Phoenix Suns landing superstar Kevin Durant in blockbuster trade with Brooklyn Nets
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ATLANTA – Mat Ishbia has made an emphatic statement in his first official 48 hours as Phoenix Suns new majority owner.
Phoenix has pulled off a colossal blockbuster deal before Thursday’s 1 p.m. trade deadline by acquiring two-time finals MVP Kevin Durant in a deal that involves Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted late Wednesday night.
Ishbia had his introductory press conference Wednesday morning in Phoenix after receiving final transaction approval Tuesday from the NBA for his record $4-billion purchase of the Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
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The 43-year-old billionaire mortgage lender said Wednesday the Suns already had a championship roster without any changes, but Ishbia has just made a ginormous one to make them one of the clear favorites to win it all this season.
More: ‘The elite NBA franchise’: New team owner Mat Ishbia’s vision for Phoenix Suns
“My belief system is about how do we focus on winning?” Ishbia said. “Can we improve our chances of winning a championship? Can we do things to make sure of that, but I’m not just a short-term thinker. I’m also a long-term thinker.”
The Suns are trading four first round picks, a pick swap, Jae Crowder, Bridges and Johnson for Durant and T.J. Warren, ESPN reported. The Nets are getting unprotected picks in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029.
Wojnarowski later tweeted the Nets will look to trade Crowder before the deadline. Crowder has yet to play a game this season with the Suns (30-26) as the two sides “mutually agreed” he wouldn’t attend training camp.
By trading Johnson and Bridges to Brooklyn, Phoenix won’t have to face them again unless the two teams meet in the finals. The Suns and Nets finished their home-away series Tuesday as Phoenix won, 116-112, in Brooklyn to complete the regular-season sweep.
Durant is currently out with a sprained right MCL and isn’t expected to return to action until after the All-Star break. While Bridges has elevated his game to another level in recent weeks and Johnson spaces the floor with his shooting, getting the 6-10 Durant makes the Suns a serious championship contender.
The Suns’ potential starting lineup could be Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Torrey Craig, Deandre Ayton and Durant. Having won nine of its last 11 game, Phoenix plays at Atlanta (27-28) Thursday.
Warren started his career in Phoenix as a first-round draft pick in 2014 and played five seasons there. He scored 17 points against the Suns in Tuesday’s loss in Brooklyn. Averaging a career-low 9.5 points in just 26 games this season with Brooklyn, 6-8 forward is on a one-year deal as he missed all last with a foot injury.
Durant, 34, wanted out of Brooklyn last summer as he put Phoenix atop his wish list, but the Nets and Suns were unable to get a deal done. Suns General Manager James Jones told The Republic last summer the two teams didn’t really have “much in-depth discussion” about making something happen.
“Cause Brooklyn wanted to keep Kevin Durant in Brooklyn,” Jones said last summer. “And that’s why he’s in Brooklyn and not on some other team, but as far as with us, I get it. It’s always a great topic of discussion, but the one thing people forget is that when you’re talking about trades, or any player acquisition, the team that has the player has to be willing to move the player.”
However, when Kyrie Irving demanded a trade right before the deadline and eventually got dealt to Dallas, Durant reportedly started having hard conversations with Nets about the organization’s future.
“Kevin wants to win,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before Tuesday’s game against Phoenix. “The last thing I told this group on the floor is the expectations don’t change. I want to win. I want the group in the locker room to want to win. If your best player has a knack for winning and wanted to win the ultimate thing, then I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.”
Sources informed The Republic the Suns were looking to deal Paul, Crowder and a first-round pick to Brooklyn for Irving.
“It’s a business,” Paul said before Tuesday’s game at Brooklyn. “I’ve seen crazier. The way I found out I was traded from Houston. You just show up to work and be a pro day in and day out. Nobody’s exempt from being traded. Find out just like everybody else.”
Now the Suns have made a franchise-changing deal with Durant, the 2013-14 NBA MVP who won back-to-back NBA Finals MVPs (2017-18) with the Warriors.
The 13-time All-Star is averaging 29.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.8 assists this season.
