Phoenix's Mistake, Brooklyn's Foundation: Revisiting the 2023 Durant Trade

Just a season removed from reaching the NBA Finals, many believed the Brooklyn Nets had equipped the Phoenix Suns to become one of the NBA’s next great dynasties by trading future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant after their own experiment with him fell short.

However, things didn’t go as Phoenix likely planned. The Suns missed the playoffs this season, the first time Durant has missed the postseason since his rookie year in 2008-09. This offseason, Phoenix finally threw in the towel, trading Durant to the Houston Rockets on July 6.

In an article by ESPN’s Zach Kram, the Durant trade is considered the second-biggest roster mistake that an NBA team has made this decade.

"Ishbia pushed his team to give up a massive haul for Durant -- Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks and a swap -- setting into motion a chain of events that have all but wrecked a team that reached the NBA Finals in 2020-21 and won a league-best 64 games in 2021-22," Kram said. "It wasn't just the Durant trade that was the problem; it was the Suns' insistence on doubling down again and again, mortgaging every aspect of their future for increasingly long odds of winning in the present."

While giving up so many valuable pieces may have derailed Phoenix’s title hopes, it jump-started Brooklyn’s rebuild. In addition to the four first-round picks acquired in the Durant trade, the Nets later flipped Mikal Bridges for four more future first-round picks. Cam Johnson became one of Brooklyn’s top players before being traded for Michael Porter Jr. and another future first-round pick on July 8.

Although Durant’s time in Brooklyn is often labeled as a failed project, he still managed to perform at a high level throughout his entire tenure with the team. The 15-time All-Star led the Nets to two playoff appearances while averaging 28.8 points, 5.8 assists, and 7.0 rebounds per game.

However, once fellow stars Kyrie Irving and James Harden were traded, it became clear that the chapter had closed, leading Brooklyn to shift its focus toward rebuilding the roster for the future.

While Phoenix is left cleaning up the pieces, Brooklyn is in a position to eventually blossom into one of the league's top young teams.