In what looks to be a dramatic reversal of the news cycle of the last six months, it is now being reported that Kevin Durant is no longer expected to be traded by the Phoenix Suns.
Speaking on NBA Today, Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported that he now expects Durant to stay in Arizona, despite all the rumours to the contrary. Durant’s name has been up there with that of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo as being the most widely-circulated of all the supposedly-available top-tier talents, yet Windhorst poured cold water onto the rumour mill with his statement that, despite not knowing how the Suns will reverse their fortunes, he expects them to keep Durant.
“Kevin Durant, I’m like 98% sure he’s not going to be a Sun next year,” Windhorst said of the 15-time All-Star. “How it works out? I’m about 1% sure [that it will]. There’s going to be a number of teams interested, but some of it is going to depend on whether Durant is a player they keep on a one-year contract or they want to give him a contract extension, which I suspect he’s going to want.”
“I’m like 98% sure he’s not gonna be a Sun next year.” 👀
– @WindhorstESPN on Kevin Durant
(h/t @ohnohedidnt24 )
Durant Was Not The Problem
Durant’s name has hitherto been bandied about not because of anything he did wrong, but because someone’s has to be.
The Suns’ plan to assemble a “Big Three” of Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal has been disastrous. Beal’s substantial regression as a player combined with the high salary cost that has greatly prohibited, and the even higher cost in assets required to complete the acquisition trades, has left the Suns with an empty draft cupboard and a 36-46 record. They are going nowhere, slowly.
Moving Durant was thought to be the path out of this quagmire. Beal, after all, cannot be moved – his value is negative, considering his cost relative to his production, and he also holds a full no-trade clause, a distinct rarity in the NBA. Booker, meanwhile, is only 28 years old. Therefore, the 36-year-old Durant is up for sale by default.
Or at least, he was.
Suns Opting To Find Another Way
This may or may not be a good thing for the Suns. As with everything about them as a franchise over the past couple of seasons, it is unclear, both what they want to do and what they need to do.
Certainly, there was interest in Durant, both today and at the last deadline. Teams known to have expressed include, but are not necessarily limited to – the San Antonio Spurs (with whom interest was “mutual“), the Miami Heat, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors, with whom a reunion was reportedly very close to being finalised back in February. The list goes on from there.
Nothing has happened to suggest that interest in Durant has cooled. Windhorst is not saying the Suns received no bids of interest. Rather, he reports that it is the Suns that are pulling back. Trading Durant may be the treatment, but he was not the problem that needed the treatment.
This could, of course, be a negotiation tactic. It is better for leverage to act as though you do not want to make the trade, rather than confess that you have to. Nevertheless, having demoted general manager James Jones down to senior advisor and hiring Brian Gregory in his place, the Suns have a new brain trust.
As can be seen currently with the New Orleans Pelicans, new decision-makers – when not biased by emotional attachment to their own previous decisions – can wipe slates clean. They can do this through cleaning house, as the Pelicans reportedly intend to. Or they can do the complete opposite. When a trade was so likely as to be considered inevitable, this is a significant course-correction.
For now, at least.
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Durant ‘98%’ Likely to Stay With the Suns