Suns’ Deal for Kevin Durant Becoming Unlikely, per Report

The team’s decision to match the offer sheet for Deandre Ayton raises serious questions about its ability to trade for KD.

The Suns’ decision to match Deandre Ayton’s offer sheet from the Pacers on Thursday has reportedly cast sizable doubt over the club’s chances of landing Kevin Durant. 

In the aftermath of Phoenix opting to retain Ayton after he signed a four-year, $133 million offer with Indiana, there is now a growing belief that the Suns’ inability to use the former No. 1 pick as an asset in any potential deals until next year may have eliminated them from the KD sweepstakes. Ayton, 23, cannot be traded until Jan. 15 and will have the power to veto any trade for a full year.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday night the Suns will likely not have the assets to be “competitive” for a Durant trade. “I think ultimately the Suns are left short of what it would take to pry Kevin Durant out of Brooklyn,” he noted.

On Friday, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps discussed the impact of Ayton’s deal on a possible Durant move on the latest episode of Windhorst’s podcast Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective. Per RealGM.com, Bontemps theorized matching Ayton’s offer sheet as opposed to working out a sign-and-trade signaled the Suns weren’t getting Durant “at least in the short term.” 

After saying he wasn’t sure they weren’t getting KD, Windhorst said he felt unsure about the Suns putting together an offer that the Nets would be interested in going forward. He also noted he believes the club is prepared to move on and see how things play out with other teams around the league having little incentive to raise their offers; the Suns are reportedly on Durant’s short list of preferred teams.

“This is them partially saying ‘We’re not counting on Kevin Durant. We have a 64-win team. This is going to take us into the [luxury] tax,’” Windhorst said.

While adding Durant would undoubtedly make the Suns a huge title favorite in 2022, the team still figures to be heavily in the mix next season with Ayton returning to a lineup that still boasts Devin Booker and Chris Paul. Phoenix finished last season with the best record in the NBA (64–18), but was ultimately eliminated in the second round by the Mavericks in seven games. 

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