The real reason Kevin Durant failed with the Phoenix Suns had nothing to do with him

The Phoenix Suns ended the Kevin Durant experience on Sunday, trading him to the Houston Rockets for one of the most underwhelming returns imaginable. Assuming he sticks around beyond this coming season, the 36-year-old will see out the rest of his career having at least a chance to be in contention to win another title if the Rockets keep growing as they have.

For the Suns there is much soul-searching to do this summer, while General Manager Brian Gregory's tenure in the role is off to a horrible start. A GM over their head and a meddling owner in Mat Ishbia were common themes of Durant's two-plus years in Phoenix, which is why he can leave the team with a clear conscience.

The Phoenix Suns failed Durant at every turn while they had him.

There were two key roster moves the Suns made after acquiring Durant from the Brooklyn Nets, and both contributed massively to the disaster that this team has become. The first was going after Bradley Beal - and if Durant is going to get any blame here - it is for that particular deal. He endorsed it and has admitted so in the past, so that's kind of on him.

Trading an ageing Chris Paul for Beal also sounded great in the moment, but the reality was his no-trade clause left the Suns stuck with Beal and his breaking down body from the get go. The fit never quite worked - who can remember both Beal and Devin Booker attempting to split point guard duties - and the Suns suffered for it.

Then there was trading Deandre Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic, a horror show that still hurts the franchise to this day. Ayton had to go - he no longer wanted to be the defensive anchor who led the team to the NBA Finals - but getting Nurkic back was the kiss of death for their championship ambitions.

Too slow to have an impact defensively, his nice offensive passing was negated by the fact opponents scored on him at will. By the end he too wanted out of Phoenix, and the team had to break up a valuable first round pick into smaller pieces in order to get it done. It is easy to say the Suns should have just kept Ayton - theyn shouldn't - but Nurkic wasn't the answer either.

Throughout all of this, Durant had Monty Williams, Frank Vogel and then Mike Budenholzer as his head coaches. On reflection, it doesn't feel like he ever properly gelled with any of them, and this didn't help matters either. When you have one of the best scorers in the history of the game, you do what you can to build a roster around that, even if you also have Booker.

Finally there is the massive haul the Suns gave up to get him in the first place. Just like when the New York Knicks gutted their roster to trade for Carmelo Anthony - and then subsequently couldn't build a winner around him - Phoenix gave up too much of its present and future in order to get the deal done. That's not Durant's fault either, and now he is gone for next to nothing in return.