As the Phoenix Suns and new star forward Kevin Durant prepare for the so-called second half of the NBA season, it’s been an open question about when he’ll debut.
Durant was acquired in a blockbuster trade from the Brooklyn Nets earlier in February. One of the biggest trades in modern NBA history came with a backdrop that consisted of Durant being sidelined to injury.
The two-time NBA Finals MVP has not suited up since suffering a knee injury back on Jan. 8 against the Miami Heat.
Coming out of the All-Star Break, Durant’s absence will be short-lived. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the future Hall of Famer could make his debut on national television against the Milwaukee Bucks Sunday afternoon.
It would absolutely be something if Durant made his debut on the road against the team Phoenix lost to in the 2021 NBA Finals. With the addition of Durant, Phoenix has to be seen as a legitimate title contender. It’s in this that we could be witnessing a preview of the 2023 NBA Finals on ABC Sunday afternoon.
It was back in the summer of 2019 that Durant left the Golden State Warriors for Brooklyn. For the future Hall of Famer, it was all about finding his own identity without Stephen Curry.
Fast forward a few years, and Durant heads to Phoenix after a failed run with former teammate Kyrie Irving and the Nets. He talked about this after completion of the aforementioned blockbuster.
“It was a lot of ups and downs, but I love the grind. Everybody in Brooklyn loved the grind too, so I built a family over there. They’re always going to be a part of my journey, so we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish by winning a championship, but I enjoyed the grind. We tried are hardest every day, regardless of what was going on in the media, going on with our teammates.
I love those guys, I get emotional talking about it because that was a special four years of my career. Coming off an Achilles [tear]. They helped me through a lot. It was terrible how some stuff went down, but at the end of the day, I loved the grind. I wish them the best going forward.”
Kevin Durant on tenure with the Brooklyn Nets
Now in the desert, Durant teams up with Devin Booker and Chris Paul to form one of the better trios in the Association. It might not be considered a super team, but Phoenix is as close to that as we’ll get in today’s NBA.
We’ll get a first-hand view of how this turns out, potentially starting Sunday against Milwaukee.
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