Named to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team, Durant is on a four-year, $194-million extension as he’s due $42.9 million this season, $46.4 million in 2023-24, $49.8 million in 2024-25 and $53.2 million in 2025-26. The Suns already exceeded the luxury tax threshold of $150.267 million for this season.
The Suns are two years removed from reaching the 2021 finals before losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. They posted the NBA’s best record last season with a franchise-best 64-18 mark, but Dallas eliminated them in seven games in the Western Conference semifinals.
While Paul, Booker and Ayton were the main cogs of those teams, Bridges and Johnson were valuable pieces too. The Suns went into this season looking to expand their roles to handling the ball more.
Johnson has only played 17 games for Phoenix this season as he missed 37 with a torn right meniscus. Returning from the injury ironically against Brooklyn Jan. 19 in Phoenix, Johnson is averaging a career-best 13.9 points this season, shooting a career-high 45.5 from 3.
The Suns didn’t sign Johnson to a rookie extension in the summer as he’ll enter the offseason as a restricted free agent. Before playing Tuesday in Brooklyn, Johnson talked about his love for Phoenix, but also addressed the idea of Ishbia making a major move to begin his tenure as team owner.
“I don’t think much about it,” Johnson said. “It’s not something that I’m like, what could this splash be, what could he do. I guess that’s what the future could tell. I don’t necessarily get wrapped up in those decisions up top. As a group of the court, our job is to go out there and compete and win and play and improve on a nightly basis. You learn the business side takes care of itself.”
While Johnson became a starter in his fourth NBA season this year, Bridges has shown more elements to his game this season.
Already one of the game’s best defensive players as he finished runner-up in last season’s NBA Defensive Player of the year voting, Bridges is averaging a career-best 17.2 points this season.
“He’s a great role model for our guys to see where he came from to where he is now,” said Pistons coach Dwane Casey before Phoenix won Saturday at Detroit. “You wouldn’t have said he’d be able to run pick-and-rolls and start the offense or be a quasi point guard for their team when he first came into the league, but he’s grown into that. He’s worked his behind off to develop that.”
The 6-6 wing has posted 12 20-point games in his last 15 games. Getting buckets off the bounce, pick-and-roll as well as from 3, Bridges has scored at least 21 in his last six games to match a career high for most consecutive games with 20-plus points.
“He’s a great example for a lot of young guys, our guys and a lot of young guys in the league to one, have the temperament and the patience to play the way he does and develop and let the game come to him,” Casey continued. “He wasn’t trying to force it a couple of years ago or three years ago. He developed that, they were patient with him as an organization and now look at him. To me, he’s an All-Star.”
In the first year of a four-year, $90-million rookie extension, Bridges has never missed a game in his NBA career that’s in its fifth season.
While the Suns are losing players who were a huge part of Phoenix’s turnaround under Monty Williams, Durant has ties to their roster.
He played with Booker on the U.S. Olympic team that won gold in 2021 in Toyko as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the Olympics in 2020.
A three-time Olympic gold medalist (2012, 2016, 2020), Durant was on the 2012 gold medal team with Paul. Williams was an assistant on the 2016 gold medal team.
Williams has decided not to work as an assistant under Warriors coach Steve Kerr for Team USA for this year’s World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Clippers coach Ty Lue will replace him.
“This has been a difficult choice, but given the timing and the demands of the commitment, it is the best choice for myself and my family,” Williams said in a news release. “I am incredibly grateful to Grant Hill and Coach Kerr, both for giving me the opportunity to be an assistant coach and for their understanding of my decision.”
Durant and Suns guard Damion Lee were teammates in Golden State in the 2018-19 season. He was also a teammate with Suns backup point guard Cameron Payne in Oklahoma City in the 2015-16 season and backup shooting guard Landry Shamet in the 2020-21 season in Brooklyn.
Payne and Shamet are both out with foot injuries. Payne hasn’t played since Jan. 4 at Cleveland while Shamet last saw action Jan. 16 at Memphis.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Suns landing superstar Kevin Durant in blockbuster trade with Brooklyn Nets