Kevin Durant's old comments on Bradley Beal have come full circle

If Kevin Durant's opinion of new Phoenix Suns teammate Bradley Beal held any weight, it likely played at least some role in the team's decision to strike a blockbuster trade for the Washington Wizards star guard. Following the Suns' decision to acquire Beal, there was no shortage of opinions across the league, but one comment that resurfaced drew plenty of attention.

Durant's comments on Beal from back in December 2022, courtesy of Forbes' Evan Sidery (h/t ClutchPoints).

“I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame, All-Star scorer. Player, sorry. Calling him just a scorer is diminishing who he is.” Durant said of Beal.

Durant's high praise of Beal only adds to the excitement for Suns fans, who'll have a front-row seat for the NBA's newest big three, which also includes All-Star guard Devin Booker. The deal, which was first reported by The Athletic's Shams Charania, will send Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, a "handful of second-round picks" and multiple pick swaps to Washington.

The trio of Durant, Beal and Booker is arguably one of the most prolific scoring trios we've ever seen on an NBA roster together. While there have been a number of impressive big threes over recent years, from a pure-scoring standpoint, this group would rival any of them.

Looking at the 2023 NBA Playoffs alone, Booker (33.7 points per game) and Durant (29) averaged north of 62 combined points per game. When diving deeper into the postseason numbers for the Suns, Deandre Ayton was third in scoring at 13.4 points per game, followed by Chris Paul, whose postseason was cut short due to injury, at 12.4.

With Paul on the move, and Ayton likely to be traded, the drop-off in scoring after that dropped down to Cameron Payne (8.1) and Torrey Craig (6.5), which highlights the Suns' obvious focus on adding an elite scorer in Beal.