The Phoenix Suns are going to be a much different team than the one that ended the 2024-25 season with a dreadful 36 wins, and the departure of Kevin Durant is a large reason for that. Although the Suns also waved goodbye to Bradley Beal - and in buying him out they couldn't wait to end that partnership quick enough - Durant leaving signalled the real end of this era.
It is now on the front office to build a winner around Devin Booker once more, and the latest news out of Jonathan Kuminga's camp won't have helped in that regard. One of the main reasons Kuminga - just like Jimmy Butler before him - would want to call The Valley home is because owner Mat Ishbia would pay him what he wants to play there. The same would also have been true of Durant.
Houston Rockets not likely to give Durant huge extension.
Tim McMahon was on The Hoop Collective podcast now that much of the offseason moves have taken place, and he revealed that his sources in Houston have indicated to him that Durant is not going to get as much money as he surely could elsewhere with an extension with the Rockets. From the perspective of the franchise this makes sense, they need to remain flexible to try and contend.
It is also smart not to put a ton of money into a soon to be 37-year-old either, a mistake the Suns have been guilty of in the past in overpaying ageing stars to try and build a winner. But if you're Durant - even though he has made a ton of money to this point - that might not be what he wants to hear before ever even playing for the Rockets.
He has always spoken about wanting to play basketball the right way and chase basketball nirvana, but all of that came while he was on the kind of contract that to this point has helped him amass just shy of half a billion dollars in money made. If Durant isn't doing this for the money anymore - and if one player is going to think that way then it is likely him - then that's great.
But the reality of watching Fred VanVleet or Alperen Sengun make more money than you is a different proposition, and it is something he never would have had to worry about in Phoenix. Ishbia would have handed him a blank cheque and told him to put whatever figure he wanted on it, and the organization surely would have bought out Beal in the process too.
Durant remains one of the best players in the world, and is viewed by many as the missing piece in helping the Rockets get to the Western Conference Finals in the coming seasons. This is the reality of a star nearing the end of their career, but it is one that could have been avoided had Durant opted to stay with the Suns instead.