When you trade a player who is one of the best five players in the world, what can you expect in return? Fans’ easy answer, which is usually the wrong one, is that you must get equal value. That never happens because it can’t. There is no Kevin Durant equivalent, just as there was no Jason Kidd equivalent when he left in 2008.
That said, pundits think that the Nets did well (enough) in what turned out to be a four-team trade that sent 10 players and a lot of draft picks moving among the Nets, Suns, Bucks and Pacers.