The 2024-25 season has ended in disappointment for Kevin Durant, with the Phoenix Suns failing to make even the Play-In Tournament. This has, unfortunately, started to become the norm for Durant now, as he hasn’t even made the Conference Finals since leaving the Golden State Warriors in 2019 for the Brooklyn Nets.
You wouldn’t expect an all-time great who is still regarded as one of the very best players in the NBA to have such a long stretch without much postseason success. It’s not as if Durant hasn’t had a good supporting cast during this time, either, as he has played alongside some special players.
So, is it time to re-evaluate where Durant stands in the NBA today? Has he been overrated considering his lack of postseason success in the last five seasons? Let’s have a look.
We start off with the 2020-21 season. Durant was, of course, coming off an Achilles tear that he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals, but it sure wasn’t bothering him. He averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 0.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game for the Nets in that campaign.
Durant suffered a severe hamstring injury during the season but was healthy by the time the playoffs came around. Unfortunately for him and the Nets, the injury bug struck his co-stars in the postseason.
The Nets eased past the Boston Celtics in the first round, but then lost James Harden to a hamstring injury in Game 1 of the Conference Semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks. Kyrie Irving then sprained his ankle in Game 4 and ended up missing the rest of the series.
Harden managed to return in Game 5, but was clearly still hampered by the hamstring. That meant Durant had to carry the team on his back, and his 49-point triple-double in Game 5 would give the Nets a 3-2 lead. They wouldn’t win another game, though, as the Bucks won the next two to knock them out.
Durant’s toe was famously on the line in Game 7, and his post-Warriors career would be looked at differently if it wasn’t. He averaged 34.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game in the 2021 playoffs and certainly doesn’t deserve any blame for the Nets coming up short that season.
We get to the 2021-22 season next, and this was one filled with turmoil off the court, thanks to Irving not taking the COVID-19 vaccine and Harden’s trade request. Durant put up exceptional averages of 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game, but the Nets finished seventh in the East with a 44-38 record.
They faced the Celtics again in the first round, but this time, the tables had turned. The Nets were swept, with Durant averaging 26.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game. He only shot 38.6% from the field and did deserve a chunk of the blame for the early exit.
That would be Durant’s last playoff series with the Nets, as he headed to the Suns midway through the 2022-23 season. He ended up averaging 29.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game for the two teams.
The Suns entered the playoffs as the fourth seed and dispatched an injury-riddled Los Angeles Clippers outfit in five games in the first round. They faced the Denver Nuggets in the Conference Semifinals, and while Durant impressed against them, he was outshone by Nikola Jokic. You could argue that even Devin Booker played better than he did, but their combined efforts weren’t enough.
The Nuggets beat the Suns in six games, registering blowout wins in Games 5 and 6. Durant averaged 24.5 points per game in those two losses, which is good, but not great. He ended that postseason with averages of 29.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game.
While you can’t be too hard on Durant for 2023, this wasn’t like 2021, where you couldn’t blame him at all. He came up well short in a titanic battle with Jokic.
The following 2023-24 season would see Durant average 27.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Suns finished as the sixth seed with a 49-33 record and were up against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. They had won the season series 3-0, and there was some optimism heading into that clash.
The Timberwolves flipped the script in the playoffs, though, as they swept the Suns. Durant played better than he did in that sweep against the Celtics, with averages of 26.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 0.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game. It still wasn’t enough to win even one game, though.
Just as the year before, Durant was outshone by the superstar on the opposing team, with it being Anthony Edwards this time. It was starting to look like Durant could no longer stamp his authority in these high-profile playoff series.
Durant didn’t get an opportunity to make amends for that sweep this year, as the Suns finished 11th in the West with a 36-46 record. He averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game but was powerless to prevent his team from having a losing record.
So, in all, you’d say that except for 2020-21, Durant doesn’t really have much of an excuse for coming up short. Sure, the 15-time All-Star’s teams might not have always been well constructed, but he has been completely outplayed on the big stage by some big names.
It seems that while Durant is still a great player, he has not been good enough to be the best one on a title-winning team for a while. Those days could be well and truly behind him, and it might be time to drop the 36-year-old down a little bit when we list the best players in the NBA today.
