From OKC's cherished hero to basketball's ultimate mercenary, KD's career is a trail leaves fans wondering how his tenure might end in Houston.
Future Hall of Fame forward Kevin Durant had a tumultuous tenure in Phoenix. Something that Rockets fans are hoping to avoid in Houston, considering it’s not exactly a new occurrence for him. Some might say it’s a trend.
I think everyone knows about his first NBA “breakup” when he left OKC. The betrayal that shocked the basketball world.
Exactly ten years ago, it was impossible to see Durant as a journeyman or a mercenary. The Thunder were 55-26 and had two superstars. Him and Westbrook had a 3-1 lead in the Conference Finals against the 73-9 Warriors.
But when Chef Curry and Game 6 Klay took over, the longtime Thunder duo split. Durant stunned the world and joined the team that just defeated him. He went on to win two championships, and the rest is history.
Well not exactly. On the road to his third ring and hopefully third Finals MVP, the legend had a major setback. An Achilles injury would keep him out for the entire next season, but he was a free agent.
We all knew it was over in Golden State before the injury, as the team was imploding for months. That’s still a terrible way to go out, but when you’re as good as Kevin Durant, teams will pay you hundreds of millions for the hope that you’ll return to your old self.
That’s exactly what KD did. StatMuse shows he averaged 29.0 points on 50-40-90 shooting splits in Brooklyn. This was some incredible basketball to watch, as Kyrie also shot 50-40-90 for the whole season in 2020-2021.
Unfortunately they never had much success for the Nets. Availability played a big role in that, as Durant only played 43 games per season. Understandable for a guy returning from injury, plus seasons were shortened for a global pandemic.
His main reason for leaving Brooklyn was arguably the instability of his teammates. Harden and Irving already bailed, and Ben Simmons wasn’t playing basketball games. He still isn’t.
Phoenix seemed like a reasonable option after the Nets implosion. They were tied with Dallas for 4th/5th in the West at 30-26 and had become a bit stagnant a season and a half after their 2021 Finals run.
They kept the same pace to finish 4th in 2023 and advanced to Round 2 before losing to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets. Things went downhill from there.
The Suns decided to trade Chris Paul for Bradley Beal, which was a questionable fit from the jump. Three scorers and no real point guard lead to some obvious issues. After starting 8-0, Durant’s record the two subsequent seasons with Beal on the roster neared .500 at 77-62.
After multiple coaches were fired and the Suns went from 6th place and a first round exit, to finishing 11th place last season, Durant called it quits. I can’t say I necessarily blame him, but it does raise some eyebrows. It always ends ugly.
I think most fans knew KD’s temperament and willingness to relocate in the past decade, so Houston knew when they were getting into. I’d say it’s panned out well so far, despite some burner account drama earlier in the season.