In the two games he played in his comeback, the Suns lost all of them, once to the Grizzlies and once to the Clippers back-to-back. How can Durant be embarrassed?The full participation of the Sun's Big Three is the last fig leaf of the Suns, and this fig leaf has been torn off, leaving only a naked reality. Was it a mistake for the Suns to bring in the Big Three?What are Durant's confusions and mistakes?
The Suns collapsed yesterday (18-35) and lost 115-121 to the Grizzlies. Durant, Booker and Beal are all playing normally, but the Suns' defense has nothing to do with the Grizzlies. Smart, Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. combined for 76 points, and all three scored more than 20 points. The Suns didn't shoot any three-pointers, making just 8-of-28 shots, 27 fewer than the Grizzlies on three-pointers alone.
Today the Suns lost 111-138 to the Clippers. Durant scored 30 points, but couldn't help Leonard, George, Harden and Willis to shoot four shots. The Clippers shot a whopping 62 percent from the field and from three-point range4% and 517%, the Suns' defense is in vain.
The Clippers are the quintessential mercenary legions, the superteams, just like the Suns. At the beginning of the formation of the Big Four, there were also consecutive defeats and losses, suffering five consecutive defeats, but recently the Clippers have found a way to win, and recently won nine and five consecutive wins, becoming the hottest team in the league. Against the Clippers, will Durant feel like a world away, and there is still a super team in the league that has become the enemy of the Suns?
Durant has no excuses. The Suns are what he desperately wants to join, and when he was with the Nets, he spared no effort to advocate joining the Suns, and after he really joined, he also spent a period of honeymoon period, and the Suns won all 8 games. The Suns crossed the first round and reached the Western Conference semifinals, where they were tied 2-2 with the future champions, the Nuggets. As long as there is steady improvement, the 2023-24 season should belong to the Suns.
Exchanging Paul in the offseason is a no-brainer. Paul was injured in the Western Conference semifinals and thus reimbursed for the season, which can't help but remind people of the drama of "returning to the factory for overhaul" at critical moments. When Paul was away, Durant and Booker led the team to win two games in a row against the Nuggets. This gives the sun a reminder. It was the right thing to send Paul away in the offseason, after all, he is 38 years old. The performances with the Warriors this season speak for themselves. But when it came time to get Paul in exchange, the Suns made a wrong move.
The Suns traded Paul for Beal, which is a debatable move because there was still Harden at the time, and he was a better fit than Beal in every way. The Big Three Suns just look strong, but in fact, Beal and Booker overlap, and from the beginning of the deal, there are not a few people who question it. In today's Suns, there is no player who is really suitable to play point guard, and no one feeds the Big Three with cannonballs, which is a taboo for the team that Durant plays. As a result, Durant worked desperately for 37 per game1 minute, but the Suns were teetering on the edge of the play-offs.
Durant has wanted his own team since he left the Warriors in 2019, and it is understandable that he has built superteams with the Nets and Suns. But Durant is not human. When he was in the Nets, he complemented Irving and Harden well, but unexpectedly, Irving was unwilling to play, and Harden left in anger;In the Suns, he and Booker complement each other, but it turns out that a Bill comes, still a "sick seedling", stirs up the muddy waters.
Durant dismissed the possibility of another transfer some time ago, but it is not appropriate to continue to stay with the Suns. In the transaction of Durant and Beal to join, the Suns exchanged the first-round pick from now until 2029, and the door to future trades has been closed, and the only feasible thing now is to exchange Beal, which can give the Suns a ray of life, but how easy is the Beal trade?He is under contract until the end of the 2026-27 season and has been on the sick bed for many years. Durant is firmly in the Suns.
What should Durant do?It's an unsolvable puzzle. (Mao Mao Daddy Push-ups).