There was a time when Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant was considered the NBA’s most plug-and-play superstar. Drop him into any scheme or situation, and he will approach 30 points per game on 50/40/90 shooting splits, as he had previously done on tours of duty for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors and Brooklyn Nets. And as the eighth-leading scorer in league history, he has done that job well.
But as Durant has evolved further from his tenure in the Bay Area, we have discovered that, unless you swap Harrison Barnes for him on a 73-win juggernaut, it is not so easy as plugging in and playing Durant.
Which makes sense. He is a superstar, and as with all superstars there are personalities to be assuaged, desires to be met and requests to be granted. Only Durant’s demands have seemingly come on a whim.
“I just didn’t want to move and I wanted to see it through with my team in Phoenix and see what we could do the rest of this season,” Durant told ESPN of nixing a deal at the trade deadline, “so I’m glad I’m still there.”
It is hard to plan when even you do not know what you truly want. And that appears to be where we are in Durant’s career. He has chosen to languish on the league’s most disappointing team for a little longer.
That’s the weird part. Everything about LeBron James’ career has felt deliberate. The move to Miami, where he spent his youth on South Beach. The return to Cleveland, where he cemented his legacy as a hometown hero. And the procession to Los Angeles, where his business and family’s interests resided.
This was once the recipe for a successful superstar for hire. It does not always work according to plan.
It has felt more random for Durant. He received a phone call from Draymond Green after the 2016 NBA Finals, so he left the Thunder’s championship aspirations for the team that had beaten them in the Western Conference finals. He tired of Green and joined another friend, Kyrie Irving, in Brooklyn. He asked the Nets to acquire yet another friend, James Harden. And when Harden and Irving tired of each other, Durant figured Devin Booker was cool, so he joined the Suns and asked them for Bradley Beal, too.
Now, it seems, he could be bound for another destination. Unless the Suns can make “a significant run” into the playoffs, there will be “real changes” in Phoenix this summer, starting with Durant, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported. And his 11th-place Suns, who “embarrassed the fans” and “embarrassed ourselves” in Sunday’s loss, according to Durant, are not going to make a significant run, so expect those real changes.
Maybe the difference between James and Durant is more about fortune than anything. Had the Warriors not blown a 3-1 deficit to James’ Cavaliers in 2016 or a pandemic not afforded his Los Angeles Lakers time to prepare for the bubble, his two titles with Miami might look an awful lot like Durant’s in Golden State.
And if Durant’s Nets had remained healthy in 2021, when they lost to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks, maybe his third and fourth acts evolve differently. Maybe he, not James, is the champion for hire.
Instead we are left to wonder what role Durant has played in each of his stops ending in misery. He trashed his coach and teammates on his way out of Oklahoma City. He feuded with Green on the court and in the locker room prior to his exit from Golden State. His chosen friends left him in Brooklyn. And every report out of Phoenix makes it sound as though Durant’s current team is profoundly unhappy.
Winning changes everything. And Durant has not done a lot of it in recent years. He has been swept from the playoffs as many times (twice) as he has won a series in the six seasons since he left the Warriors.
This is the narrative of his career. Whether or not he likes it. Whether or not it should be. He followed James’ blueprint for a traveling superstar and did not win as much. His championships came on a team that won before and after he left. And his tenures, for whatever reason, have been mired in malaises.
Which is why it was so interesting to see Durant decline his chance to return to the Warriors. He reportedly had no idea how far down the road Golden State and Phoenix had gotten on a potential deal at this year’s deadline, and, rather than follow that whim to a reunion, he flat-out nixed the opportunity.
Perhaps Durant is taking a more deliberate approach to his career. He is 36 years old now, and while he is still averaging 26.7 points per game on 53/40/82 splits, this may be his final opportunity to get it right.
We will know what “right” means to Durant when he moves on from Phoenix, likely this summer. He has one year left on his contract, so he can all but choose his next destination or change teams again in 2026. Does he want to join another friend in pursuit of the basketball bliss that has escaped him, save for those glorious years in Golden State? Will his next stop end in anguish, too? That would cement the narrative.
But he has a chance to rewrite the script. He could be that plug-and-play superstar. He could, for example, transform the upstart Houston Rockets into a serious contender by joining them next season.
But does he want that? Is he the league’s most adaptable superstar? Or its most complicated? He is either unlucky or created his own misfortune, and his next stop either confirms a pattern or breaks it.
