My Look at the Suns Getting KD
Okay, so that whole Suns and Kevin Durant trade, right? I remember when the news finally broke. It wasn’t exactly a shocker, people had been talking about it forever, but seeing it actually happen was something else.
First thing I did, like probably everyone else, was try to figure out exactly who went where. Had to really look it up piece by piece.
Here’s what I jotted down:
- Phoenix got: Kevin Durant. The big prize.
- Brooklyn got: Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder (though he didn’t stick around there long), and a whole heap of first-round picks. Like, four or five of them, plus maybe swaps? It was a lot.
My immediate thought was, wow, that’s a steep price. Bridges and Johnson were good, young players. They were like the heart of that team that went to the Finals a couple of years back. Giving them up, plus all those future picks? That’s betting the entire farm, basically.
You gotta understand, the Suns, they’ve been good before. Really good sometimes, back in the day. Six division titles, couple of Finals trips. But they’ve never actually won the whole thing. Zero championships. So you can see why they’d push all their chips in for a guy like KD.
Then KD gets there and pretty much gets hurt right away. That kind of put a damper on things, didn’t it? Didn’t quite hit the ground running like everyone expected. It just showed that even loading up talent doesn’t guarantee anything.
It was interesting watching the reactions. Some folks were certain it meant instant championship. Others were worried they gave up too much depth, too much of their future. I was kind of in the middle, thinking it was a huge gamble.
What Happened Next and Other Buzz
So they didn’t win it all that first season with KD. Not really surprising when you shake things up that much mid-season and deal with injuries.
And the noise doesn’t stop. You started hearing all sorts of other stuff. Remember when KD first wanted out of Brooklyn? Teams like Minnesota, New York, Miami, San Antonio were all mentioned. Shows how much demand there is for a player like him.
Then, after the season, the speculation machine really cranked up. I even saw some crazy proposal online suggesting the Suns trade Booker! Something about sending him to Portland for a bunch of players like Simons, Thybulle, Sharpe and a ton of picks and swaps way down the line. Sounded nuts to me, but it shows the kind of pressure cooker situation these big trades create. When you go all-in like the Suns did, and it doesn’t work out right away, people start wondering what the next big move is.
So yeah, that trade. It was a massive event. Changed the whole landscape for the Suns. Cost them a ton. Still waiting to see if it actually brings them that championship they’ve been chasing forever. Definitely one for the books, watching how it all plays out.
