After watching the Phoenix Suns’ young players get some significant minutes in the last few games, the team’s energy has picked up, and the defensive effort looks like they may have a chance to compete for the 10th seed.
The Suns got their most considerable margin of victory over the shorthanded Toronto Raptors with a 40-point win, 129-89. What stood out in this win was the smothering defense from the youngsters Ryan Dunn and Oso Iggadrio for significant minutes.
There has been much speculation all season about what is wrong with the Sun’s team, which has so much talent. After the All-Star break, the team looked to trade its star player, Kevin Durant.
Although Durant understood how the business worked, he had not been the same player since then.
Durant has had spats on camera with his head coach during games. We have seen him upset at teammates for being in the wrong spots on the floor, and we have seen him drop his head when things are not going so well. Overall, his attitude has been much like cancer to a team that needs to be as close as they can to win enough games to make the play-in, which consists of encouraging teammates when they make mistakes, backing up his head coach out on the floor as a leader, and never show low emotion that the adversity is getting you down.
This can be the issue that is holding this team back.
Devin Booker had taken on this attitude but has recently played with a newfound energy shot into him from the young rookies playing their hearts out. He has now been playing with the “fun” involved, and that has been missing.
After watching the tape, Durant’s defense effort is proof that he has not played with the same intensity at the beginning of the season before the trade deadline.
Look at these plays; this is the same game and the same play: Durant is in a help-defense situation where he is standing in a position to guard the three-point shot in the corner. When the opposing guard aggressively drives to the basket on Durant’s side, he does not react and slide over to the paint to stop the ball, which results in an easy rim-run layup every time.
Another play shows when KD turns the ball over, he stops playing and walks back on defense, and half the time, he does not make it back in time to stop another way layup. These plays are all in one game but have been the problem since the trade deadline.
It’s time for KD to get over what happened at the trade deadline. It feels like Durant is pouting and playing like he does not have to give it his all to a team that doesn’t want him. To a degree, one can understand that stance, but he owes it to his teammates, mainly those young rookies, to give them the entire best of Kevin Durant.
There is no question that Durant is one of the best offensive players in NBA history, but he has yet to take a team to dominance under his leadership. It is easier for him to ride along with another star player carrying the heavy load of being the team’s example on and off the court.
The Suns have a tough road ahead to making the Playoffs, and if the best player on your team is pouting and not bringing all of his effort on defense and not getting along with the coach, it will make it easier to trade him in the off-season. The flip side of that could be for Durant to go out and lead this team to the Playoffs and give the Suns a little bit of doubt trading him in the off-season, or show them that his name still draws excellent value and they will get a decent package in a trade.
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