Report: Clippers Don’t Want To Trade Ivica Zubac To Get Kevin Durant From Suns

According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, the Los Angeles Clippers don’t want to trade Ivica Zubac to get Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns. 

The Clippers have been linked to Durant, who will be traded by the Suns before the 2025 NBA Draft. 

“We’ve been consistently told LA has no desire to part with Ivica Zubac … as much as Phoenix surely covets the consistently improving center,” Fischer wrote. “The Clippers, however, do hold two future first-round picks and some available swap rights to sweeten a potential Durant offer that would almost certainly require the inclusion of Norman Powell, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Derrick Jones Jr.”

Durant played with Clippers guard James Harden on the Oklahoma City Thunder and Brooklyn Nets. The two NBA legends remain friends despite their Nets run being a disaster. 

The Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of this year’s playoffs in seven games. LAC has never been to the NBA Finals in franchise history. 

Zubac played in 80 games for the Clippers this season. He averaged 16.8 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks while shooting 62.8% from the field and 66.1% from the free-throw line. 

Durant has one year left on his contract. He turns 37 in the fall. The Clippers are not one of the three teams he wants to get traded to. Those three teams are the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. 

However, since Durant doesn’t have a no-trade clause in his contract, he can’t control where the Suns trade him. 

The eighth leading scorer in NBA history, Durant put up 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game for the Suns this season while shooting 52.7% from the field, 43.0% from beyond the arc and 83.9% from the free-throw line. He remains an elite scorer. 

Since leaving the Golden State Warriors in 2019, Durant has been swept in the first round of the playoffs twice. The NBA icon hasn’t made the conference finals either.