Tag: Phoenix Suns

Why the Suns are (probably) not trading Kevin Durant back to the Warriors

The momentum has calmed on KD.

For a brief period, several NBA reporters were suggesting that Kevin Durant would potentially reunite with the Golden State Warriors.

Now, however, it seems those talks have stalled and a potential deal is no longer likely. There are several reasons why a deal fails to materialize, but based on the reporting it seems that the main reason this one did not happen is due to hesitance from Durant.

Here is the latest from Marc Stein and Jake Fischer (via The Stein Line):

“1. There is a distinct sense percolating now that Durant does not want to be traded at all this week … to the extent that he can control it.

2. It is believed that Durant has some serious reservations about a second Warriors stint if he were to be shipped there.”

Durant does not have a no-trade clause, but as noted by Chris Haynes, the Warriors would not have much interest in trading for Durant if he does not actually want to play there.

Shams Charania offered a similar take as well (via ESPN):

“The Warriors have been seriously pursuing Kevin Durant over the last week. But sources tell me that Durant has no desire in a reunion with the Warriors. He does not want to go back to the Warriors, where he won two championships, where he won two Finals MVPs … One thing is clear around the league right now, that’s Kevin Durant does not want to go back to the Warriors in any trade. So for the Warriors, do they continue this pursuit of Kevin Durant?”

If the Warriors were to go after him despite his lack of interest, it won’t come cheap.

Here is the reported cost, according to Sam Amick (via The Athletic):

“In exploratory conversations, the Warriors have only been met with an exorbitant asking price in theoretical structures — essentially everything of future value — considering the tricky spot the Suns seem to find themselves. League sources say four-time All-Star forward Draymond Green, who has an established relationship with fellow Michigan State alum and Suns owner Mat Ishbia, is among the Warriors players Phoenix is known to covet.”

Golden State is simply not going to give up “everything of future value” for a player who does not want to play for them.

So that is probably why ESPN’s Marc Spears reported that the deal is “dead” currently.

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Devin Booker had the perfect 3-word Luka Doncic trade response on Twitter

MIC DROP.

Devin Booker and Luka Doncic have had quite the rivalry over the years in the NBA that’s included some trash talk.

But it all began with the Luka smiling at Booker meme in 2022. And for some reason, the Dallas Mavericks revisited that in a tweet this past week, with the caption, “OK last one we swear.”

The timing couldn’t have been more coincidental. The Mavs just traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, so of course Booker had to weigh in.

TRADE GRADES: Who won the Lakers-Mavericks deal?

Booker responded to that tweet and said, “Kept their word.” MIC DROP!

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Kevin Durant and Gary Payton show love with trash talk during Suns’ win

Durant confirmed he was mic’d up for Netflix during the exchange.

Kevin Durant is one of the best trash talkers of his generation. Gary Payton is one of the best of his era.

Was there any chance the two wouldn’t jaw at each other as Payton sat courtside in San Francisco with Durant’s Suns in town? Of course not. This is Gary Payton, after all. The same guy who, as a rookie tried to talk trash to Michael Jordan in a preseason game.

The best part however, is just how much Durant and Payton seemed to appreciate and respect the vitriol they directed at each other.

Let’s pick it up in the third quarter, when cameras clearly caught the two icons going at it:

It appeared the back-and-forth got Durant going on the court as he nailed three 3-pointers right before the end of the quarter, but Durant denied that was the case.

“If I needed to show him that minute of basketball to let him know what I’ve been doing out here … I’ve got 18 years of footage,” Durant said postgame per ESPN. “That minute ain’t do much. He knew that was coming.”

Even better: Payton seemed to be all about it. The two shared a nice laugh after Durant’s outburst.

Payton — who’s son Gary Payton II finished with three points and three rebounds for Golden State in a 130-105 loss — told ESPN he was “just talking junk” with Durant.

The Suns’ star, however seemed to be a little bit more serious about his antics — or at least continued to commit to the bit after the win.

“It’s always good when I run into an older player, especially if they played in the ’90s, because they feel like that’s the golden years of the NBA. So I try to let them know, especially GP, I try to let them know what it would have been like if they’d have been on the court with me. They tend to talk down on the mentality of our era’s players.

“G’s a great sport about it — one of my favorite players, somebody I look up to, got major respect for.”

The best part of all: Durant confirmed he was mic’d up during the game for the next season of Netflix’s Starting 5, so we’re sure to get the full conversation between him an Payton soon enough.

We cannot wait to see that footage.

The Suns just agreed to an extremely weird (and potentially awful!) trade with the Jazz for a shot at Jimmy Butler

The Suns are moving heaven and earth to try and get Jimmy Butler.

