Grade the trade: Durant heads back to OKC in outrageous proposed deal
By Luke Duffy
Suns reload their roster around two stars
Any time you trade away Durant you're likely to end up losing the deal, and yet... the Suns have zero depth and a dreadful cap sheet at this moment. There's no real way they can get better, and names like Bol Bol and Isaiah Thomas popping up last season to try and helped only reinforced that notion.
The Suns needed Durant to remain competitive in the West, but they still lost 33 games and were swept in the opening round of the playoffs despite his heroics. Clearly then it is time to switch it up, and instead put much better complimentary pieces and depth around Booker and Beal.
Lu Dort is not Mikal Bridges, but he is a wonderful defender. Josh Giddey solves their point guard problem overnight and at only 21, would be a long-term player next to Booker, no matter what happens in the next few seasons. Jaylin Williams is a nice third player to get, and he would immediately crack their top eight.
The 12th pick in this year's draft could be packaged with the 22nd pick and perhaps Jusuf Nurkic to go in another direction, while the firsts in the next three seasons would replenish their war chest nicely. This is a lot of really good stuff to get back for a 35-year-old who - as we've already discussed - is at best never going to be any better than he just was for the Suns.