Kevin Durant’s trade highlights the failure of the era of Suns free spending

The Phoenix Suns are exchanging Kevin Durant with the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, choice n. 10 In the NBA draft of 2025 and five choices of the second round, according to Espn’s Shams Charania.
The owner of Suns Mat Ishbia made a dive to exchanging for Durant, a two -time MVP, on February 9, 2023, only two days after officially taking control of the team he had purchased for $ 4 billion. The Suns gave up four unprotected choices of the first round in the trade and reached the four-year contract of $ 194 million in Durant which ends after the 2025-26 season.
Later that summer, Phoenix acquired Bradley Beal by Washington Wizards, who had another four -year -olds with a massive agreement of $ 251 million five years.
The trio of Devin Booker, Durant and Beal had mediocre results on the pitch. They were swept in the first round of the 2024 playoffs and then lost the 2025 playoffs. Although some injury problems contributed to these results, the “big three” only 45-33 went to the games in which they played everyone, not exactly a superteam.
Ishbia paid a heavy price for those teams without success. The Suns had the third highest payroll in the championship in 2023-24 at $ 191 million, which brought them far beyond the luxury tax threshold for an additional invoice of $ 68 million, for Spratac. In 2024-25, their combined tax penalty and a tax penalty amounted to $ 367 million, while no other team exceeded $ 300 million.

The Suns, however, have just freed any salary by downloading Durant, while they resumed Green and Brooks, who are intended to earn $ 33 million and $ 21 million in the next season, respectively. At the moment, Phoenix has even more salary commitments for 2025-26 than any team other than Boston Celtics. (Not to mention the fact that the franchising is paying the last three coaches who shot as well as their new bench boss, Jordan Ott.)
Franchising is also in a situation regarding its choices. Suns do not control any of their choices of the first round between 2026 and 2031, with some of those choices due to other teams and other swap vulnerables.
Phoenix is ​​a caution of caution for Oversper expenses during this new era of NBA after the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, which has increased the sanctions for repeated transgressors and teams that significantly exceed the tax threshold. He also placed significant restrictions on the construction of rosters on teams that exceed a “second apron”, which was $ 188.9 million for the 2024-25 season and increases in future seasons. Next year, the tax line should be around $ 188 million and the second apron will be approximately $ 208 million.
In the meantime, the depth is perhaps more important than ever, since the rhythm and space of the game have increased and the stars are wounded more regularly. The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, who are double in a winner for the NBA championship tonight, will each play nine or ten players in every game. The downside, the Suns have not been able to fill in their list of adequate support role -players.
In particular, the pars and thunder were each in the lower half of the NBA in salary this season.
“Ask the other 29 grams [in the NBA]26 of them would exchange all their team with our whole team and our draft choices as it is, “Ishbia said in May 2024.” We are in an exceptional position “.
A year and a month later, the Suns gave up their precious resource and currently have 460 to 1 probability to win the NBA title of 2026, according to Fanduel.