Point: Keep KD.
Welcome to the How to Fix the Suns series, where we break down the paths available to the Phoenix Suns as they navigate the 2025 offseason.
Our series on how to fix the Phoenix Suns rolls on, and this time, the focus shifts to one of the greatest to ever play the game. That’s right… this one’s about Kevin Durant. What should the Suns do with him? What options are actually on the table? Do you keep a generational talent and hope it clicks next season? Or do you explore what some deem unthinkable and trade him? It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. So let’s break it all down.
We’ll start with the case for keeping Kevin Durant . Why, despite the frustrations and shortcomings of this past season, the Suns shouldn’t explore trade options this summer.
Obviously, there are layers and countless variables to this. The Bradley Beal situation looms large, but based on recent reports, it appears he won’t be in Phoenix next season. So let’s operate under that assumption. That the Suns find a way to move off the Beal deal, which would drop them below the second apron and unlock some much-needed flexibility.
Now the question becomes: do you keep Kevin Durant? Do you double down on building around this dynamic duo — Durant and Devin Booker — and give it another shot?
Here’s why the answer to that should be yes.
Every Team Needs a Batman
In the years leading up to the Kevin Durant trade, one truth stood stubbornly at the center of the Phoenix Suns’ journey: Devin Booker couldn’t do it alone.
He tried. God, did he try.
Booker spent season after season lighting up scoreboards, dropping 30-point nights like breadcrumbs for a fanbase starving for success. He had the fire, the finesse, and the killer instinct. But what he didn’t have — what the franchise failed time and again to provide — was a consistent, high-level scoring partner to help carry the weight. The kind of guy who could take the wheel when Booker needed a breather or when defenses swarmed him like bees to honey.
Look at the numbers. Before Durant arrived, the highest-scoring teammate Booker ever had for a full season was Eric Bledsoe at 21.1 points per game back in 2016–17. Second? Kelly Oubre. Third? Deandre Ayton. Talented players, sure, but not the kind you hang banners with.
In this league, you need more than one elite scorer to win. That’s why the Suns pulled the trigger in February 2023, pushing the majority of their chips to the center of the table to land Kevin Durant. It wasn’t just about adding a superstar. It was about pairing Booker with a peer. A partner. A proven assassin who could take the heat off Phoenix’s franchise cornerstone and make the burden of brilliance feel just a little lighter.
For everything Devin Booker has done in Phoenix — and it’s a hell of a lot — I’m not sure you can peg him as the Batman archetype. He’s not always the cape-wearing, city-saving, last-second hero. He’s had his moments, yes. Electrifying nights. Clutch shots. Statement performances. But like most stars, he’s had valleys to go with the peaks. That’s not a knock. That’s life in the NBA.
But when Kevin Durant is on your roster — a player who has been Batman his entire career, a cold-blooded closer, a walking bucket who’s been torching defenses since Bush was in office — you don’t overthink it. You let KD be KD. You let him lead. And you let Booker do what he does best: cook as the lethal co-star.
Robin to Durant’s Batman? That’s not an insult. That’s a blueprint.
We saw the contrast plain as day this season. In the 20 games Durant missed, the Suns went 2–18. Their scoring plummeted by over nine points per contest. It wasn’t just noticeable. It was staggering. It showed, in brutal honesty, just how dependent Phoenix was on Durant’s presence. Not just to score, but to open up the floor, to bend the defense, to let Booker breathe.
That’s why you keep Kevin Durant in Phoenix.
Because of the gravity he carries. Because of the pressure he removes. Because when the game slows down in the final minutes and everything tightens, having two elite offensive weapons on the floor is a necessity, not a luxury. If it’s just Booker? Defenses load up. Blitz him. Make him give it up or force a bad shot. We’ve watched that movie too many times, and we know how it ends.
But with Durant? There’s no clear answer. No easy out. No perfect coverage. Just fear. Respect. And maybe, finally, results.
This is the End Goal
If you’re trading away a Kevin Durant-type with the idea of stockpiling draft picks, then let’s be honest about what you’re really saying: you’re hoping those picks eventually turn into elite talent. Or can maybe be packaged for elite talent.
But here’s the thing: you already have elite talent. Right now. In the flesh. In purple and orange. Kevin Durant is on your team. You don’t have to squint at college tape or pray the lottery balls bounce your way or cross your fingers that a 19-year-old figures it out by year four.
You have the sure thing. You have the guy with two Finals MVPs. A guy who still gets doubled at age 35, still terrifies defenders late in games, still walks into 27 a night like it’s nothing. Trading that away for a chance to one day get back to where you already are? That’s not a plan. That’s a delusion dressed up as strategy.
The team is, undeniably, built wrong around both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. That’s just the truth. And yes, for many, the trade that brought Durant to Phoenix is viewed as the first domino in a cascade of missteps. I won’t argue with that. But it’s the subsequent missteps that loomed larger and truly sabotaged the Suns’ ability to succeed. The flawed roster construction. The shallow bench. The duplicative skill sets. Those are the decisions that suffocated this team’s ceiling.
Still, the ultimate goal hasn’t changed: keep elite talent in Phoenix. And you have that in Kevin Durant.
So what now?
You don’t fold. You don’t abandon the table. You stare down the mistakes you made, own them, learn from them, and take another swing. You maximize the window that remains. Not with wishful thinking or desperation, but with intent. With urgency. With the knowledge of exactly what went wrong.
Because Durant is still Durant. And you still have Devin Booker. That’s a duo that deserves a real shot. Give it to them.
The Return
One thing we simply don’t know right now is what Kevin Durant’s market value actually is. It’s certainly not what the Suns paid to get him.
Phoenix gave up a treasure chest of wings, draft picks, and momentum to land Durant. They went all-in on a win-now timeline. But the NBA has shifted since that moment. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has reshaped how teams operate. It’s restrictive. It’s punishing. It’s a buzzsaw for teams trying to function with three max contracts.
Front offices across the league aren’t flinging around draft picks like confetti anymore. They’re clutching them with white-knuckled intensity. Why? Because flexibility is the new currency. Draft picks aren’t just future assets, they’re insurance policies. They’re get out of jail free cards. And that’s a card the Suns no longer hold.
Draft capital gives you a shot at youth, and youth gives you availability — the most undervalued trait in today’s NBA. Talent plus availability equals a real opportunity for success. Look at the successful young teams in the league right now. They’re thriving because they have players who are healthy, cheap, and developing. That’s a winning formula in the modern cap environment.
So let’s say you do put Durant on the market. What’s the return?
You’re not getting four unprotected first-round picks anymore. You’re not getting a rising All-Star and a bench full of high-upside wings. Not under this CBA. Not with Durant at 35, commanding a massive salary, and carrying a recent injury history. You’re probably looking at a couple of mid-tier rotation players and a pair of picks, likely protected. Is that enough? Is that worth the hall pass out of this era?
Or do the Suns recognize that the league has changed, that the market isn’t what it once was, and if they really want to contend in the near future — by next season or the one after — the best play is to keep Kevin Durant, maximize what’s left of this window, and retool the roster with that end in mind.
It’s not about chasing what you lost. It’s about building around what you still have.
Okay, we’ve made the case for keeping Kevin Durant. Now it’s your turn. What say you?
Why should the Phoenix Suns keep Kevin Durant? What makes this player, at this moment in his career, still worth holding onto — despite the cost, despite the context, despite the chaos?
I’m not looking for reasons to trade him. That conversation’s coming tomorrow. Today is about the reasons to believe. So let me hear it. Why should Kevin Durant stay in Phoenix?
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