Once many NBA stars are over 30 years old, they often no longer deliberately pursue personal honors, and they will focus on competing for championships, which is why there are a series of routines such as regular season paddling and load management to help stars reduce their burden in the regular season. Especially for the top superstars in the league, they often basically take all the individual honors they should win before the age of 30, but the championship is different, and being able to lead the team to win is the best way to show their personal strength.
Jacks of history like James, Curry, Durant, and Leonard have learned to paddle in the regular season early, but in recent years, the situation of their respective teams has not allowed them to rest excessively, and even in order to make the playoffs, they have to force them to go all out in the regular season. James has been one of the oldest players in the league in the past two seasons, but he still has to play superbly in the regular season to the team is likely to win, in 2021 Curry worked hard for the Warriors but still fell in the play-offs, after Leonard's cruciate ligament ruptured in 2022, he fought until the meniscus tore in order to lead the team to win last season, Durant ruptured his Achilles tendon in 2019, and at the age of 34 last season, he still topped the league in playoff minutes.
And these teams have been "gnawing at the old" this season, especially the Suns, after the original offseason trade to Beal, fans thought that the Suns were reducing the burden on Durant, and he could finally enter the playoffs with a stroke, but what I didn't expect was that the Suns' deal completely ruined the team's chemistry and championship hopes. Now a third of the way into the new season, Beal has only played in six regular season games in total, and he has been on and off due to injury.
And in addition to Beal, Booker was also plagued by injuries in the early part of the season, so he has now played 20 games. Because of the injuries of the other two giants of the team, coupled with the relatively deformed lineup, Durant can only take on more responsibility. So far, Durant has played in 25 regular season games, averaging 36 per game8 minutes (fourth in the league) to be able to cut 303 points 62 rebounds 55 assists 11 block, shooting 518%, 46 three-point shooting9%。
Because Durant often leads the team alone in the early season, or he plays with Booker, but the first three quarters are more to lead the team, and the Suns do not have a qualified point guard in the lineup, so Durant's offensive task this season is very important, he is not only responsible for his own scoring, but also has to take care of some team organization. However, Durant is obviously not very good at tandem offense, and his shooting is still one of his shortcomings, so he is averaging 55 assists and 36 turnovers (6th in the league).
On the defensive end, although the Suns signed Vogel, a head coach who is good at defense this offseason, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, even if Vogel has built the team into the league's top defensive team in the Pacers and Lakers, but at that time his players were good enough, but now there are few players in the Suns' lineup who can defend at all, especially the most important No. 5 position in the defensive system, Nurkic is soft, Eubanks is not strong enough, these two can not do it whether it is the most basic frame protection or a higher-level change of defense.
And this requires Durant to juggle a lot of defensive tasks when he is on the court, but in fact, Durant has never been a defensive giant, and he has never been selected to the All-Defensive Team in his career. Fortunately, Durant is tall and has long arms, and when he is on the court, he still has a certain effect on the team's defense and rim protection, no matter how bad he is, he is better than others, but if he is distracted on the defensive end, it will also affect his physical strength in the final stage of the game.
Durant is now doing his best, and the team not only didn't let him play the way he did best, but also made the 35-year-old take on a lot of tasks that shouldn't have been him. Now the Suns' results not only failed to play the level of a championship powerhouse, but they are now not even ranked in the top 10 in the West, so far they are only ranked 11th in the West with a record of 14 wins and 15 losses, and the team's current atmosphere is also about to fall to the bottom.
And Durant has always been the most unabashed of many superstars, which can be seen from his previous various social ** and netizens spraying each other, so in the face of the current situation of the team, Durant is also very frustrated, he feels very disappointed with the team's lineup, and the most important thing is that the Suns' personnel have discovered his change in mentality, which also casts a shadow on their future.
You have to know why the Suns were able to get Durant last season, the reason is that he was very frustrated with the future of the Nets at the time, so the Suns had the opportunity to trade him, and once Durant has the idea of leaving, he will directly apply for a trade, once it is not successful, then he will apply for a second time. At that time, the Suns not only sent away Bridges and Johnson, but also sent away multiple first-rounders in order to get Durant, so it can be said that they were desperate to win the championship, but now Durant's situation is likely to make the Suns waste time and chips in vain.
If Durant applies for a trade again, with his current state, there is no doubt that he will still attract the attention of many teams, with his status and strength, the Suns will definitely open their mouths, not to mention the players, it is unlikely that the first round will be less than four. And many people are now beginning to speculate about who can be Durant's next stop, some people think that the Lakers, who are also in poor form recently, have a chance, but in fact, they can send only 1 first round, and the players they can send away, the Suns can't look at it at all, so the Lakers are basically impossible.
Looking at so many teams in the NBA, there are not many teams that are qualified to trade Durant, and it is absolutely impossible to be a bad team first, but most of the strong teams do not have so many first-rounders, so after thinking about it, there may be a chance for a few teams such as Knicks and Thunder. However, Durant should not be able to apply for a trade directly now, at least until Beal returns to see the specific situation, but to be honest, the Suns' championship prospects this season are very bleak, and Beal's return cannot change the team's lack of organization on offense and a mess on defense.