The Phoenix Suns first season with their new big three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal did not go as planned, as they were swept out of the playoffs in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves. As a result, questions about the future of the team quickly began to pop up, and once again, Durant saw his name included in trade rumors.
The Houston Rockets were reportedly looking to make a push to trade for Durant, but the Suns never seriously engaged in discussions with them from the sounds of it. Still, Durant is the guy who has to deal with his name popping up in these rumors, and it sounds like he isn’t too happy with them, as he called out the media for creating lies just to keep fans interested in the league over the offseason.
“You could just press the ‘KD want to leave’ button anytime you want some attention. Yes, it’s a button. What else is gonna get people going around this time? Besides, ‘Oh, the journeyman is leaving again.’ That story is always gonna hit. It’s hard not to hear what they got to say about you. Because especially when you could just make up lies and everybody gonna believe you. So for somebody to say, ‘Phoenix wants to get out of the KD (business),’ I’m sitting here like, where is this coming from?”
“It bothers me that people lie like that and that the audience eats up the headline. I get sad when people buy into lies and just make up s***. It’s bigger than ball at that point for me. I can’t control that. I feel for people. It’s a bad practice to have when you just believe anything, for one. Just believe what you see on TV. And then it’s another bad habit when you’re just lying.” – Kevin Durant, Yahoo! Sports
Kevin Durant shoots down recent trade rumors
The Suns only traded for Durant midway through the 2022-23 campaign, so it would have been fairly surprising if they were to turn around after one disappointing campaign and immediately move on from him. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Rockets weren’t interested in him, but it never seemed likely that Phoenix was going to give up on this team this quickly.
The good news is that the Suns roster is still incredibly talented. Durant, Booker, and Beal are all All-Stars; they just need time to figure things out when it comes to succeeding on the court together. Durant makes it clear that he has no desire to leave Phoenix after just a season-and-a-half, which should put these rumors to rest for good.
Durant is going to be focused on winning with Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics for the time being, but once that is over, he will focus on taking the Suns to another level next season. He won’t be getting traded anytime soon, and as KD notes here, if there are any more trade rumors swirling around him moving forward, they aren’t his doing.
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