Kevin Durant Trade 101: From Ben Simmons to the Stepien Rule, everything to know as Nets eye historic haul

Another factor is Durant's contract, and the Rockets have a big part in this as well

As the clock ticks, however slowly, down to what feels like an inevitable Kevin Durant trade, bear in mind that this isn't a simple case of Durant deciding where he wants to go and the Brooklyn Nets acquiescing. There are a lot of factors in play here. Below is a list of everything you need to know as Brooklyn considers what could be the highest-leverage trade in NBA history.  The Designated Rookie rule allows teams to sign players coming off rookie contracts to a five-year extension rather than the typical four. A team can designate up to two rookies for such contracts, but there's a caveat: only one of them can be acquired by trade. Ben Simmons, himself on a five-year Designated Rookie deal signed with Philadelphia, already occupies one of those slots for the Nets. Therefore, if the Nets keep Simmons, they cannot acquire another Designated Rookie player in a trade for Durant. The first workaround would be removing the protections from an owed pick, which is not only risky, but requires the consent of the team that owns that pick. The second is by trading picks without a designated year. Typically, the way this works is for the trading team to agree to send out a first-round pick two years after the original pick or picks that it owes elsewhere convey. Put more simply, it essentially means agreeing in advance to give up their next allowable pick even if they don't technically know when that pick will come. 

That takes 13 notable players off the table in a Durant trade for the time being:  The downside risk here is that if the protections on those previously owed picks prevent them from conveying long enough, the acquiring team can be left with nothing. This notably occurred in 2017. At the time, the Lakers owed two future first-round picks, the second of which was meant for Orlando. The problem was that the first was top-three protected … but came in at No. 2 overall three years in a row. The Orlando pick therefore expired because it would have needed to convey more than seven years after the original deal.

Most times when a player demands a trade, he is on a contract that is set to expire -- or like Anthony Davis in New Orleans, is about to enter his walk year. This leaves the team with little leverage. If it doesn't bend to the player's will and at least recoup market value, the player will soon be in position to simply leave on his own.