In Brooklyn, the Nets are still looking for answers after a 1-4 start to the season. Based on talent alone, they should be one of the best teams in the East — instead, they are hovering near the bottom with too many flaws to count.
For Kevin Durant, who is caught in the middle of it all, things could have turned out differently. After requesting a trade this summer, he named Phoenix and the Heat as his preferred destinations in hopes that one of those teams would have the will and the assets to trade for him.
Of course, neither scenario played out for Durant.
The Suns Apparently Rejected Kevin Durant For Deandre Ayton And Mikal Bridges
By the end of the summer, it became clear that neither team was going to strike a deal, especially the Suns. Despite what a big acquisition Durant would have been for them, Charles Barkley says they didn’t want to give up Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges.
“You know it’s so funny, living in Phoenix, these idiots like call me every day saying ‘what do you think?’ I says, ‘what do you mean what do I think?’ They says, ‘well they want a lot.’ I says, ‘Do they want Devin Booker and Chris Paul?’ They’re like, ‘no they don’t want them,’ I says, ‘well give it to them then!’ Chris Paul, KD, and Booker? We’re good. With those three guys — Chris is gonna be a leader… that takes responsibility away from KD, where he can just play basketball. They said, ‘well they want Ayton and Bridges.’ I said, ‘what a minute, y’all ain’t did that trade already? You’re gonna be able to keep Crowder, Cam Johnson. Ayton is a good player, Bridges is a good player but they ain’t KD and they ain’t ever gonna be. Y’all should have did that trade last week!”
Barkley thinks Phoenix should have traded for KD. If they kept Booker/CP3 I don’t disagree. Unclear if it was on the table but he seemed confident that it was.pic.twitter.com/V11HaPKlQj
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) October 27, 2022
We will never know why the Suns whiffed on the Durant sweepstakes. Had they been willing to give up Ayton, Bridges, and some picks, we would likely be watching their big three dominate the league right now.
Instead, they said no to all of that just to keep two above-average role players.
This season, the Suns will be playing to right their wrongs, but they’ll also be playing to ensure they don’t make Suns GM James Jones regret pulling the trigger on a Durant trade when he had the chance.
