Insider fuels Kevin Durant-to-Spurs talk that’s bound to spark debate

As evidenced in the photo above and other images used on this website, Kevin Durant has found himself face-to-face with Chris Paul often. It's funny that Paul gets a rise out of so many guys, but I digress.

By all accounts, Kevin Durant is on the market this summer. That part isn't really up for debate any longer. He was on the trade block during the season, and the Phoenix Suns were close to making a move that would have sent him back to Golden State before KD nixed the deal. Now that their season has ended catastrophically, their front office can get back to searching for a landing spot for the 37-year-old hooper.

There are several teams that could use KD's services. The Warriors should be off the table since they acquired Jimmy Butler, but the Rockets, Timberwolves, Heat, and Knicks need a reliable scorer. The Spurs also find themselves on that list, and according the Jake Fischer, league sources believe San Antonio is a realistic destination for Easy Money Sniper.

A Kevin Durant move raises questions about the Spurs' development

Going out and spending a bunch of resources to get a player as old but as expensive as Durant is not a traditional Spurs move. They've spent a lot of time building their rosters from the draft, and the development of their own players has always been a core principle for the construction of their best teams over the past few decades.

A trade with the Suns would go against that philosophy and would raise questions about what they think about the players they have right now. There's no way they'd be able to acquire Durant without trading away guys like Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson.

While there have been fans clamoring for the team to make an aggressive move, such a decision would mean that they don't believe they can start a new dynasty with the guys they selected and have spent years developing.

KJ and Vassell were meant to be a part of the core that helped this franchise reach the ultimate goal of a Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time since 2014, but they won't be around much longer at this rate. San Antonio's name continuously comes up in trade talks. They have so many assets and a star ready to take on the world, so the time to strike is now.

You just would have hoped that they were ready to take those steps without mortgaging portions of their future. Fortunately, they have so many assets, they should be able to recover if it doesn't go as they envision if they do decide to pull the trigger on a deal for Durantula.

Some of you may be thinking that, since the player they'd hypothetically be trading for is Kevin Durant, that it says nothing about KJ and Dev. Durant is an all-time great, but we can't forget his age in this, nor the injuries he's had over the last few years.

If you can get everyone to the postseason healthy, it may not matter. A team of Fox, Castle, Sochan, Durant, and Wembanyama can challenge for the top seed in the Western Conference. Fans will wave bye-bye to just about anyone if San Antonio can make that kind of jump with such a short turnaround. But the questions will still linger about those picks and how they developed.