Report: Raptors Seen As Kevin Durant Trade Suitor this Summer

It seems that teams around the NBA are still haunted by the 2018 game-changing trade when the Toronto Raptors landed Kawhi Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs, and went on to ride the superstar to the NBA championship.

According to insider Jake Fischer, with Kevin Durant's name on the rumor mill last week at the trade deadline, league executives were "fearful" of Masai Ujiri pulling off another coup like that one:

“Some league executives were even fearful that Toronto could have jumped into the trade frenzies that materialized last week for Kevin Durant or Jimmy Butler last week in some form of a repeat inspired by the Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard Hail Mary back in the summer of 2018,” Fischer wrote.

“Be advised that the Raptors’ front office did poke around Durant back during the summer of 2022, sources say, when he first requested a trade out of Brooklyn.”

Of course, the difference is, the Raptors don't have a championship-ready team in 2025, like they did in 2018, so adding a KD or a Jimmy Butler wouldn't have had the same result.

The Raptors did pull in a star player, however, at last week's deadline, trading for former All-Star Brandon Ingram from the New Orleans Pelicans, and then signing him to an extension.

Durant Likely To Be Traded This Summer, Could Raptors Be In?

As for Durant, however, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said this week that he is very likely to be traded this summer, and Ashish Mather of Hoops Wire suggests that the Raptors could be in on that and "could attempt to trade for Durant in the offseason."

Fischer added that "sources continue to stress that Toronto does not wish to stay this bad for much longer. ‘They want to compete starting next year,’ said one NBA figure with knowledge of the Raptors’ thinking.”

Could they see Durant as a means to that end?

Earlier this week, we took at look at the betting odds of where Durant might land next season.