To add more detail to Kelly Iko’s report below about an "expansive sign-and-trade"involving Houston:
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.
In a would-be seven-team trade, there is an unprecedented amount of detail. Unfortunately, while a seven-team trade would make for a thrilling topic at a cocktail party, there haven’t been many unexpected developments in these negotiations. At least in the iterations of the deal discussed so far, most of the recognizable names are from trades that have already been agreed to and reported but not yet finalized.
The Hawks would be sending Clint Capela to the Rockets in what would become a sign-and-trade, league sources say. Durant would go to Houston. The previously reported return for him, including Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, would go to Phoenix. Only five players who were in the NBA last season are being discussed in the current iteration of the trade, as of now: Durant, Brooks, Green, Clint Capela and Daeqwon Plowden, league sources say. The rest of the players being discussed are all from already-agreed-upon draft-night trades that are yet to be finalized and can't be until July 6.
For now, the largest trade in NBA history is the six-teamer that sent Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks last summer. Before that, it was the five-teamer in 2021, when the Lakers sent Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards.
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