Although there’s concern about whether or not the 2019-20 NBA season will be canceled, and about the impact the suspension of play will have beyond this season, this temporary hold could work to the benefit of some teams. At first, it seemed like the Brooklyn Nets would be one of those teams.
Kevin Durant had previously ruled himself out for the remainder of the 2019-20 season well before the league’s hiatus, which started as a result of Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert preliminarily testing positive for COVID-19. With the NBA looking at starting back up in mid-to-late June as a best case scenario, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think Durant could return.
On Monday, Durant’s business manager, Rich Kleiman, said the subject is ‘not even spoken about.’ ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski followed up on the subject Tuesday on “The Woj Pod” and explained why he doesn’t see Durant returning either:
Obviously, people have talked about Kevin Durant in Brooklyn. I’ve been told that that is not an expectation of him coming back, although I heard he’s looked pretty good over there [but] that the plan was not to do that. Because remember, you’d come back, you’d have a pretty short turnaround, no matter what you do, from the end of this season to next season, and they’re going to be careful with him now. Could that change? I guess it could change but right now, the Nets’ plan is to not bring Kevin Durant back.
But Woj did add:
But, boy, it would be — it would be interesting.
It certainly would be something — for both Nets fans and the league as a whole.