Kevin Durant may have left the Phoenix Suns for the Houston Rockets this offseason - bringing to an end the window of contention in The Valley - but that doesn't mean fans are done wondering what exactly went wrong. The combination of himself, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal - plus some championship winning head coaches - looked too good to fail.
In reality though the lack of depth and complete disregard for defending - with a healthy sprinkling of failing to take care of the basketball - ended the title aspirations before they ever really started. Still, we'll always have that 8-1 beginning to the 2024-25 season.
Former Durant teammates reveals he was frustrated with lack of use.
One player who is going to go down in Suns' folklore is Vasilije Micic, but not for the reasons you'd think. He only ever appeared in five games for the franchise having come across from the Charlotte Hornets, and was promptly let walk because the team was in the second apron at the time. Ironically Micic had a nice EuroBasket showing for Serbia, and could have been of use to this group.
The 31-year-old was on "The X's & O's Chat" podcast recently, and revealed that Durant was surprised with how little he was being used by the Suns. You can check out the interview in full below - and although we have no reason to doubt Micic on this as he has nothing to gain by lying as he likely heads back to Europe - it's a strange stance to take from Durant if true.
Wasn't the whole point of teaming up with Booker so he wouldn't have to do everything alone? You would also be hard pressed to find a star as willing as Booker to change how he played to accommodate Durant, often to the detriment of his own numbers. It won't surprise you then to find out that - as per Cleaning The Glass - Durant (28.3 percent) trailed only Booker (30.6) in usage.
That figure represented the 95th percentile for Durant, meaning he was among the highest usage guys in the entire NBA. Number three in Phoenix behind him? Beal at 22.1 percent. Then came center Jusuf Nurkic at 18.4 percent, and he didn't last the whole season. The point is Durant saw the ball plenty, and the offensive sets were designed with his incredible talents in mind.
Going back to the previous season as Durant's number remained virtually the same (28.4 percent), and again trailed Booker's (31.2) although he did play in seven more games. Perhaps most damning of all however, is the fact Durant easily led the Suns in both how many of his 2-pointers came off assists (37 percent, 94th percentile) and 3-pointers (89 percent, 91st percentile), per Cleaning The Glass.
Durant's teammates were finding him plenty, and he was rewarding the team by piling up points. He also took the most midrange attempts of any player - literally ranking in the 100th percentile on that one - at a time when that kind of shot is what everybody has moved away from. So the 36-year-old was indulged and allowed to take the shots he wanted, and it ended in a 36 win season.
It's not like Micic is trying to get Durant in trouble here and he remains beloved by so many fans in The Valley anyway, but it is hard to know how much more or differently he could have been used. This was still Booker's team after all - whether he liked it or not - and despite that fact got to do a lot with the ball that he wanted. It's hard to see it being any different for him in Houston.