Kevin Durant dismisses Mark Cuban's max contract 'trade-off' suggestion

On Tuesday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban chimed in on the topic of removing maximum contract restrictions on players. 

Cuban suggested that if owners were to remove restrictions on salary, players would have to give up something in return such as guaranteed money. 

Kevin Durant, who is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in 2016, is firmly against that idea.

"I don't think that makes sense," Durant told ESPN. "Give up guarantees? Nah, I don't think so. Why? Why would we do that? Just because we asked for ... I'm not going to talk about this, man."

Durant joins fellow superstars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant among others to speak out against the owners in light of the NBA's new $24 billion TV broadcast deal. By all accounts, players want a bigger share of revenue and a lockout seems likely in 2017.

The players have good cause to be bitter. During the last CBA dispute, the players made a number of concessions to the owners who claimed widespread losses. In the seasons thereafter, almost every NBA team has enjoyed profits thanks to lower player costs and augmented revenue sharing schemes.

"Look at it like this, Kobe Bryant brings in a lot of money to Los Angeles, that downtown area," Durant told the Oklahoman on Tuesday. "Clippers are getting up there - Chris Paul,Blake Griffin and those guys are bringing in a lot of money as well. Look at Cleveland, look at Miami when LeBron was there.

"These guys are worth more than what they are making because of the money that they bring to that area. That's a conversation you can always have, but until it's changed, you never know what will happen to it."