On Sunday afternoon, the Kevin Durant sweepstakes officially came to an end when the Phoenix Suns traded the star to the Houston Rockets for a combination of players and draft compensation, as reported by Shams Charania of ESPN. While the Cleveland Cavaliers were never thought to be much of a player in the Durant talks, Charania also reported that the Cavs were among several wild card teams who apparently threw their hat into the ring.
“Several other wild-card suitors emerged as well — including the Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets, sources said,” reported Charania.
However, Charania also noted that “…with Durant on an expiring, $54.7 million contract and eligible for a new two-year extension after the trade, the league’s market for him clearly showed his ability to dictate whether he wanted to play for a franchise long term.”
In a vacuum, it’s easy to see why the Cavs would have interest in acquiring Durant. The one true weakness on the Cavs’ roster over the past few years has been their depth, or lack thereof, on the wing, and who better to fill that void than one of the greatest pure scorers the game has ever seen?
On the other hand, it’s likely that the Suns’ asking price from Cleveland was more than what the Cavs were willing to give up, especially as the team likely doesn’t want to shake things too much after their historic season in 2025-26. With their unwillingness to pull out all the stops to get a player like Durant, it would appear that the Cavs are attributing their playoff failure more to untimely injuries than poor roster construction, and will likely head into next year with mostly the same core of players that won them 64 games this past season.
ClutchPoints’ own Brett Siegel also recently reported on the Cavs’ apparent unwillingness to part with too many assets to get Durant.
“I just really don’t see a path to where they’re going to look to leverage guys to go out and get a Kevin Durant. The Cavs have come up in conversations I’ve had, but nothing more,” said Siegel, per 92.3 The Fan on X, formerly Twitter.
Still, Cavs fans likely won’t be able to stop themselves from wondering what the team would have looked like with Durant.
