Kevin Durant, who is a 13-time all-star, 2-time Finals MVP, and a league MVP, is officially now a member of the newly revitalized Phoenix Suns team as they soared over the Charlotte Hornets with a 105-91 victory at 10 am on Thursday, March 2, 2023, PHT. Durant didn’t miss a beat by scoring 23 points, dishing out two (2) assists, and grabbing six (6) rebounds in 27 minutes of playing time.
KD was back to his usual self after being sidelined due to a sprained knee ligament with an efficient performance after going 10/15 shooting from the field, helping Devin Booker’s 37-point outing. Their floor general, Chris Paul, didn’t disappoint as well after handing out 11 assists. DeAndre Ayton contributed a double-double by logging 16 points, and 16 rebounds as the Suns shot 47% overall from the field.
“Today I was nervous, you know. It’s a new team, a new group, and I wanna do well, play hard for them and be coachable. But once the ball was tipped, my teammates were incredible in making me feel comfortable, and I just tried to go out there and play my game,” said Durant.
But his nervousness would eventually go away after he scored five (5) straight points and a block four minutes into the game.
KD was acquired by the Suns from the Nets in a blockbuster trade back early in February. The deal included sending Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, and four first-round draft picks to the Nets in return for Durant.
This blockbuster trade shocked the NBA world since a player of KD’s caliber will be joining Chris Paul, who is a 12-time all-star and arguably a top-5 point guard of all time, Devin Booker, who is a 3-time all-star and a scoring savant, and a double-double machine, DeAndre Ayton. This has spurred multiple reactions from NBA fans since KD joining the Suns meant the revival of the superteam again, disrupting the perfect parity of the NBA today, which fans loved the most.
The last superteam that was formed was the 2016-2019 Golden State Warriors, which also featured Kevin Durant. The Warriors in those three (3) years were 182-64 in the regular season and 46-14 in the playoffs, per statmuse.com. They also won back-to-back titles in that span, only losing to the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 finals after KD tore his Achilles in game 5, which ultimately resulted in the demise of that Warriors super team.
The Warriors' superteam with KD in the 2016-19 season worried a lot of NBA fans that season; that worry came again when he got traded to the Suns this year as per his request from the Nets front office. The Suns are currently sitting 4th in the West due to injuries from Devin Booker and Chris Paul, which sidelined them for multiple games.
Now at full power with KD’s addition, they are set to wreak havoc on all 29 teams in the NBA, especially in the playoffs in a similar fashion to that of the dismantled Warriors superteam (four) 4 years ago.
However, an important question lies. Will they meet a championship expectation, or will they disappoint in the playoffs?