Why trading Durant for Butler could be the worst decision the Suns could make

The Phoenix Suns need to get it right this time or risk making another massive mistake.

The rumors are scorching hotter than a February afternoon in Phoenix which, for the uninitiated, means damn near 90° and deeply unnatural. Not exactly sweater weather right now in the ‘ole Valley of the Sun.

The Phoenix Suns are smack in the middle of trade deadline chaos, their name bouncing around the waiver wires like a loose ball in crunch time. Ever since the Luka Doncic blockbuster sent shockwaves through the league, every GM who’s ever made awkward small talk while nursing a whiskey at an NBA All-Star banquet is suddenly a dealmaker, burning up phone lines, throwing out trade pitches, and checking in on just about everyone.

And of course, Kevin Durant is at the top of everyone’s wish list. Because if you’re a team trying to win, you’d be a fool not to ask. What makes Durant special is that he’s unguardable. It’s the defining trait that has kept him elite and now has him on the verge of surpassing 30,000 career points.

You see the contrast when he shares the floor with Devin Booker, the Suns’ all-time leading scorer. They operate in the same spaces, but Booker has to work so much harder for his buckets. He can’t just rise up over any defender and get his shot off the way Durant can. Both have a sweet jumper, but Durant’s physical gifts make his completely untouchable.

So teams are calling about Durant. Fine. That’s the game. You’d be negligent not to at least hear them out. But the moment those offers start to leak — when the rumors pick up just enough traction to feel real — I get the urge to slam the emergency brake. Stop the presses. Shut it all down. Don’t. Do. It.

Jimmy Butler. His name has been linked to Phoenix for two months now. He wants out of Miami, and if there’s anywhere he’d be happy, apparently, it’s here.

I’m all for Jimmy to Phoenix…if it means undoing the Bradley Beal mistake. Right that wrong. The Beal trade was the moment the Suns got too greedy, failed to look ahead, and slammed shut the window on a Durant-Booker-led contender.

If there’s a way out, take it. Trading Beal’s albatross of a contract — complete with that dreaded no-trade clause — for Butler’s deal makes sense. Sure, you’d have to extend Butler this summer, but given the choice between his contract and Beal’s? Give me Jimmy every time. For fit. For flexibility. For sanity.

But if it’s for Kevin Durant? If the rumors are true? KD to Golden State, Miami getting Andrew Wiggins, and the Suns ending up with Butler? No, thank you. Hard pass. Please, for the love of basketball, don’t do it.

I think Brandon Duenas, our deputy manager here at Bright Side, said it perfectly. “It’s both or neither. Not one or the other.”

Trading Durant for Butler wouldn’t just be doubling down on bad decisions. It’d be tripling down, full send into disaster.

You already sacrificed the youth movement and mortgaged the future to get Durant. Fine. I get that one. There was still a path to building around a Durant/Booker core the right way. Two elite scorers. Two guys you can trust in crunch time. Any team would kill for that foundation.

Then came Frank Vogel, hired to coach a team that, at the time, had Chris Paul at the point, Book and KD on the wings, and Deandre Ayton anchoring the middle. By the time the season actually started, CP3 was gone for Bradley Beal, DA was flipped for Jusuf Nurkić and Grayson Allen, and Vogel had to be wondering, “What the hell did I just walk into?”

From there, the Suns tried to play the margins, scooping up young upside players. And whiffed on every single one of them. Sure, they hit the reset button at the 2024 trade deadline and brought in some veterans. But there is only so much you can do with three max contracts on your roster. There is only a certain level of talent you can acquire, and given the second apron tax restrictions, it’s even harder to do.

This season, for the most part, the supporting cast around this core makes sense, except for one glaring issue: Bradley Beal and his massive contract. That $50 million a year isn’t just an overpay. It’s a roster killer. That kind of money could be spread across two or three solid contributors, the kind of depth this team desperately needs. Instead, it’s locked into a player who, while talented, has been more of a luxury than a necessity. A player who operates in the same spaces as Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, creating more redundancy than synergy.

Bradley Beal is a good player in his own right, but nowhere near the value of his contract or the headache that comes with that no-trade clause. And that’s the real problem. He’s not just expensive, he’s unmoveable. No one wants his contract. And after 11 years of losing in Washington, he has no issues losing in Phoenix because the sun is shining.

If the Suns trade Kevin Durant for Jimmy Butler, it just doesn’t add up. They’d be swapping one max contract for another, except this one comes with more injuries, less scoring firepower, and a personality that’s as volatile as it is valuable.

Sure, Butler brings toughness and intangibles this team could use. But history says that only lasts as long as he’s happy. We saw it in Minnesota. We saw it in Philly. And now, in Miami, the tides are shifting again. If the situation isn’t just right — if the temperature in the room isn’t a perfect 72° — things go south fast. Butler doesn’t just demand excellence; he demands an environment tailor-made for him. And that’s a dangerous gamble for a franchise already teetering on the edge.

Would I like Butler on this team? Absolutely, if it means getting rid of Beal. Would I like Butler on this team if Durant is gone? Hell no. Please. Don’t do it. If the Suns are flirting with the idea of swapping Durant for Butler, that’s not just a bad move. That’s malpractice.

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