Ever since Kevin Durant moved out of the Bay Area, he has had difficult times on the court. And it grew multifold in recent times after he joined hands with the Phoenix Suns. This postseason, after a hot and cold run in the regular season, the Wolves swept them with a 4-0 record in the first round. Looking back at the Suns’ decisions in the last two years, A popular podcast found James Jones’ decision to trade out DeAndre Ayton in a $132 contract as the root of the problem.
Burns and Gambo, the popular Arizona podcasters dropped an interesting opinion on how the Indiana Pacers are thankful for matching Ayton’s offer sheet. The 25-year-old center moved out of the Suns in the 2023 off-season with a trade exchange linked with the Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers. Ayton moved to the Blazers and received Jusuf Nurkić instead. The podcasters even highlighted how the Suns were quick to match the offer.
Looking back, this could be one of the blunders that the Suns could have committed while having a superstar, Kevin Durant, by their side. Burns and Gambo also revealed that the former coach Monty Williams stressed the Suns’ GM James Jones to trade Ayton for the Pacers’ young center Myles Turner, who the podcaster considered as a “legitimate three-point threat”.
Jones was adamant not to trade Ayton away and eventually traded him only a year after a $132 million extension. Now, the Suns are stuck with Nurkic, who is also a dominant center but limited weapons in his arsenal.
This is a developing story!
