Suns Won’t Commit to Trading Kevin Durant to a Preferred Destination

Durant has a few teams he'd be interested in playing for, but the Suns plan to trade him to the team that yields the franchise its greatest return.

Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant has played his last game in the franchise's uniform. / Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

The Phoenix Suns are working with Kevin Durant and his agent and business manager, Rich Kleiman, in trade talks as the Suns look to move on from the 36-year-old 15-time all-star.

Durant has presented the Suns with a list of preferred destinations. That list includes the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Miami Heat.

While the Suns would like to help Durant and send him to a destination of his choice, they're not committed to it. According to a report from NBA insider Marc Stein, the Suns are "not promising to send Durant to any of those destinations."

They're certainly open to sending him to any of the three franchises if the return is beneficial to the Suns, but Phoenix is angling to get back as much as they can after offloading a historic load of assets to acquire Durant in February of 2023.

The Suns traded away Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks and a 2028 pick swap to the Brooklyn Nets for the future Hall of Famer.

It's unreasonable to expect a return like that for Durant now, as he is two years older. But the Suns are going to do what they can as they try to acquire assets for Durant, who is still an unbelievably good offensive player as he approaches his late 30s.

---

More NBA on Sports Illustrated

feed