Who's to blame for the Suns' fiasco: Durant, why do you make the wrong choice every time?

Qing Yang said

2024-04-30 00:40Posted in Anhui Sports Creator

Two years ago, the Phoenix Suns were the league's No. 1 team, leading the way with 64 wins. The advantage over the league's second-place (11 games) is even higher than this year's Celtics (seven).

Two years later, they were sent away 116-122 by the Timberwolves at home to become the first playoff team to drop the game this season.

During this period, two major events occurred in the sun:

(1) The boss was replaced by credit tycoon Ishbia.

(2) traded the entire forward for Kevin Durant, who was 34 years old at the time.

Here, it is not another disparagement of Durant as a "team demolition maniac", and he has successively pitted Tsai Chongxin and Ishbia, two rich people.

On the contrary, the "Grim Reaper" Durant seems to have a "declining god" physique over the years, and every time he makes a choice, he ends up being ridiculous and generous, and has become the laughing stock of the public.

Let's take a look at the "ridiculous things" that the sun has done in just two years:

(1) After the 21-22 regular season first and Western Conference semifinals bizarre loss to the Mavericks, they refused to renew the contract of the team's main forward Ja Crowder in the offseason.

But the funny thing is that the Suns neither sent Claude away, nor did he fulfill his contract normally, but froze him in a rare way. Watch as the Suns' most consistent forward in the playoffs continues to lose in value.

(2) After reaching the Finals in '21, they didn't give the team's top center, Ayton, the team's playoff victory, and even the last center to suppress Jokic to some extent, to renew his contract.

As a result, the already sensitive Ayton was mentally unstable in the 21-22 season, and when Ayton, who became a restricted free agent, accepted the Pacers' four-year offer of 133 million in the '22 offseason, they chose to match again.

Feeling fooled, Ayton's rift with team management became irreparable, so this offseason was discounted to the Trail Blazers.

(3) Throughout the 22-23 season, the Suns, who had 64 wins the year before and had no change in the lineup, fell to the play-in area to compete with the Lakers and Warriors in the absence of Crowder and injuries to Paul and Booker.

So the new owner Ishbia ordered Durant, who was no longer with the Nets, but at the cost of the exaggerated Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks in 23, 25, 27 and 2029, and a 2028 first-round swap.

The league's No. 1 Suns, if Booker is the heart, Paul is the brain, and Ayton is the torso, then the front line composed of Crowder, Bridges, and Lao Huang Zhong is the team's muscles and bones.

These three forwards have taken too many risks and done too much hidden and important work for the first three stars.

(4) After losing to the eventual champion Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals last season, they embarked on a path of no return in the offseason to continue to gamble.

They opted to trade Paul for Bradley Beal, who is 30 years old with four years and $200 million on his contract and the league's only trade veto. Sent away the team's absolute brains and brought in another star scorer.

Then, with the "Durant-Beal-Booker" core team of pure offense, 20 Lakers championship coach Vogel who is good at defense was introduced.

They quickly assembled a base-salary rotation and traded Ayton for Nurkic and Grayson Allen.

A deformed lineup with a core framework that is unguarded, lacks height, lacks muscle, and lacks organizational guards.

(5) The most outrageous thing is this season, the most core recruit Beal missed 29 games due to various injuries, and his performance fell to the lowest value since 2016.

The Suns still adhere to their "firepower" team building model, and did not bring in a reliable playmaker throughout the season, but used the last bit of chips in their hands to exchange for 3D player Royce O'Neal, while the offensive development completely relies on the individual abilities of Durant and Booker.

So in this season's Suns, we can see the hard struggles of Durant and Booker, Beal's lonely eyes on the bench, and Vogel's helpless shoulder hug on the sidelines.

The regular season of the 10-game Devils at the end of the season was the last straw that drained them of their last bit of energy.

It was a complete failure, and in just two years, Suns management tore down a league-leading team into the laughing stock of the league today.

And Durant, as one of the cores of the team, has once again become the backstabber.

And the most terrifying is still in the future,

Next season, the total salary of the three stars will reach 160 million, and the salary of players on the books will reach 190 million, almost 100% replacing the Warriors as the league's major taxpayers.

What's even more outrageous is that until 2030, the Suns only have one first-round pick left in their pockets for 2024. In order to form this team, they gave almost everything, but in exchange for this result.

Kevin Durant, he's failed again.

After 2016, he has been trying to prove himself and catch up with James, only to find that he is getting farther and farther away from perfection and success, and his choices are always at odds with his goals.

That summer, he turned down the Celtics, Heat, Lakers and Thunder and risked the world's disapproval to join the Warriors, who had just beaten him.

I thought that the gorgeous basketball and seemingly harmonious locker room atmosphere here would not only bring me a championship, but also become a real spiritual home.

As a result, after winning two championships + FMVP, he is still regarded as an outsider, and he will still be output by a dog raised by Curry.

In 2019, with the Achilles tendon that he broke in advance, he left, and he didn't owe the Warriors anything.

Joining as a free agent, the Warriors didn't spend a penny, brought two championships, defeated LeBron, took a salary cut in the middle, and finally broke the Achilles tendon.

He even signed and traded for Russell, and finally became Wiggins and Kuminga, who brought two championships to the Warriors, but now he is almost removed from history and has become Curry's "boss champion".

In 2019, he once again emulated LeBron, hoping to pull a group of brothers to replicate the "Heat South Coast" legend by his own will.

In Brooklyn, at first, he had a wealthy boss who absolutely trusted him, a management who was obedient to him, and two brothers who liked him the most, Harden and Irving.

However, the lineup carefully built for them by the management was finally shattered by Brother Alphabet's foot.

As for Durant himself, he is not ready to bounce back after a defeat like LeBron in 2011.

After the failure of the first year, Irving's demons, Harden's displeasure, and his own inaction and inaction followed.

He was the most gold-medal fighter of his time, but he was really not a competent leader.

He thought that he was the same as his predecessors, and after causing public anger, as long as he won the championship, he could reverse the criticism.

He thought that he, like Curry, could become the darling here as long as he won the championship for the Bay Area.

He thought that he was the same as LeBron, as long as he pulled a group of brothers who were also stars, he could win the championship.

He always thinks that the problem is too simple, and thinks that forming a champion division is as direct as matching trolls on the Internet, but he doesn't know that people's hearts are unpredictable and the road to championship is long and smooth.

After today's game, he sincerely affirmed and blessed the young Edwards, just as the Black Mamba also affirmed him and Wei Shao after they eliminated Kobe Bryant in 2012, a new generation replaced the old.

However, Durant, who is about to be 36 years old, is actually still a teenager.

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