Empire of the Suns podcast co-hosts Kellan Olson and Kevin Zimmerman have entered in a Microsoft Teams chat to begin the discussion about the main storyline for the Phoenix Suns heading into the 2025 NBA Draft: Kevin Durant’s new home.
Kellan Olson: Kevin! We’ve got Kevin Durant news! Sort of! I think!
In predictable news that is conveniently reported by ESPN on the morning of their NBA Finals coverage later in the evening, Durant’s team has been meeting with the Suns over the last week and with the team is fielding offers for a trade. The list of teams interested in Durant — including a few that our own John Gambadoro has been teasing — includes the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat and New York Knicks.
But wait! The New York Post’s Stefan Bondy is reporting the Knicks are OUT of the sweepstakes, a report that smells like these two sides matched on a dating app but never even hit it off enough to go on a first date.
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Gambadoro reported Phoenix doesn’t have much interest in Karl-Anthony Towns, and with the high price Mikal Bridges went for a year ago — along with a lack of Knicks draft assets to trade back — this did not seem like a good match anyway.
Charania also reported what we know, that Durant’s potential two-year extension will play a role in negotiations and that “the two sides are expected to work together on potential destinations.” Note the very specific language there — and lack of guarantees. Expect the Suns to ultimately do the deal best for them, even with the player-friendly way the news is getting reported.
Who are your early favorites to land Durant? And which potential deal do you like the best? Any “wild-card suitors” that Charania alludes to that catch your eye, like the Los Angeles Clippers that Gambo reported?
Kevin Zimmerman: A quick aside: One thing I think people like Charles Barkley have to understand is that working with Durant on finding a trade partner is, in theory, going to help Phoenix. Trading him to a team he does not jive with will make the trade return less than if he’s landing with a squad throwing a two-year extension at him. With that as the context, it would make sense that the Suns can get the best trade package back by sending Durant to a contender (or just somewhere he wants to be).
Houston obviously is the favorite because of its deep pick collection that could have the Suns better controlling their own destiny (Houston has potentially three future Suns first-round picks). Ask me this question five months ago, and I’d tell you Amen Thompson needs to be in the return. Ask me now, and that’s wildly unrealistic.
Would I accept Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr.? They are not clean fits, as you wrote about a few weeks ago, but they are both controllable and very young (23 and 22). Next year is about foundation-building and finding out which players are Jordan Ott’s dudes. Even if Green doesn’t fit alongside Devin Booker (and potentially Bradley Beal) because of the redundancy, I’d argue there’s some value in keeping this team at least competitive for a year and then having to reshuffle their contracts later.
Adding any combination of Tari Eason, Cam Whitmore and Jock Landale to a package sounds fine to me, too.
The Spurs have Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan, while the T-Wolves have a more ready-to-roll wing in Jaden McDaniels.
The gist: All of this is underwhelming, but the Suns should get lottery picks — this year — and acquire defense-first wings or guys who can add complementary scoring.
To answer your question on wild cards, the Clippers just have so little in contracts after James Harden and Kawhi Leonard that I don’t see what a deal would be without inviting a third team. Ivica Zubac and Derrick Jones Jr. are nice starting points, though.
I do very much like the quick Toronto Raptors rumor that popped up. Assuming we are not talking Scottie Barnes or Brandon Ingram coming to Phoenix, R.J. Barrett had a sneaky good year, Jakob Poeltl is the starting-caliber center who will be reliable on both ends, and Toronto does have the No. 9 pick.
What do you like about all of the above? Am I asking for too much or too little in these scenarios?
Olson: My main ask from the Suns with the return is to get one with the pie chart chunk of draft picks being quite sizable. Because the reality of most of these returns is that the key players involved are high draft picks on their second contracts who are not living up to the standards of that draft slot and/or the contract.
That’s Green, Vassell and Barrett. You could lump McDaniels in there, who I like far more than any of those three, but I think Minnesota’s not budging on him and would sit on Julius Randle as the main salary going back to Phoenix.
And to be clear, that’s not saying Green, Vassell or Barrett are bad players. They are just fine-to-solid contributors, so that makes them questionable assets right now (that are overpaid). None of them would start for either team in the Finals. Phoenix would be the ones in charge of paying the price to see if they are going to fulfill their potential.
The gamble on that would be easier if all three did not share the same spot on the floor as Booker, and before you say acquiring young talent is always nice, don’t fall into the trap of thinking it would be easy to find them another home if the redundancy fears are realized and/or they just aren’t good enough players.
There is no “pivot and reload” one-year exit here in terms of talent.
The Clippers foolishly including Zubac, who should have made All-NBA, is the only type of scenario that would qualify for that. San Antonio giving up the No. 2 pick (keep dreaming) or Stephon Castle (whatever the highest REM cycle in your fancy sleep app) is another.
So, can you get No. 10 and the 2027 Suns pick back from the Rockets? Can you get No. 14, four second-rounders and the Atlanta pick in 2027 from San Antonio? No. 9 and five second-round picks b from Toronto?
That’s the best path toward getting the most back. It’s not picks five years from now, like the ones L.A. or Miami would be making up that pie chart with.
But most importantly of all, does a draft pick return interest Mat Ishbia? I lean toward “no,” so that’s where I think Minnesota, Toronto and the Clippers will have a leg up in terms of the combination of ready-now pieces they can offer. Maybe Dallas is in this for that reason? Orlando?
Which of those is the winner to you, the one that could have the Suns up to the play-in mix? Or is there one?
Zimmerman: There is not one, but this is where things get unpredictable. All of the players we just rattled off are, at-best, starters with very, very slim All-Star potential.
The home run trade would have a more complex structure where Phoenix is nabbing a high-quality starter from a team we haven’t mentioned yet, and that’s what should tip the scales.
Do I think that we’ll be surprised by the name of the best player coming back to the Suns? There’s a 30% chance that’s so.
And so, I’ll say there’s also a 30% chance there’s enough wiggle room to shake this roster up enough to 1) fit well around Booker and thus 2) chase the postseason.
It will make sense if the Suns use this next season as a total rebuild, where the goal is simply getting out of salary cap purgatory because that very low bar is still the fastest path toward chasing titles down the road.
The market just doesn’t feel great at this point. It’s still early days, and the man we’re talking about was the sixth-leading scorer in the NBA.
Still, he’s going to be 37. I don’t have high hopes the Suns will come out of this looking very good until I know a team trading for Durant is extending him, and we probably won’t hear that until the trade has already excited or depressed Suns fans.
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