You definitely missed Kevin Durant sneakily revealing why things didn't work out with the Phoenix Suns midway through last season (we know we did), and he chalked it up to playing on a veteran roster full of players who were set in their ways and didn't want to change.
Durant shows honesty on why time in Suns was a bust
In conversation with the great Hakeem Olajuwon, Durant summed up his Phoenix experience at the time perfectly.
"I feel as though we were an older group who kind of stuck in our ways as veterans, and veterans kind of like do their own thing a lot."
Adding to that, Durant also claimed that younger groups who grow together have more of a college feel, whereas being thrown together with established stars like Devin Booker and Bradley Beal is why it didn't work out.
Kevin Durant explains why Phoenix’s star-studded roster never felt like a real team
— katsu (@katsuxbt) August 29, 2026
“I’ve always had fun out there. I don’t want to undercut what we did, my time in Phoenix, I feel like I had some great moments on the court there too.”
“But I feel as though we were an older… pic.twitter.com/WyEnAJfQQC
Durant is not wrong to claim that this is the reason the Suns teams he was a part of didn't work out; he lived it, after all. But coming from the 37-year-old, it does feel like somewhat of a cop out as well, particularly as he also snubbed the Suns when speaking about the best team he was a part of as well.
The greats are able to sacrifice and change their style of play in order to win, and Durant actually had the perfect co-star to achieve this and didn't take advantage. We've seen Booker revert to being perhaps the best role player of all-time with Team USA, and he also took a back seat next to Durant in The Valley.
With that, he is not strictly correct in that assessment either, although there is no doubt this was an older roster with established players who failed to gel. A problem the Suns may run into in another way with their current roster.
Head coaches deserve some blame for Durant's tenure being a failure
Durant elected not to put former head coaches Frank Vogel or Mike Budenholzer on blast, but they deserve their share of the blame here as well.
Neither was able to get the best out of what was a top-heavy roster, with Budenholzer in particular failing miserably despite being heralded as the guy to get the best out of that group. When you are stuck in the second apron and have to rely on Jusuf Nurkic to be a major contributor, you are never going to win a championship.
It is nice that Durant could be candid about the experience for a minute, even if it flew under the radar at the time.
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