Jimmy Butler wants to be a Phoenix Sun. The Phoenix Suns want Jimmy Butler. But neither side really has the juice to make it happen.

That may have changed late on Tuesday night.

BUTLER TRADE DESTINATIONS: The Phoenix Suns are at the top of the list for the Heat star.

The Suns made a trade with the Utah Jazz that might just be able to move the needle a tad bit in the right direction for Phoenix. The deal won’t necessarily get them anything today. But the Suns likely don’t ever plan on actually making these picks.

This trade is more about what the deal could mean in the very near future for Phoenix.

The trade details

Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

The Suns traded a future 2031 first-round pick — their only tradeable draft pick — to the Utah Jazz for three future firsts, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

  • The least favorable first-round pick in 2025 between the Cavaliers, Timberwolves and Jazz (protected).
  • The least-favorable first-round pick in 2027 between the Cavaliers, Timberwolves and Jazz.
  • The least-favorable first-round pick in 2029 between the Cavaliers, Timberwolves (protected) and Jazz.

The Suns spent a 2031 first-round pick to add a bit of nutrition to a cupboard that was completely emptied out after the Kevin Durant trade.

What difference does this make? The Suns need help right now, not in 2029.

Right! But that’s the thing. These picks could potentially bring the Suns some help right now.

It’s no secret that this team is vying for Butler. Butler also seems to want to be there — he’s even wearing Phoenix Suns colored sneakers these days.

https://www.instagram.com/soleretriever/p/DFHRadHpwkR

But the Suns don’t really have the juice to get him. They’ve got the salary — a straight-up Bradley Beal for Jimmy Butler swap would work. But that’s likely not all the Heat would want back in a trade for Butler. Some sort of draft compensation would sweeten the pot and make a conversation between these two teams go a bit smoother.

So, can the Suns trade for Butler now?

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Well, not exactly. Again, the trade is certainly doable now. But there’s a wrinkle in this that might stand in the way of it getting done.

Bradley Beal has a no-trade clause.

It’s the same no-trade clause that allowed Beal to orchestrate his way from Washington to Phoenix. Basically, he can contractually nix any proposed trade without his approval. If he doesn’t want to leave Phoenix, he won’t.

It’s unclear whether he actually would or not. As he’s said before, he holds the cards in this scenario.

This seems like a lot for the Suns. Is it worth it?

That’s the question that nobody really seems to be asking. The Suns are jumping through a lot of hoops and hurdles for a 37-year-old star that appears to be well out of his prime at this point.

Phoenix is getting ready to move massive amounts of salary and potential draft picks to get Butler and, while he’d certainly make the team better, the Suns certainly wouldn’t be a lock as a Finals contender. Meanwhile, Phoenix traded the only tradeable draft asset it had left to try and get Butler.

By the way, we have no idea what the Suns will look like in 2031. The stars currently playing for the team will undoubtedly no longer be there. Even if they were (KEVIN DURANT WHY HAVEN’T YOU RETIRED BY NOW), they’d be far beyond the prime of their careers. The Suns could be worse than they are now and the Jazz would be reaping the benefits.

It makes you wonder whether this whole thing is actually worth it or not. Personally? I think the answer is no.

NBA Christmas announcers 2024: Who’s calling every game on ABC?

Here’s who’s announcing every NBA Christmas game in 2024.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year in the NBA.

Christmas Day is a tradition like no other in the association, and we’ve got quite a smorgasbord of high-flying, high-quality basketball to watch all day on the holiday.

READ MORE: The best sporting events to watch on Christmas Day 2024

If you’re here, you’re probably looking for answers about who is announcing all five NBA games sprinkled throughout the day and how you can watch. Fortunately, everything is rather simple and laid out perfectly by the league and its TV partners.

All five NBA games taking place on Christmas 2024 will be simulcast on ABC, ESPN, Disney+, and ESPN+. You can watch them on any of the platforms as you see fit. The announcers for each game are listed below.

(All times listed are in Eastern.)

San Antonio Spurs at New York Knicks, at 12 p.m.

Ryan Ruocco, Cory Alexander, Cassidy Hubbarth

Minnesota Timberwolves at Dallas Mavericks, at 2:30 p.m.

Mark Jones, Jay Bilas, Jorge Sedano

Philadelphia 76ers at Boston Celtics, at 5 p.m.

Dave Pasch, Tim Legler, Katie George

Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors, at 8 p.m.

Mike Breen, Doris Burke, Richard Jefferson, Lisa Salters

Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns, at 10:30 p.m.

