The most reliable source on Durant’s return and timeline
Likely Shams and Windhorst have their sources. However, the person we all should be listening to about KD’s debut is President of Basketball Operations and General Manager James Jones, who was on Arizona Sports with Burns and Gambo on Wednesday afternoon and gave everyone some insight into KD’s timeline.
ICYMI#Suns president of basketball ops and GM James Jones would not rule out Friday for Kevin Durant's debut.
— The Burns & Gambo Show (@BurnsAndGambo) February 22, 2023
He also told @Burnsy987 & @Gambo987 what the team wants to see from Durant as he ramps up his return from injury.https://t.co/1RLzN8JpJ0 pic.twitter.com/1wyyg8S3xX
Although the public video is limited to spot-up shooting, according to Jones, Durant has run through three-on-three and five-on-five work. However, he has not played in a game-like situation for 20-30 minutes. Before the Suns put Durant on the floor, Jones indicated that he wanted KD to get that kind of minutes in practice and then see how his body responds to make sure he is right.
Kevin Durant is a robot. Oh my god. pic.twitter.com/4RYcxunn0m
— LEEZUS (@AndrewLeezus) February 14, 2023
Jones also noted that those extended minutes would come in the coming days. So what does that mean?
In the best-case scenario, Durant plays well in the practice scrimmage on Thursday and has no limitations. Likewise, suppose on Friday, when he gets up and gets to the arena; everything is still copesetic; in that case, Durant could debut in a limited fashion on Friday against his original team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. But that is the absolute best-case scenario.
More realistically, Durant gets some minutes under his belt on Sunday in Milwaukee at the start of the road trip and progresses from there.
Regardless, barring any setbacks, the wait is almost over, and Durant will well and truly be a Phoenix Suns player. We all hope the wait is worth it, and along with KD, another long, 55-year wait also ends.