REPORTS: Kevin Durant Could STAY With Phoenix Suns Despite Trade Rumors

REPORTS: Kevin Durant Could STAY With Phoenix Suns Despite Trade Rumors

After all this, is Kevin Durant staying in the Valley? It’s a trending mini pot on PHX Suns. As always, I’m Eric Ruby. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. Five star reviews on audio go a long way in growing the show. And a lot of anticipation about where Kevin Durant is going to end up this summer. But could he not go anywhere? Of course, we all know what happened with the Suns this past season, how disappointing they were. And then of course at the same time at the trade deadline, the Phoenix Suns tried to trade Kevin Durant. He didn’t want to get traded. And then we have had the rest of that season and now all this offseason breaking down what’s going to happen with KD. We did get some reporting from Jake Fischer who works alongside DLLS’s Mark Stein. Jake Fischer said, “It’s been widely anticipated that Durant, who turns 37 in September, will be back on the trade market this summer in the wake of the Sun’s myriad of trade explorations involving number 35 leading up to February’s inseason trade deadline. A return to the desert next season, though, has not been fully ruled out. Not yet.” All right, let’s take a step back and let’s unpack that because what we’ve been saying on PHX Suns, myself, Espo, Gerald, Stephen, we’ve all said that on paper it might make more sense for the Suns to retain a player like Kevin Durant, especially if you’re not trying to go full rebuild mode. And if you aren’t going to get what you deem to be a correct amount of value for a player like Kevin Durant last season there were so many problems. Bradley Beal, Mike Budenhoer, the defense of the players surrounding the top three on the team. There was just a lot of problems. And don’t get me wrong, you can look at Devin Booker and you can look at Kevin Durant and you can assign certain amounts to blame to both of those guys as well. I think the player who deserves the least amount of blame for last season was Kevin Durant, who I believe was bonafide best player on the team on both sides of the ball, most consistent, stayed relatively healthy, all of that. And we’ve seen over time that a team built around Devin Booker and Kevin Durant can be potent in the playoffs if you look back to them taking the most games off of the eventual champion Denver Nuggets a couple of seasons ago. And who were they surrounded by in that series? Chris Paul was injured. DeAndre Aton was injured. There was a lot going on with that series and Kevin Durant and Devin Booker at the core of it, surrounded by a ton of role players, were still able to perform at an insane level. Of course, that took a lot from them to just take a couple of games off. And you’re not trying to build a team to win two games in the conference semi-finals. But that being said, keeping Kevin Durant should be a path that is open for the Suns, one that they consider. Even signing him to an extension this summer is one that they should consider. Not simply because they should hold on to Kevin Durant for any reason possible and by any means possible and refuse to trade him because he wants to be here. I don’t think Kevin Durant is going to throw fit. I don’t think he’s not going to hoop. I don’t think he’s not going to fit in if you keep him in Phoenix. Right? So, that’s one problem you don’t have to worry about. too. A reason why you might want to extend him is because if you do find somebody around next year’s trade deadline who does want Kevin Durant after seeing what their team did last season, having him under contract for another year or two is going to up that trade value you’re eventually able to get. If you trade Kevin Durant right now or at some point during the season without an extension, you’re trading for a one-year or a half a year rental, which puts down Kevin Durant’s trade value incredibly. And another reason why you should hold on to him if some things don’t play out is if Kevin Durant is not fetching the type of value that you think Kevin Durant should fetch. Everybody is going to be trying to take advantage of the Suns this summer. Not just because they had a bad season. Not just because everybody knows that Kevin Durant is most likely going to be traded even though Jake Fischer’s reporting there’s an avenue for him to return. but also because you have a first-time GM and not just a firsttime GM that is in the first time in that role, but somebody who hasn’t even spent half a decade in an NBA front office, a 30-year head coach who’s been a consultant over the last couple of years and Brian Gregory, you’re going to have people trying to take advantage of him whether it’s fair or not. They’re going to think they can get one over on the Phoenix Suns. And if you are fielding all these offers, whether it’s from Houston, whether it’s from Memphis, from Boston, from New York, from Minnesota, from Orlando, from Milwaukee, whoever it is, they’re going