The 2024-25 season is not going to have a good end for the Phoenix Suns. The 27-30 franchise is the 11th seed in the West right now but doesn’t have much room for improvement after a failed trade deadline where they couldn’t meaningfully improve their roster while alienating stars like Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal for shopping them on the trade market.
Durant slammed Arizona sportscaster Dan Bickley for blaming Devin Booker’s struggles on Durant. He tweeted his frustrations before promptly deleting them.
“Is he serious?? No way this is the narrative they running with in Phoenix. No way I’m hearing this right.”
“When Book plays great, I get no mention. When he has a tough game, it’s somehow because of my presence?? That logic is crazy Dan Bickley.”
Bickley’s full comment essentially blamed Durant for being too laid-back, which in his belief has adversely affected Booker’s game.
“The Devin Booker is the real heavy piece. I don’t want Devin Booker gone but I do want the old Devin Booker back. He had a good offensive game yesterday but he just isn’t the same guy he was. There’s a lot of people I talk to, and I’m just being real here, who say the exact same thing. KD has had a bad effect on Devin Booker.”
“The chill vibe of Kevin Durant has brought down Devin Booker’s temperature and it’s noticeable in the way he talks and conducts himself.”
This about sums up why I personally feel media tries to rip teams apart. So KD is the reason why Book isn't playing well? Yep I've heard it all. pic.twitter.com/xbDKxjRUhG
— Kevin (@Kevin72506425) February 24, 2025
The fact that Arizona media thinks Durant is at fault for the catastrophic dismantling of a contender over the last few years is insane.
You could say that the Suns’ best chance at contention in the Devin Booker era ended when they acquired Durant from the Brooklyn Nets, but that deal was a brainchild of new owner Mat Ishbia, as GM James Jones believed the Nets asked for too much.
Giving up all those assets for Durant forced the team into making ancillary moves like trading Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton for Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic, acquisitions that have completely nuked the team’s future capital and current window of success.
They had to cap dump Nurkic this winter and couldn’t trade off Beal despite their best efforts due to his supermax contract with a no-trade clause.
Durant has averaged 26.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists this season, living up to his status as a franchise piece on the court.
He hadn’t even been in any real controversies as a Sun until it came out that the team tried trading him behind his back over the winter. That has put a nail in the coffin of this relationship, with Durant widely expected to join a new team in the summer.
A lot of factors have gone into the Suns’ current state as a franchise in limbo, but Durant individually isn’t to blame. Booker tried putting on too many hats on the court to fill up the gaps, which naturally affected his scoring. Nonetheless, Booker is averaging 26.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 6.7 assists this season.
If the franchise believes in Booker still, they’ll likely use the Durant trade to give Booker the co-stars he needs to compete. They tore away a contending roster in the winter of 2023 to acquire Durant, but that doesn’t make it fair to blame Durant for all the subsequent decisions that have sunk the franchise in the two years since then.
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