Kevin Durant quickly proves he was never the problem in Phoenix

Kevin Durant played his first regular season game with the Rockets since being traded to Houston and had a solid performance. The game went into double overtime against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, and Durant’s performance proved he can still be a central figure on a contending team. In the season opener, Durant showed that he was not the problem with the Suns last season.

Kevin Durant didn’t hold the Suns back.

Durant was able to get his shots off efficiently against OKC’s hounding defense even without a subpar offensive supporting cast. His teammates in the starting lineup - Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr, Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams - were largely non-shooters who crowded the floor for him.

Although Sengun did hit a game-leading 5 threes, he wasn’t being guarded like an elite sniper. The rest of the Rockets outside Sengun (including KD himself) combined to shoot 6/31 (19%) from beyond the arc. The Thunder defense were not very concerned with rotating back to shooters immediately and could instead pressure Durant more when he had the ball.

Still, Durant finished with 23 points while shooting 9/16 from the field. On many of his shots, he had little breathing room against elite defenders like Lu Dort and Alex Caruso but still managed to rise up over them to bury contested jumpers. Durant’s isolation scoring ability remains a marvel even in his age 37 season. 

Sengun stole the show for the Rockets with 39 points and a near triple-double, but Durant still shined as a scorer. His baskets were crucial to keeping the Houston offense afloat without a true point guard. And they were able to take the defending champions, and favorites to repeat, to the very brink. 

Even without the optimal roster, Durant can play a big part in competing with the league’s best teams. Unfortunately for the Phoenix Suns, they were not able to construct sufficient teams around Durant and co-star Devin Booker. Around the two of them, the Suns supporting cast last season lacked any real strengths and missed even the play-in as a result.

In just his first game on a new team, Durant is already proving that it was the Suns’ incompetent team building, rather than his own shortcomings, who were the culprit for their lack of success last season.

If they had surrounded Durant and Booker with elite defenders, they probably could’ve made the offense work even if their teammates lacked shooting and scoring ability. If they instead leaned into offensive strengths, perhaps the team could’ve simply outscored opponents.

Instead, the Suns didn’t succeed on either end and had to deal Durant over the summer. Seeing him succeed in Houston will be another blow of Phoenix’s front office. They must learn their lesson and build their team properly before the same fate afflicts Devin Booker too.