{"id":122036,"date":"2025-02-05T13:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T18:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=122036"},"modified":"2025-02-05T12:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T17:24:11","slug":"suns-should-make-kevin-durant-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/05\/suns-should-make-kevin-durant-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Suns Should Trade Away This Star ASAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is less than a day left before the 2025 NBA trade deadline<\/a>! Teams are currently in a scramble to decide whether they want to make major changes to their roster for the rest of the season or ride with the squads they have. Phoenix Suns trade rumors<\/a> have been at the center of much of the conversation this deadline. First, they grabbed Nick Richards<\/a>\u00a0and since then have been thoroughly connected to Jimmy Butler<\/a>. Recently, reports have emerged that the Suns are considering a Kevin Durant<\/a> trade, potentially part of acquiring Butler. We are going to examine why getting rid of Durant, for Butler or otherwise, would be a wise move for the Suns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Phoenix Suns Should Trade Away Kevin Durant ASAP<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Phoenix Suns Trade Rumors<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Suns are not satisfied. Can you blame them? The team is barely above .500 and is the 9th seed in the West. When Matt Ishbia bought the team and traded for Durant, these were not the results that he envisioned. The trio of Durant, Bradley Beal<\/a>, and Devin Booker<\/a> does not seem to be working out, and the Suns may need to make some changes quickly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even with Booker and Durant having solid seasons, the Suns haven\u2019t been able to find their grip in the Western Conference rat race. They are only 12th in <\/span>offensive rating<\/span><\/a> and 22nd in defensive rating<\/a>. That won\u2019t cut it. Now the Suns are considering shaking things up by trading Durant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the Suns Should Trade Durant<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Trading Durant may be the best way for the Suns to find a way out of mediocrity. He still has a ton of value in the trade market, and the Suns could use this deadline as an opportunity to get younger and more flexible for the future. Since Beal doesn\u2019t seem interested in waiving his no-trade clause, flipping Durant for pieces, picks, or both is looking more enticing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if the Suns end up getting Butler, who isn\u2019t much of an upgrade over Durant, he could provide a lot of flexibility for them. Butler\u2019s contract is up at the end of this season. On top of that, Butler does bring some elite defensive skills to the table, something the Suns are lacking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Kevin Durant Trade and Repositioning for the Future<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If the Suns decide against trading Durant for Butler, there are still multiple other options. For one the Suns could choose to get younger. If Durant is on the way out, it would be a clear indication that Booker is who they want to build around. Booker is only 28 years old, while Durant is already 36.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Picking up some draft picks and or younger players would help the Suns better position for the future. That could be enticing because what they have going on in the present just isn\u2019t working. The Warriors are a team who have been linked as having interest in Durant, and they have Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> and Andrew Wiggins<\/a>. Both of those players are on a more similar timeline with Booker. Draymond Green<\/a> is another name that has been linked<\/a> to the Suns. He could help bring up that weak defensive rating of the Suns.\u00a0 <\/span>Right now the Suns seem to have limited options at getting better, but trading Durant could provide them with a lot more options.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Allan Henry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is less than a day left before the 2025 NBA trade deadline! Teams are currently in a scramble to decide whether they want to make major changes to their roster for the rest of the season or ride with the squads they have. Phoenix Suns trade rumors have been at the center of much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":122082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,25,62,28,4721],"tags":[212,311,352,409,142,4297,69,2978],"class_list":["post-122036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-warriors","category-nba","category-suns","category-trade-rumors","tag-andrew-wiggins","tag-bradley-beal","tag-devin-booker","tag-draymond-green","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-kevin-durant","tag-nick-richards"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122036"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122083,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122036\/revisions\/122083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}