I'm not 100% buying it. I'm sure there was a call, to kick the tires in June, they probably asked what they thought the C's would have to send over and they said, Brown and White. And they came back "nah, Brown,White,Smart" and Stevens hangs the phone up.
I have a feeling if they were going to do it it would have been before the TPE expired so they could snag a couple players. Cause any move for KD going to leave the team short handed and the FA market is drying up.