Suns Receive A- Grade for Kevin Durant Trade
The Phoenix Suns can be considered winners from the league's Feb. 9 trade deadline after securing the likes of Kevin Durant and TJ Warren from the Brooklyn Nets.
A heavy cost was extracted to gain them, however. Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder and four first-round picks made their way to Brooklyn in return for Durant.
Bleacher Report's Dan Favale graded each trade made at the deadline. Here's what he offered on Phoenix's deal for Durant:
Suns Receive A- Grade for Kevin Durant Trade
Suns: A-
"New team governors love to make a splash. And, well, the incoming Matt Ishbia just manufactured a tidal wave, replete with a jacked-up luxury-tax bill and everything," said Favale.
"Durant immediately transforms the Suns into one of the West's foremost favorites, if not its de facto squad to beat. (The Denver Nuggets exist, people.) Pairing him with Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton fills the league's current superteam void. There is no overstating how dangerous Phoenix becomes now.
"Fitting the pieces together will be a non-issue. Durant has played off other superstars at every single stop, and Booker's own superstardom is in part born from his infinite scalability. Ayton may lust after a larger on-ball role, but he is already accustomed to play-finishing duty and has looked the part of a plug-and-dominate max center in recent games.
"This is not to say the Suns have skirted any risk. This trade is nothing if not inundated with pitfalls. Durant is 34, not a billboard for pristine availability and mega expensive going forward. (Phoenix upped its tax bill by more than $35 million with this deal.) Paul is 37. This team's title window is more ultra-finite than open-ended. Which is OK, because its previous window may have already shut prior to landing KD.
"Whether surrendering this amount of draft comes back to bite them will be a matter of course. But the package is less, ultimately, than Minnesota coughed up for Rudy Gobert and hardly egregious relative to landing an all-time great not yet out of his prime.
"Completing this deal having jettisoned just one of Bridges and Ayton rather than both is a victory—though not a convenient one. Approximating Bridges' defensive value with the current roster isn't possible. Phoenix is light on point-of-attack stoppers and can buy only so much time leaning on Torrey Craig or Josh Okogie. It would have been easy to find a replacement big, in Ayton's stead, if he had been included and approved the trade.
"That alternative wasn't on the table, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Bridges is the far more valuable player, and Brooklyn couldn't possibly have real interest in Ayton with both Nic Claxton and Simmons on the roster.
"The Suns really, actually got Kevin Durant. And in doing so, they not only bumped up their highest-end outcome but reinforced their appeal as a marquee-player destination. For now, almost nothing else matters."
