In an appearance on the STUpodity podcast, Shams Charania of The Athletic said that the Miami Heat never aggressively pursued Kevin Durant. Miami last spoke with the Brooklyn Nets about a trade before or during Summer League in mid-July.
The Heat were aware that to acquire Durant, they would have had to gut their roster. As Miami was the top seed in the Eastern Conference and made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, they didn’t see a need to drastically alter their roster to add Durant.
The Heat would have had to trade several players to match salary in a trade for the Nets superstar. That would have left the team with little depth behind several veterans with lengthy injury histories.
Miami, along with the Phoenix Suns, were the teams Durant reportedly wanted to be traded to. The Suns ability to complete a trade waned after Deandre Ayton signed an offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers. That meant Ayton could no longer be used as a trade chip in talks for Durant.