Michael Grady, Stephanie White, Angel Gray

Suns owner Mat Ishbia unveiled perfectly cheap concession prices and every pro sports team should follow

Every sports team should follow the Suns’ lead here.

If you’ve attended a professional sporting event recently, you may have noticed that it costs an arm and a leg to get something to eat inside your team’s stadium. After already sometimes shelling out hundreds of dollars just to get a seat, you’re dropping another small fortune for food and drinks, making the whole idea of attending a game in person untenable for many people.

For his basketball team, at least, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is trying to change this unfortunate reality.

On Wednesday, Ishbia unveiled new super-cheap concession prices on a “value menu” inside the Suns’ home arena. When you go to a Suns game now, you can get a hot dog, a Dasani water, a soda, a bag of chips, and a bag of popcorn for roughly $10 (without tax, I imagine). Total.

That is unfathomable for most big-time sporting events these days.

And it’s so welcome:

I think somewhere along the way, sports leagues forgot that seeing their game in person is supposed to be an enjoyable, accessible experience for fans. Yes, leagues like the NBA are a business, but they shouldn’t feel like an exploitative cash grab when you want to see some guys jump out of the gym. Basic life necessities things are so expensive these days. People are absolutely going to choose to pay for them instead of seeing live basketball or football or soccer, what have you, when it comes down to it.

If you want to entertain people and rope them into your brand and product, you must make it much more attainable. Ishbia doing this for the Suns and Phoenix fans is a good start. Here’s hoping sports teams in America everywhere similarly start following suit.

The NBA Cup’s schedule loophole directly contradicts what the tournament was trying to prevent

The NBA Cup schedule is ruining its own mission and there’s no real way to fix it.

The biggest reason NBA commissioner Adam Silver wanted to institute the NBA Cup was to inject interest in a long, arduous 82-game season.

The common refrain was that many casual league observers didn’t start paying attention to it until after the All-Star Break in late February. That’s because many NBA teams and stars don’t take the early portions of the season all that seriously themselves. You should compare November to April basketball yourself someday soon when you get the time. The difference is night and day.

So, here’s a tournament like the NBA Cup with fancy, temporary courts and gaudy jerseys designed to add an extra competitive edge to the part of the year when many squads are still clearly easing their way into the action.

Sounds simple and straightforward, right?

As we enter the knockout rounds of the 2024 NBA Cup, Silver and his cronies failed to account for a significant loophole in the proceedings. As it stands, the 22 NBA teams who don’t qualify for the knockout rounds essentially get almost a week off, just about six weeks into the regular season.

In effect, this schedule loophole directly contradicts what the NBA Cup was trying to prevent.

Look at the below schedule. The next non-NBA Cup game isn’t until Thursday, December 12! The overwhelming majority of the league already eliminated from this year’s Cup play is getting three, four, or even five days off right before the holiday season. And because the NBA is trying to center the remaining Cup teams with a bigger spotlight, it can’t meaningfully shift around the schedule to mitigate this gap. It doesn’t want non-Cup teams playing when the quarterfinals are happening.

We cannot underestimate how valuable this is to NBA players who play games every other night, play back-to-backs, and travel cross-country all the time.

None of them were born yesterday because they can see how the schedule shakes out in advance:

This isn’t to say that NBA teams want to deliberately miss their chances at winning the Cup. I’m sure some measure of the cash prize motivates many squads, especially those with younger players who have yet to earn lucrative contracts. They’re not going to stop trying altogether.

But put yourself in the shoes of a head coach or superstar for a second.

If it’s mid-November and your team is nursing some light injuries before an NBA Cup group stage matchup, are you really gonna go all out there when you’re trying to play the long game and compete in the spring for the Larry O’Brien Trophy?

If it’s mid-November and your thin-depth hopeful title contender team (like, say, the Denver Nuggets) is trying to get off to a good start by playing everyone heavy early-season minutes, maybe you look at the NBA Cup schedule and realize you get a built-in break that makes that bold, development plan easier to institute if you miss out on the knockout rounds.

If you’re a reigning champion like the Boston Celtics, why not get more rest now as you plan to play two extra months of basketball later this season? There are bigger fish to fry.

If you’re a veteran team with older stars like the Los Angeles Lakers or Phoenix Suns, wouldn’t you want a week of rest instead? Remember that if you go all the way, you’re also playing an extra 83rd regular-season game, which doesn’t count in the standings, either.

Oof.

Perhaps I’m being too cynical. Maybe NBA players care a lot more about the NBA Cup than I realize. I’m willing to hear arguments to the contrary.

