Kevin Durant was traded away from the Brooklyn Nets to the Phoenix Suns and so was T.J. Warren. Phoenix gave away future first-round picks, Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, and Jae Crowder (who was then traded later to the Milwaukee Bucks). This was a massive blockbuster trade and it means that both of these basketball teams are trending in different directions.
Free NBA picks are given out by sports betting analysts on a night-to-night basis. There is a lot to break down about what happened with both teams after this trade went down. What does the Kevin Durant trade mean moving forward for both of these franchises?
Phoenix Suns NBA Title Contenders
With this trade, Phoenix is officially an NBA title contender once again. It seemed they were having a down year due to injuries but now they are back in the title conversation. The Suns were just in the NBA Finals two years ago before losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games.
Also, they were the number one seed in the Western Conference last season before flaming out in seven games against the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.
The Western Conference is wide open and the biggest threat to them this season will be the number one seed Denver Nuggets. The Phoenix Suns are currently the fifth seed in the Western Conference and they will move up before the regular season in the NBA ends.
Kevin Durant is more than likely going to push this team over the top. They haven’t won it all before and Phoenix probably has their best chance to do so with the Kevin Durant trade. The Suns decided to swing for the fences and it will probably pay for them at some point unless injuries occur.
A Loaded Roster
The Phoenix Suns already had a loaded roster before adding Kevin Durant. Phoenix potentially has a Big 4 of Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and DeAndre Ayton. This is one of the best rosters on paper and their starting lineup is also elite.
The bench isn’t that deep with some of the players that were just parted in this trade, but the scoring between Booker and Durant alone will be a significant story every night.
Cameron Payne is one of their key players off the bench this season. They will take a massive hit if anyone gets hurt. That is why Phoenix was having a down year up until this point. Losing Bridges and Crowder will hurt on the defensive end of the floor, but losing Johnson isn’t much of a big deal for them.
The defense might take a step backward a little bit under head coach Monty Williams, but the offense could be very lethal because who are other teams going to stop? That is why they are so dangerous now.
Brooklyn Nets Reloading
The Brooklyn Nets are trying to reload their roster and not necessarily rebuild their roster. Brooklyn is currently the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and they may falter down the stretch but it won’t be anything catastrophic.
It appears as if Cam Thomas may be the guy to build the franchise around in the future and the Nets will also want to hold onto Nic Claxton.
The Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden experiments massively failed. Irving was traded a couple of days ago to the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn got Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith back in that trade.
With Mikal Bridges around, he will be one of the Nets’ keep pieces moving forward. It is amazing how the Nets had all of this superstar talent to just very good role players.
Ben Simmons has also been a massive failure with the Brooklyn Nets. He was acquired in that James Harden trade a season ago, also. Brooklyn acquiring picks in the first round from other teams means they have trust in their scouting department to find good basketball players with their later draft picks. Jacque Vaughn is the head coach of this basketball team and he will look forward to not having any egos on his roster.
