With the Phoenix Suns matching the offer sheet Deandre Ayton signed with the Indiana Pacers, they will be unable to use him as an outgoing asset in a potential trade for Kevin Durant.
"It takes a big chip off the board for them from an asset standpoint to try to get something done," said Tim Bontemps. "To me, this signals that the fact they didn't get a sign-and-trade done and just kept Deandre, to more or less indicates that one way or another they weren't getting Kevin Durant. At least in the short-term."
"I'm not sure that they weren't getting him," said Brian Windhorst. "I think they have, and by the way they're not alone... How do I want to put this? I think the position they're taking is that they've made their offer for Kevin Durant. And their offer is their offer. And it's not an offer that the Nets are interested in.
"I'm not even sure the Suns can put together an offer that the Nets would be interested in by themselves. I think this is where the other teams are as well.
"I think the other teams have said 'Brooklyn, here is our offer. I don't have any incentive to raise our offer because I know nobody else is raising theirs. I think that is what Indiana was trying to catch them in. Indiana was trying to catch them in that.
"This is them partially saying 'We're not counting on Kevin Durant. We have a 64-win team. This is going to take us into the tax.'"
Windhorst adds that if he were an oddsmaker, he would make the Suns a longer shot to successfully trade for Durant.
Later in the podcast, Windhort reports that the Suns have not offered Mikal Bridges and their full boat of future first round picks and pick swaps to the Nets.
On Thursday evening, Adrian Wojnarowski also reported that the Suns are "probably without the assets to be competitive for a Kevin Durant trade."