There is a tried and true adage about the NBA over the last decade. If Kevin Durant wants to be on a new team, he will be on a new team.
Someone should pass along this memo to Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia.
Amid rumors that the Houston Rockets are interested in trading for Durant around the 2024 NBA Draft, Ishbia decided to quell these concerns in public. He posted a milquetoast, naive screed to his Twitter account about how Phoenix fans should effectively ignore the noise from the media and still focus on Durant, who he assured will be a key piece of a championship-contending Suns team.
Man, Ishbia doesn’t understand who he’s dealing with, does he?
NBA Draft night is the best. Everyone talking about the drama and storylines, some are right and some are just wrong.
My turn. Phoenix loves Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant loves Phoenix, and we are competing for a championship this year because we have the team to do it. Gotta…— Mat Ishbia (@Mishbia15) June 26, 2024
I’ll spell this out for Ishbia in the plainest terms.
Durant will be 36 by the time the next NBA season starts. The Suns have been his third team since the start of the decade. To no avail, he’s tried to recreate the title-winning magic of the late 2010s Golden State Warriors (something that will never happen again).
As it stands, the Suns have a top-heavy roster and are much more liable to screw up their offseason and reload a way-too-flawed team rather than blow it up. Why would Durant want to waste one of the last few years of his legendary NBA career in this tenuous situation? What, from his past, has given anyone in the Phoenix front office any comfort or indication that he won’t start forcing his hand the moment the Suns really go bottom up?
If Durant wants out, this remains a player’s league. There will be nothing Ishbia can do to stop the greatest mercenary in NBA history from deciding where his next chapter will be. Durant has all the leverage.