The Phoenix Suns went all-in on putting their team together ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season. Unfortunately for them, things did not end the way they wanted, as Phoenix just could not stay healthy during the regular season and looked like they couldn’t quite get on the same page as they got swept in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Now, the Suns head into an offseason where they don’t really have a ton of avenues to get better — their cap sheet is brutal, they gave up all of their draft capital to build this team, and it sure seems unlikely they’d be willing to move either of their stars who don’t have a full no-trade clause. As such, they have to look towards internal improvement, and in the eyes of general manager James Jones, this includes trying to be the first team to “maximize Kevin Durant.”
"A constant focus for us is to continue how to figure out and maximize Kevin Durant. No one has done it yet. I believe we'll be the 1st team to do it."
James Jones.
"When he's playing at the highest level, he makes us a really, really good team and we're damn near unbeatable." pic.twitter.com/SOAL5iyp9k
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) May 1, 2024
“A constant focus for us is to continue how to figure out and maximize Kevin Durant. No one has done it yet. I believe we’ll be the first team to do it. Roster because we can maximize him, we can maximize our entire roster, we’re a better team.”
Jones went on to say that Durant had “a phenomenal season this year offensively,” and believed he had “some of the best stretches of his career this year” during his first full season in Phoenix. He did, however, express that the team’s issue was “the totality of figuring out when and where and how to do it together, we just could not get on the same page, we ran out of time.”
Since entering the NBA in 2007, Durant has won a pair of NBA championships, a pair of NBA Finals MVP awards, and was named the league MVP back in 2014. A member of the league’s 75th anniversary team, Durant, who turns 36 in September, has earned 10 All-NBA nods, six of which came on the first team, along with 14 All-Star Game appearances. He appeared in 75 games for Phoenix in the regular season, and averaged 27.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, and five assists in 37.2 minutes per game.
