{"id":132445,"date":"2025-04-02T12:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=132445"},"modified":"2025-04-02T12:57:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T16:57:00","slug":"kevin-durant-should-request-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/02\/kevin-durant-should-request-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Kevin Durant Should Request a Trade This Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns’ season is looking like it is going to end in a complete failure. They are a game and a half out of the 10th seed, fully at risk of missing the playoffs completely. On top of that, Kevin Durant<\/a>\u2019s ankle injury<\/a> will have him out during crucial games. The Suns’ Play-In Tournament hopes are dwindling by the day, and rumors have already started circling about some major changes the Suns could be making this offseason. There have been reports of the possibility that the Suns could trade Durant<\/a> this offseason. However, some <\/span>recent Suns news<\/span><\/a> just surfaced that some league sources think Durant could be open to returning to the Suns this offseason. That would be a huge mistake for Durant\u2019s career. Let’s dive into why a Kevin Durant trade request would be better for him and the team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Kevin Durant Should Request A Trade This Summer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Suns Are a Sinking Ship<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Even if the Suns are somehow able to climb their way back into the playoff picture, they aren\u2019t going to make a deep playoff run. The Suns are ranked <\/span>27th in defensive efficiency<\/span><\/a>. It is really hard to win games with a defense that bad. The Suns have dealt with injuries and chemistry issues since bringing Durant, Devin Booker<\/a>, and Bradley Beal<\/a> together, but in reality, the team combo has never been that good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things aren\u2019t looking up, either. The Suns have given up almost all of their assets to create the team they have now, and making small moves on the margin of the roster won\u2019t be enough to push this team into title contention. A player like Durant shouldn\u2019t waste the last years of his prime on a team that isn\u2019t going to be able to contend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is why there is a large possibility of a Durant trade this summer. There has been tons of speculation about this through Durant\u2019s comments, as well as the fact that the team tried to trade him this trade deadline. Many believed it was an inevitability that Durant would wear dawn a different jersey next season. Now, Logan Murdock of The Ringer<\/em> is saying some believe he actually could stay in Phoenix. That would be a big mistake for Durant and the Suns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Durant Should Seek Greener Pastures<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At this point in his career, Durant should be competing for a title. He can still be the best (or second-best) player on a championship team. That isn\u2019t going to happen in Phoenix. That\u2019s why Durant should ask out this summer. He likely would have the ability to dictate where he is traded, and there are plenty of teams that would give him a much better chance at winning another ring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Suns also would benefit from pressing the reset button. The Durant-Booker-Beal trio is definitely not working. Trading Durant could bring them back some assets and flexibility to retool around Booker. Or maybe things are bad enough that they would consider trading Booker as well. So even though Durant could be interested in staying in Phoenix, barring a miracle in the last month or two of the season, it would probably be best for the two parties to part ways this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The Phoenix Suns’ season is looking like it is going to end in a complete failure. They are a game and a half out of the 10th seed, fully at risk of missing the playoffs completely. On top of that, Kevin Durant\u2019s ankle injury will have him out during crucial games. The Suns’ Play-In Tournament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":132463,"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":[1608,62,3,28],"tags":[311,352,69],"class_list":["post-132445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-suns","tag-bradley-beal","tag-devin-booker","tag-kevin-durant"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132445","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=132445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132464,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132445\/revisions\/132464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}