In Wednesday's 119-111 loss against the Rockets, Durant finished with game-high score of 37 points, five rebounds and nine assists in 42 minutes.
While the trade deadline is long over, the rumors of Kevin Durant’s trade are not ending anytime soon. Durant made it to the trade talks before the deadline, where several teams made calls to the Suns for him, including the Mavs, Golden State, Heat, Houston, Grizzlies and the Timberwolves.
Not only this, but the deal of the 15-time NBA All-Star had reportedly almost got finalized with the Warriors, but was cancelled as he wasn’t interested in moving back to them. However, following a week after the trade deadline, the reports have surfaced again. The reports state that the Suns are ready to part ways with their superstar this off season.
Durant, who became the eighth player to score 30,000 NBA points in his return game against the Grizzlies on Feb 11, had earlier broken his silence on the trade rumors. The two-time NBA Champion said that he understood “Everybody’s bought and sold in this league. Anybody can be up for auction.”
However, as per latest reports by ESPN’s NBA insider Brian Windhorst, Durant is one of the best players available for the trade. It will be around the off season that he and his franchise will part ways.
The reason behind that is the Suns are currently below .500 with a 26-27 tally and have one of the highest payrolls in the league.
Windhorst stated, “He’s probably going to get traded this summer. He knows it, the Suns know it, the rest of the league know it. They’re going to enjoy him while they have him.”
“It’s not really controversial, in all honesty. They’re under .500, they’ve got a $230 million payroll. Then add over $100 million on tax,” he continued.
Brian also went on to say that while Durant has put on extremely good performances for the side, they haven’t been able to win much.
He added, “He’s played almost 15,000 minutes this year and he’s plus two on the court in those 15,000 minutes.”
“You have an extremely expensive team that is not winning and the player that is their most expensive player, who is not playing great, but is not impacting them on a positive level,” Windhorst concluded.
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In another report, Grant Hughes of the Bleacher Report stated that Durant is most expected to be the next one to get traded.
“In the wake of being blindsided by the Phoenix Suns including him in talks with the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat last week, Kevin Durant is perhaps the most obvious next-in-line trade candidate in the league,” stated Grant.
He stated that Bradley Beal is not ready to waive his no-trade clause, and Devin Booker apparently wants to spend his “whole career” with the Suns. In this case, Durant is the best name that can get the side out of suffering they are in since quite some time.
As per Hughes, “That should have been true a while ago, as KD is one of the only ways for the Suns to get themselves out of the half-decade of purgatory staring them in the face.”
“If Devin Booker isn’t on the table, and Bradley Beal refuses to dump his no-trade clause, Durant is the only asset Phoenix can use to rein in costs, recoup draft capital and get itself off the bullet train to nowhere.”
He concluded by stating that the trade is almost finalized and it will be official soon. “Now that Phoenix has irked one of the league’s most mercurial stars, the writing’s on the wall. … This relationship is over. The only question is when that’ll become official.”
In Wednesday’s 119-111 loss against the Rockets, Durant finished with game-high score of 37 points, five rebounds and nine assists in 42 minutes of gameplay. He is averaging at 27.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game this season,
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