Kevin Durant's injury may be final blow to miserable Suns season

Durant sprained his ankle in Sunday's loss to the Houston Rockets, an injury that will reportedly keep him out at least one week. He may never suit up for the Suns again. That could be the last setback in a hugely disappointing season for Phoenix.

Not only are the Suns trailing the Sacramento Kings for 10th place and the final play-in spot in the Western Conference, their remaining opponents have a winning percentage of .606. That's the NBA's hardest remaining schedule. They still have to play the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks without Durant on Friday and Sunday, respectively, and they may have to play the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors without him after that.

Phoenix has a payroll of $220.7M for 2024-2025, the highest in the NBA, with Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal earning over $150M combined. Their luxury tax is projected to be more than $152M. Yet the team is in 11th place thanks to Beal missing 25 games and Jusuf Nurkic disappointing so much that he was traded.

But it's Durant's absences that have truly killed the Suns. They're 33-29 with Durant in the lineup, a .532 winning percentage. That would still only be good for ninth place in the Western Conference, but it's far better than their 2-11 record without him.

Making the play-in would be disappointing, but ending up in the draft lottery would be worse — especially since their pick would go to the Houston Rockets. If they have even a slim hope of getting into the play-in, they'll need Devin Booker to light up the scoreboard — and perhaps some of these contenders to rest players if their seeding is locked in.

Durant hasn't even been particularly injured this season by the standards of a 36-year-old player. But the Suns have failed to build a supporting team around him. Now, those supporting players are the team's last hope.