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Why the Brooklyn Nets traded Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns

The most prolific era of Brooklyn Nets basketball ever is over.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The Nets ended the most exciting chapter in franchise history at the NBA trade deadline when they dealt Kevin Durant to Phoenix, the last major trade in a series of transactions that built and then tore down a superteam in the eastern borough.

While a move like this is never an easy decision, Brooklyn was left without a better option, said host Adam Armbrecht in a Thursday edition of the Locked On Nets podcast.

“Whether it was going to be (general manager) Sean Marks or (team governor) Joe Tsai at the helm of this, it looks as though this thing was going to deteriorate over the course of this season and over the course of this offseason,” Armbrecht said.

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Brooklyn dealt Kyrie Irving to Dallas last weekend after Irving and the organization were not able to agree on an extension, leaving little high-level talent around Durant. That left Marks and Tsai in position to honor the commitment they reportedly made to Durant last summer: that they would facilitate a trade if this season did not go well.

The Nets had one of the most talented teams ever assembled and ultimately, due to players being unavailable or unhappy, won very little. Rather than looking to add another star player to appease Durant, the Nets decided to tear it down once and for all.

“It’s the end of this (era) of Brooklyn Nets basketball,” Armbrecht said. “It sounds like that all-in push that it would have taken to acquire (a star), would have been a path for the Nets to go down the road of if they didn’t have a sense that it was going to be be beyond this offseason, that Kevin Durant was still going to want to be moved.”

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