Phoenix made an all-in push to pair Durant with Booker. It hasn’t worked out so far.
Kevin Durant has been a part of some of the biggest player movement stories in the last decade. It all started when he made the decision to go join the Golden State Warriors in free agency, forming what is arguably the greatest team to ever play basketball.
Then came the puzzling decision to leave the Warriors. After two championships during a period where the Warriors lorded over the rest of the league, Durant didn’t want the easy way out anymore. Either that or he found Draymond Green so insufferable that it forced him out of Golden State. That one is left to individual interpretation.
He made another shocking free agency move, teaming up with Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets. They were good. They should have been even better after the acquisition of superstar guard James Harden. Suddenly, the path to a title was easy again. At least, it should have been.
A chaotic storm of injuries, a global pandemic, Durant’s shoes being a size too large, and just poor timing overall brewed the perfect storm. What it resulted in was a short-lived run for one of the most talented trios to ever be assembled. Harden moved on to the Philadelphia 76ers, leaving Durant and Irving to figure things out by themselves.
However, Durant wasn’t having it. He requested a trade away from the Nets in the offseason and at first, he was told to kick rocks. He ended up playing for the team close to the trade deadline before he finally got his wish. The Nets decided to blow it up. They traded Irving to the Dallas Mavericks. Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns.
Phoenix gave up a king’s ransom for Durant to join Devin Booker on the Suns. The results they’ve had to show for it are lackluster, to this point.
Confusing Saga
Puzzling moves made by the ownership make this story a tough one to figure out
It has been very clear that the Suns are not trending in the direction of a championship during the Durant era. Depending on how much onus is put on him, there are numerous angles to take with this trade.
When Durant arrived in Phoenix, the early returns could be seen as nothing, but optimistic. They ended up losing in the second round of the playoffs that season, but it was to the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets. There was reason to believe they were not far off from being a legitimate title threat.
Durant and Booker worked great as a duo in their first playoff run. Booker, in particular, seemed to be really benefiting from the defensive coverage that Durant was taking away from him. If the roster could be improved around the two stars, perhaps the Suns could finally win their first championship in franchise history.
Attempting to improve the roster is where this story takes a turn for the worst. The part that follows in this story is the horrendous trade that added Bradley Beal to the team. This move was confusing from the get-go.
Beal and Booker had a lot of overlap in their game, the fit never made a lot of sense. That is especially true when considering how much Beal’s contract held up the Suns from improving the roster around the three stars. They tried their hand at doing so by trading DeAndre Ayton, but it wasn’t enough.
The Suns regressed. Beal was not the transformative piece that they hoped he would be. The offense was good, but not good enough to absolve the rest of the team’s issues. The Suns made the 23–24 playoffs as the sixth seed, only to get promptly swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The problem with judging this trade for the Suns is the lens at which one would choose to look at it. In a vacuum, the value given up for Durant was worthwhile, and the team showed immediate promise. The aftermath has potentially sunk the Suns’ title chances and now leaves Phoenix with little room to move towards their goal. Technically speaking, that should make them losers here.
Brooklyn Bridges
The Nets make the best of a bad situation
The Nets’ side of this deal is equally surrounded by murky waters. The obvious problem for the Nets when they traded both Durant and Irving is the lack of incentive to tank. The Houston Rockets owned a lot of their picks from the Harden trade, which meant it was in the Nets’ best interests to remain competitive. Mikal Bridges helped them do that, to some extent.
Bridges burst onto the scene in Brooklyn, showing star potential in his newly expanded role. However, once NBA teams were afforded time during the offseason to gameplan for him, his numbers took a hit and so did the team’s results.
There have been reports suggesting that the Rockets would be interested in trading some of Brooklyn’s draft capital back to the team in exchange for Bridges. However, at the moment, the Nets are not budging on giving up their star wing.
Ultimately, despite the poor results from this season, Brooklyn is likely to benefit down the line from a Suns team that may be in turmoil eventually. This would be a much easier situation to assess if the Nets had control over their own draft capital, but as it currently stands, they made out passably.
Hindsight Doesn’t Do Either Team Any Favors
Neither team comes away from this deal smelling like roses
The roles of the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks in this deal are not large enough to be the focal point, or even a strong supporting point in this story when revisited. This assessment is between the Nets and Suns. For those two teams, neither one of them looks awfully great here.
The initial trade for Durant looked like a good move for the Suns. The fallout that was caused by the Durant trade is one that features the team completely shooting themselves in the foot.
If the trade is judged in the sense that the Suns were supposed to win a title, or at the very least compete for one, they failed. All they really have to show for the deal is a team that now features three players who are all eating up around $50 million and have no real path to elevating themselves in a tough Western Conference.
The Nets don’t look that much better. They’re a bad team with no control over their draft capital to reward them for their lack of success. However, they are still positioned to potentially capitalize on the Suns’ shortcomings, especially if Phoenix blows it up at some point in the near future.
This one doesn’t feel like it has a winner, just a smaller loser. There is a debate to be had about whom the smaller loser here is. As this trade continues to age, that will likely end up being the Nets.