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The Phoenix Suns took their swing. They missed, big time, a point punctuated by the utter flop in their series sweep at the hands of the Timberwolves, which was finished off on Sunday. But the question now becomes, where do they go from here?
And there may be only one real answer, if the team wants to have a chance of getting better in the short term and taking the long-term step of ensuring that star guard Devin Booker is happy and wants to stay put. That answer: Trade Kevin Durant.
It was only a little more than a year ago that the Suns got rid of two top young pieces, Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges, to bring in Durant. But it might already be time to undo that, to the best of the Suns’ ability this summer.
That’s the view of executives around the NBA who suspect that the Suns will be in for a tumultuous offseason that could include firing coach Frank Vogel.
“Vogel will be the fall guy, but I don’t think anyone thinks any of this is his fault,” one Eastern Conference executive told Heavy Sports. “It’s the owner’s fault. But whatever way they want to point fingers, they gotta figure out what to do next and the only thing is to trade Kevin Durant. That’s the eject button here, that is the shocker. That’s the only way out. Not saying they will do it, but that’s the only way.”
Kevin Durant Played Well in Postseason
Certainly, it is not Durant who deserves the blame for what’s happened in Phoenix, not with a payroll that is now locked in a stranglehold thanks to the ill-advised acquisition of Bradley Beal from the Wizards last summer.
Durant held up his end of the bargain in the playoffs, averaging 26.8 points on 55.2% shooting, with 6.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists. So did Booker, at 27.5 points on 49.2% shooting, with 3.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists. Beal, though, struggled and averaged 16.5 points, while leaving a major hole in the team’s defense and committing a team-high 3.3 turnovers per game.
Beal played just 53 games this season and has been a shell of himself when he is on the floor. The problem for the Suns is that they can do nothing about it—Beal is slated to make $160 million over the next three years and has a no-trade clause.
Because the Phoenix Suns are projected to be around $100 million over the salary cap next year, with significant tax penalties ahead, they will be limited in how much they can change the roster. Unless they make a major trade.
“You can’t trade (Beal) and you want Booker to be your guy for the next 10 years, and there’s nothing on the roster that is going to bring you value,” one Western Conference executive said. “If they are going to be honest about where they are—they were sixth in the West and that is not going to change next year—then finding a deal for KD is all you got. It’s either that or you run it back.”
Phoenix Suns Need to Wriggle Free of Tough Situation
Trading Durant at this point is not necessarily an easy task. He is 35 and though he is still at the top of his game, he has two more years on his contract at more than $50 million per year. More than that, he is eligible for a one-year extension in July, and is going to want to be granted one.
There will be teams willing to gamble on Durant. The Heat, of course, will always get a mention. So will the Knicks and Lakers.
“He makes you nervous because as good as he is, he now has some baggage and it is easy to blame everyone else for what has happened in his last few stops, but at some point you start to say, ‘Wait, he is the common factor here,’” one Eastern Conference GM said. “There are a lot of teams that he’d be a great fit, maybe all of them, right? He is that good.”
But, the GM points out, things ended badly for Durant in Golden State in 2019. Then they ended badly last year in Brooklyn. Now, they’re going badly yet again with the Phoenix Suns.
“You have to ask, ‘How much of this baggage is his, how much is just the bad circumstances he was in?’ Because it seems like a long time since Kevin was happy as a player,” the GM wondered. “He’s disgruntled all the time. So then you have to ask, ‘If he is unhappy, can we take it, do we have the coach and the locker room to shrug that stuff off?’
“That is a question you have to ask with him now. It is not going to be ‘Yes’ for every team and that would limit his market.”
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