavy front court – Masai Ujiri’s wet dream. But it, in theory, allows for Barrett, Scottie Barnes, and Brandon Ingram to do the heavy lifting with KD sprinkling swish dust in the moments he’s needed. At KD’s age and fraility, it’s unlikely that any team can acquire him without a strong core already intact.

The problem is – as noted by Mete Makarnaci – KD does not want to go to Toronto. He’s already listed his preferred destinations and the glorious capital of Maple Leaf misery was not one of them.

Sure, Phoenix could still trade him. It’s not like any team would be crazy enough to give/trade for a player with a no-trade clause or anything…oh wait. Doesn’t matter. That’s a big NO THANKS from a fanbase with a traumatically deep history of acquiring players holding a severe disdain for Canadian air.

Of course, as we saw with the weird, serendipitous acquisition of Kawhi Leonard anything is possible. Perhaps, KD can be incentivized. How’s a hefty contract of two years and 100x million more sound? Or, what if KD was not the only aging superstar to jaunt North?

KOC goes on to suggest Toronto acquire both KD and Giannis Antetokounmpo – the other big-ticket name linked to Toronto. Surely, KD would look past the grey, snowy Toronto haze and the endless customs visits [I kid] to join one of the three best players in the world. Right?

That opens a whole can of other worms. The biggest of which is, presumably, management has given up on Scottie Barnes. Hard to see a world where neither trade involves him. I also can’t imagine a more redundant roster pairing in the whole of the league – other than Drew Eubanks and Mason Plumlee – than Brandon Ingram and Kevin Durant. A Barnes/Antetokounmpo pairing isn’t that far off either.

Regardless, the real news in all this is the confirmation of Toronto’s active search for veteran star players. Up to this point, we’ve seen a whole lot of smoke and no fire with Toronto trade speculation.

Now, we know Toronto is on the hunt. They want to make moves. All that remains to figure out is which one and how many?

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