to try to lowball you. They’re going to tell you that Kevin Durant is old. They’re going to tell you that Kevin Durant is doesn’t want to be in Phoenix and that he’s not under contract, so you should sell him for pennies on the dollar. Well, you also need to go out there and say, “Well, we we might just keep them. We might just run it back because there’s value there. We’re going to play Ryan Dunn. We’re going to play Oso Agdaro. We’re going to try to nail the picks that we have at the end of the first round and the middle of the second round in the NBA draft this upcoming summer to build around Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. We’re going to do our best to get off of Bradley Beal because that’s priority number one. And on top of all of this, whether they’re actually considering keeping Kevin Durant or not, which at the end of the day, none of us really know, it’s subtuge season. It’s posturing season. What did we just get out of a report on the Houston Rockets? It was that they’re no longer interested in a Devin Booker or a Kevin Durant. Why would those reports come out? You always have to think that. Why are these reports coming out? Not that they’re not credible sources. Not that they’re being made up, but what agenda is being played here. So, the agenda for Houston’s side has already been put out there by Kelly Aiko and Sam Aika, The Athletic. Now, we have what seems like a Phoenix Suns agenda. And I don’t say that in a negative way. You just got to know how this media stuff plays out. The Phoenix Suns agenda of, “Oh, y’all think we’re backed into a corner. Y’all think we have nowhere to go. I’ll let you know. We’re perfectly comfortable keeping Kevin Durant. In fact, we might want to keep Kevin Durant because of just how good he is. And even though he’s not in the middle of his prime, he’s still one of the most effective basketball players on this planet. So, that’s fine. You don’t want to give us the whole farm. Houston, you don’t want to give us an entire package. Orlando, that’s okay. We’ll live with that. We’re just going to keep him. Him and Devin Booker, they get along. They like each other. They can hoop together. What we’ll do is we’ll focus on the margins. We’ll focus on the draft. We’ll focus on hiring a head coach, which is number one in the order of operations right now. We’ll focus on revamping free agency. And we’ll focus on getting rid of Bradley Beal. Also in this report from Jake Fischer and something we’ll touch on on PHNX Suns later this week on free agency Friday says one roster rumble that’s emerged from the desert. Sources say that Phoenix, whether or not Durant is ultimately dealt before training camp, will be prioritizing the addition of a starting level center this off season. They want to further upgrade on the move they made during the season to deal away Nerkach and replace him with Nick Richards. We all know that that’s a position that the Suns need with or without Durant. If you’re building around an offense that’s completely Devin Booker oriented and he has the ball in his hand, you need a nice rim running center or a center that can at least take away some gravity from Book. If you have Book and KD, somebody who can hang out in the dunker spot, somebody who can maybe hit a mid-ranger or, god forbid, a center that can actually hit a three-pointer will help unlock those two for whatever the new head coach might want to do with them so much. No matter what, we know that everything’s on the table this summer, but what do you think? Was this posturing from the Phoenix Suns? Is this subfu subtrifuge? Is this a smoke screen? Is Kevin Durant really really possibly staying with the Phoenix Suns? Are you not buying any of it? Drop a comment down below. Leave a like on this video for more mini podcasts like this. Basketball breakdowns, draft analysis, free agency Fridays, interviews with the likes of Mark Stein and Tim Leggler. Well, we have that all right here with PHNX Suns on PHNX Sports. Hit that subscribe button. and hit that like button. Five star reviews on audio go a long long long way, a longer way than you can possibly imagine. For those of you listening on audio and of course if you like more Valley Sports, we have everything here at PHX Sports. From collegiate to MLB to NFL to even the Phoenix Rising and of course the Phoenix Mercury whose season is underway. You can get all of that right here on PHNX Sports. Until more news breaks and there’s more to talk about, we’ll see you soon.

Kevin Durant’s future with the Phoenix Suns has been in question since the trade deadline fiasco back in February, and while KD still is likely to be on the trading block this summer, Jake Fischer is reporting that 35 might also stay put in the desert. Erik Ruby unpacks what this could mean for both parties, if it’s the right move for Phoenix and how likely a return to playing with Devin Booker is for Durant on another PHNX Suns trending mini-pod!

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