Power Ranking Kevin Durant's Next Team Now That The Suns Have Officially Been Swept
Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.The body of the Phoenix Suns was still warm when Shams hit send on this tweet
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Given that it felt like this inside leak came out about 15 seconds after the final buzzer, it's not crazy to assume that Shams had this locked and loaded well before the outcome of Game 4. Within this story it has pretty much everything you'd expect. You get the Frank Vogel lost the locker room part which is fairly standard operating procedure for situations like this, despite the fact that ya know, he didn't build the roster. It's not his fault the Suns wanted to bring in a defensive minded coach and give him a roster that was allergic to playing defense.
It talked about their roster flaws and the lack of a point guard or a defensive wing (remember the days of CP3 and Bridges??) which everyone but the Suns apparently knew was going to be an issue back in the offseason.
But for my money, the most important part of the entire piece was the section about Kevin Durant
Meanwhile, Durant, among the best scorers in NBA history, was not always happy with how he was used. Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often and not having the proper designs to play to his strengths as the offense was built around pick-and-rolls. At the same time, some teammates and people close to the organization believed Durant needed to voice his concerns more adamantly and directly with Vogel and his coaching staff.
Make no mistake, Kevin Durant is not "washed" as a player. He's still very much as devastating as a scorer as he's ever been, coming off a season in which he averaged 27.1 points a game while shooting 52.3/41% splits.
With the sweep and then the immediate Shams leaks that KD is not thrilled with his role or how he's used, the natural progression in this exercise is trying to figure out what he does next. Good luck traded Bradley Beal's $160M contract given his no trade clause, and Booker is right on the verge of entering his NBA prime years, so that's not really the piece you move, which brings us back to Durant. As we've seen, when he thinks an organization is cooked, he's not shy about finding a way to leave and join a new team, which on some level you have to consider possible after the disaster we just all watched.
So that got me thinking. What options are there for a version of Durant who is still really good offensively but is only getting older? As a reminder, this is his current deal
Not only will you need good players and picks, but you're also going to need high salary talent in order to pull this off. As a 2nd apron team, it's not like the Suns are going to have a ton of paths to improve their roster
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so that sort of limits things a little bit. Plus, it's not like the BKN/PHX trade where KD had a ton of years left on his deal. He's an UFA after 2025-26, so that's going to limit how much other teams are willing to even give up for a player who could leave them for nothing next summer.
If I had to power rank his potential destinations, this is what I'm thinking
1. Phoenix Suns
While it's fun to think of KD demanding a trade somewhere, it's probably more logical that he sticks around at least for one more season. The team would probably go with the whole firing the coach path before unloading KD given all they gave up for him, and maybe the team goes to Durant and says OK, go ahead and pick the next coach. Granted that did not work in BKN, but it's not as if the Suns have a ton of options. Once you start to get the KD leaks about how he doesn't love how the coach used him, we've all seen what tends to happen next.
Even still, between the salary and the asking price, staying in PHX is probably the way this shakes out.
2. Oklahoma City Thunder
OK, just stay with me here. Look, if LeBron can go home, why can't Durant? You know what the Suns desperately need? Draft picks. You know who has more draft picks than God himself? Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now making the money work is a little tricky, but there's a world in which the Thunder could generate around $35M in cap space. That definitely helps eat up the majority of KD's $49M, and what if the team decides they do not want to extend Josh Giddey ($8M)? In terms of making the money work, a Giddey/Kenrich Williams package with a billion picks technically works.
I'm putting this so high as an option mostly because during this entire rebuild, the Thunder have been waiting to pounce on that "star". This gives them a full-circle moment with KD who is still an extremely effective offensive player, the Thunder's defense is drastically better than the Suns, and this could give us a world where we see a lineup of
SGA/Dort/Jalen Williams/Durant/Chet
Which would be fun as hell. Given how quickly the Thunder have played their way into being a contender, this feels like the exact move to cash your chips in with. For KD, not only does he get to join a contender to ride out his career, he also gets all the good PR by going back to OKC which you could argue he desperately needs given how everything's gone down since he left the first time.
We saw what a return and title did for LeBron in CLE, why couldn't the same happen for Durant?
3. Philadelphia 76ers
What if we live in a world where KD is looking around the West and how stacked it is and he realizes he needs to get the hell out of that conference and back into the East for the 2024-25 season? There aren't a ton of available options, but there is one that stands out given how their books are shaping up for this summer.
The Sixers are entering this offseason with a way to potentially open up $55M of cap space. We know Daryl Morey is big game fishing this summer, with most of the reports already circulating that the Sixers are going to go after Paul George should he not extend in LA.
Well, what if they use that cap space to find a way to trade for Durant instead? Outside of Embiid/Maxey I'm not really sure what players on the Sixers roster the Suns would want, but all it takes is Durant to do to PHX what he did to BKN and demand a trade to the Sixers and they do have the potential cap space to pull something off. This is a long shot, but I couldn't rule out a team that KD might feel is on the brink and in the easier conference, who also has an avenue to absorb his high salary.
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4. Orlando Magic
You know what the Magic need? Scoring. Offense. You know what Kevin Durant is still very good at? Scoring. Offense. Another East team on the rise, this starts to make a lot of sense. The Magic can open up around $19M in cap space this summer to help cut into Durant's salary number, and they are a roster that actually does have a combination of good young players as well as picks available to trade that the Suns might have interest in.
You know what else the Suns need? A point guard. Well what about some sort of sign & trade with Fultz and a young prospect, say Jett Howard and a bunch of picks? Based on Fultz's cap hold ($25.5M) the money part works out. You could swap Cole Anthony if you wanted to as well and it still works. Maybe they include Wendell Carter Jr since the Suns also need some help at center, but the overall point is there's a path to something like this happening.
The Magic offer Durant a lot of what he might see in the Sixers, only younger. Paolo/Franz look legit as young building blocks, Jonathan Isaac looks like a DPOY candidate when healthy, and everyone expects the franchise to pursue an offensive upgrade this summer and it's hard to find a better offensive talent than Durant. For a team already knocking on the door of being a top 4 seed in the East, adding KD to that group would be pretty fun.
5. San Antonio Spurs
OK, so this one might be a stretch, but that's why I have it at the bottom. This summer the Spurs can open up around $27M in cap space, which is a decent chunk. They have the young assets and picks to unload should something like this become possible, so the accounting aspect of this trade makes sense.
There's also this to consider. We're already hearing "reports" that players want to go to SA so they can play with Wemby (duh), and then there was this little nugget from a few weeks ago
KD has a connection to Pop through Team USA, and as we all know everyone tampers their dick off in the NBA offseason. Is it crazy to think Wemby might work out with KD and get him to want to end his career as a Spur? It's unlikely, but not totally impossible. Trade like Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins with picks and call it a day.
Trade for KD and find a point guard in the free agent market (Tyus Jones?) and suddenly the Spurs look a whole lot better. Seeing a frontcourt of KD and Wemby would be fun as hell, but that's also probably why it won't happen. Wemby having 24 hour access to KD's basketball brain would be terrifying for the rest of the league, and I don't think anyone would give KD shit for demanding his way to a team that just won 12 games.
So that's my list. My gut says he's staying in PHX, but the potential for chaos is high should KD decide this summer it's time to move on.