But I’ve seen enough patterns from league organizations already to suggest they understand there aren’t any real consequences for failing to advance to the knockout rounds. (Not that there should be; that would be silly, too.) If anything, they know that if they fall short of the Cup early, they get a massive benefit of rest that is extremely rare within the context of the entire season.

This Cup schedule gap is something the NBA will, unfortunately, never be able to account for. I don’t think players and coaches want the league to figure it out, either.

Grayson Allen, two other former Duke basketball stars attended Arizona game

A trio of former Duke basketball stars, including Grayson Allen, attended Friday night’s game against the Arizona Wildcats together.

[autotag]Grayson Allen[/autotag], Tyus Jones, and Mason Plumlee attended Duke’s victory over the Arizona Wildcats together on Friday night.

The Blue Devils shared a photo of the trio, now teammates on the Phoenix Suns in the NBA.

All three of them won a national title during their time in Durham. Plumlee, the oldest of the three, played 14.1 minutes per game as a freshman on the 2010 championship team. He became a more productive scorer with each successive season, peaking with a 2012-13 senior campaign that included 17.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per night.

Jones and Allen played together on the 2014-15 team, the last Duke roster to hang a banner. Jones only spent one season with the team, averaging 11.8 points and 5.6 assists before getting drafted with the 24th overall pick. Allen, on the other hand, stayed for four seasons. His 1,996 career points are the most by any Blue Devil since 2010.

With all three champions together once again, the Phoenix Suns sport a 9-7 record so far this NBA season. Jones leads the team with 6.9 assists per night, and he and Allen both produce at least 10 points per game.

Stephen A. Smith reacted after ‘lying’ Kevin Durant called him a clown

Their beef is already in midseason form!

The NBA season is still early, but ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant are already in the middle of a beef.

Last month during a segment on First Take, the sports commentator said that he doesn’t have much belief in a Suns organization led by Durant. This struck a nerve with Durant, who replied to a clip of the video posted on social media after it aired.

Durant was recently asked about the criticism from Smith, and he did not hold back with his thoughts. He called the ESPN talking head a “clown” and said that he never even sees Smith attending games or practices (via The Athletic):

“Yeah, Stephen A., I don’t understand how people even listen to Stephen A.,” he told The Athletic. “I’ve been in the league for 18 years. I’ve never seen Stephen A. at a practice, or a film session, or a shoot-around. I’ve never seen him anywhere but on TV talking s— about players. … He’s a clown to me. He’s always been a clown. You can write that, too.”

Smith predictably took issue with these claims and explained why Durant was perhaps incorrect in this assessment.

Here is more from Smith:

“I got bad news for Kevin Durant. If you’re expecting me to reciprocate with that kind of pettiness and childishness, it’s not going to happen … Respectfully, Kevin Durant, could you stop lying please? I’ve been an NBA reporter and I was a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer as well. Kevin Durant has seen me in the locker room when he was in Oklahoma City. He has seen me in the locker room when he was at Golden State. He has certainly seen me at games throughout his career. But unfortunately for him, I don’t have to be at shoot-around and I don’t have to be in the postgame locker room. I happen to have a hit show that’s been number one for twelve years. I have other things to do with my time. I go to games all the time. I’m not a beat reporter any more.”

Smith is absolutely correct in that his responsibilities at ESPN have grown far beyond anything that would require him to need locker room access.

But it makes sense that Durant would find it frustrating to hear Smith criticize his leadership abilities if he isn’t actually there to see what that even looks like.

Smith then wondered who is allowed to actually speak about Durant, as the NBA superstar has gotten upset when Charles Barkley and Shannon Sharpe (as well as current players like CJ McCollum) have called him out before as well.

He added that Durant is one of the greatest players to ever play the game but noted his “sensitivity” and “petulance” and “flagrant immaturity” as well.

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2024-25 Phoenix Suns: A quick preview

Aside from the addition of Tyus Jones at point guard, the real shift for Phoenix this season comes with the arrival of new head coach Mike Budenholzer, who replaces Frank Vogel. Budenholzer’s defensive pedigree could be the missing piece to push the …

Aside from the addition of Tyus Jones at point guard, the real shift for Phoenix this season comes with the arrival of new head coach Mike Budenholzer, who replaces Frank Vogel. Budenholzer’s defensive pedigree could be the missing piece to push the Suns further in their title quest, especially after the team finished 13th in defensive efficiency last season. His system, which emphasizes tough defense and ball movement, should complement the offensive firepower of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal. While the Suns didn’t make significant upgrades in the offseason, Budenholzer’s ability to maximize his players’ potential might elevate their performance across the board.