Kevin Durant is staying in Phoenix as another tumultuous second half and ensuing offseason comes into focus for the Suns.
As the 2025 NBA trade deadline came and went for the Suns Thursday, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported on “NBA Today” that the team had a very awkward shootaround ahead of Wednesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I’ll use ‘toxic’,” Shelburne said, describing the Suns’ locker room after a tough trade deadline that saw most players floated in deals. “That shootaround, I heard, was very awkward, very weird because everyone was on pins and needles wondering what they were going to do.”
The Suns, missing an injured Durant, went on to lose by 31 points to the Thunder, knowing that the front office was discussing trades for several players, including Bradley Beal and Durant, who reportedly nixed a trade that would’ve sent him back to Golden State.
“Now you have this reset where, how do you move forward as a team where there was a clear mandate here where they have to do something, and if they’re not able to get anything done… There’s aprons, there’s all of this stuff, it’s really hard to do something and the thing they were trying to do does not come into fruition because Kevin Durant said no,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said of the Suns’ position. “It’s hard to move forward and that’s where they’re left.”
Windhorst added that Durant was “shocked” to be apart of any trade discussions.
With Durant staying in Phoenix for the foreseeable future, the 25-25 Suns are currently the 10th seed in the Western Conference, just a half-game out of the eighth seed.
They will have a tough time getting through a crowded West in order to make an extended playoff run and things could get dicier in the desert.
Phoenix eventually traded disgruntled center Jusuf Nurkić on deadline day, along with a first-round pick to the Hornets in exchange for Cody Martin and a 2026 second-round pick.
