Are the Suns’ Kevin Durant and Devin Booker the next dominoes to fall this season?

The New York Knicks finally got their man. For years, whispers around the NBA told the same story: Knicks head of basketball operations Leon Rose wanted Karl-Anthony Towns at Madison Square Garden. Some believed it was only a matter of time before it happened. And now it has.

The NBA landscape quaked once more — as if the Mikal Bridges trade in June wasn’t shell-shocking enough — when it was reported that Towns was headed to the Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, with the Charlotte Hornets greasing the wheels as the third team.

There are many ways to view the Knicks-Wolves trade, but the most intriguing lens presents a fascinating subplot:

What if the Knicks and Wolves are each making a bet, not just on themselves, but that the Phoenix Suns will hold a fire sale in the coming months?

In such a scenario, each team would try to lure away a coveted superstar with close ties to an existing star. For the Knicks, that would be Devin Booker, who is tight with Towns, each a former client of Rose. The Timberwolves, on the other end, would set their eyes on Kevin Durant, whose side Anthony Edwards couldn’t leave at the Paris Olympics.

Yes, the Knicks-Wolves trade is massive with enormous reverberations across the league, but could the biggest wave be yet to come? Let’s start in New York, where Rose continues to build a burgeoning empire through his deep Creative Arts Agency connections.

Rose and the CAA connection

Leon Rose, right, and William Wesley joined the Knicks’ front office in 2020. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

As a mega agent, Rose represented a who’s-who in the NBA, including LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Joel Embiid and Dwyane Wade. Upon being hired by James Dolan in early March of 2020, one of Rose’s first orders of business was to hire his right-hand man at CAA, Williams “Worldwide Wes” Wesley, to the front office, a man who has been known to some insiders as the most powerful, most important man in the basketball world.

Rose almost never talks to the media, but he made himself available to sit down with MSG announcer Mike Breen for a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/are-the-suns-kevin-durant-and-devin-booker-the-next-dominoes-to-fall-this-season-150437063.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-08 15:04:37

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.