Opinion
As the camera shows James Bond to be holding a King and Ace, it puts 007 in a strong position to win the poker hand, so he raises the pot to two million.
Just when it seems that the villain in Le Chiffre has been out witted, he boldly goes all in.
As the audience we know Bond has a strong hand, and after all, he’s the hero of Casino Royale, he’s not going to lose, so smartly, he calls and puts all his chips in the middle too. As the cards are flipped, Bond has a full house, it’s over right? Time to roll the credits?
Queue Le Chiffre pulling out two Jacks to win the hand with four of a kind, but more surprisingly, defeat Bond and clean him out. Of course this is Hollywood, we know it’s not over and eventually Bond enters back into the game to take home all of the winnings.
While the NBA lately has somewhat felt like a scripted Hollywood drama, it’s rare that a team and/or player can put all of their chips in the middle, lose, but then still mange to turn it around and come out as a winner.
Kevin Durant just did that.
Kevin Durant. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
In the 2019 NBA off-season, Durant ditched what was one of the greatest teams ever assembled in the Golden State Warriors, to team up with his “best friend” (at the time at least, no one would be able tell you what terms they are on now) in Kyrie Irving, to join the Brooklyn Nets.
They were quickly labelled as one of the most talented duo’s ever assembled and although Durant would miss the entire 2019-20 season with his achilleas injury, most people had the Nets as strong favourites to win the 2021 title.
Fast forward a bit, and suddenly Durant’s other good friend came to join the party. Swapping out a majority of their assets, the Nets banked on the fact that Durant and Kyrie were going to be in Brooklyn for a long time, and risked it all to bring in James Harden.
Kyrie, Harden and Durant! How the hell was anyone going to stop that big three? Sure defensively there were questions, but it didn’t matter. If you score 120 points, they would score 130, if you score 140, they would run it up to 150! It simply did not matter.
What did matter was health though, and due to injuries the trio hardly played together, but it wasn’t important for the regular season because they were all up in running in time for the playoffs.
They easily beat the short-handed Celtics in five games, and while their opponent was nothing too special, the Nets looked like they were just warming up.
Except Harden would get injured within minutes of their first game against the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, and soon Kyrie would join him on the treatment table.
Amazingly, Durant was still enough to push the Bucks to seven games and had it not been for his ginormous shoes, they may have won the series and potentially gone on to win the championship. But the Bucks would prevail in overtime, leaving the Nets to hope that next season, there big three would be healthy.
Quickly their big three turned into a big ‘what if?’
New York vaccination laws at the time, meant Kyrie couldn’t play until he got the COVID-19 vaccination, which he refused, and Durant went down with another injury.
While James Harden had become accustomed to being a one man team in Houston, heading into the twilight of his career, this is not what he signed up for. He was supposed to have help, not have to carry the load.
Patty Mills and Kevin Durant. (Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images)
So instead of buckling down, getting in the best shape of his life, and carrying the franchise, he quit on his second team in as many seasons, and demanded a trade out.
Quickly he was dealt to Philadelphia, leaving the Nets with Durant, Kyrie, roll players and a Ben Simmons who wouldn’t play.
After finishing as a seventh seed, a 4-0 sweep saw the Nets crash out in the first round to the Celtics and another year of the Durant and Kyrie experience was a failure.
Having had enough of Kyrie and the overall poor experience in Brooklyn, Kevin Durant asked for a trade but considering he still had four years left on his contract, the Nets held firm and convinced him to do a 180 and stay.
Well, just cause he stayed, it didn’t mean things went well. The Nets started out the season appalling. They fired head coach Steve Nash, suspended Kyrie for promoting a documentary with Semitic messages in it, and overall weren’t looking like the contender we thought they would be.
I guess you could say they did the hooky pokey, because they certainly turned things around and with a bought in and focused Kyrie and Durant playing at an MVP level, the Nets were actually rolling, and sure they were beating up on some average teams, but they were still winning.
But if this Nets team over the years was anything to go by, when things are going well, it’s only a matter of time before the good times stop.
Like clockwork, Durant got injured with an MCL sprain and was set to miss an extended amount of time, meaning Kyrie was left to hold the fort down.
But hold on, Kyrie left Cleveland in the first place because he wanted to be ‘the guy’, so surely he would have no problem being the lead man for a while until Durant re-joined him, right?
Again, if this Nets Kyrie experience teaches you anything, it’s expect the unexpected. After not being able to agree to a contract extension, he demanded a trade and was quickly delt to Dallas for some, ok players, but not enough to support Durant if they were going to actually contend for the title.
Well, Kevin Durant made this bed, so he’ll just have to lie in it.
He handpicked Kyrie to come to the Nets with him and he forced the organisation to trade a large amount of players and draft assets to get Harden.
Life comes at you fast, one day you’re playing with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the next you’ve been abandoned by your All-Star running mates and are left to play with Ben Simmons, Dorian Finney Smith and some average roll players.
Maybe this is karma for Durant, he teamed up with the 73-9 Golden State Warriors and basically ruined the NBA for two seasons. It was a cheap move that to this day is still being criticised, so maybe we’ll play a song for Kevin on our tiny violin as he wastes a season on this Nets team.
Except this is a player driven league, and although it felt like Durant had lost, we now know he actually won.
A Woj bomb in the middle of the night in America and suddenly, Durant is now being traded to the Phoenix Suns.
Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton, all on the same team.
Sure Phoenix gave up some valuable role players in Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, plus Jae Crowder (who wasn’t playing for them anyway), to go along with four first-round picks, and a 2028 pick swap.
With the way the Suns roster is currently constructed, it’ll be surprising if those picks even make it to the lottery, so their value is debatable.
However if any team knows the risk of mortgaging your future draft capital in order to win now, it’s Brooklyn. At the time, they happily shelled out all of their future first round picks for James Harden, and now Houston is really looking like a winner. But for the Suns, giving up all of their future picks for Kevin Durant, on paper, at least seems worth it.
Booker is only 26, Ayton is 24 and Durant has three more seasons (after this one), left on his contract, as well as the soon to be 38 year-old Chris Paul, so this trade is worth the risk.
The Suns should now become title favourites, or at the very least on par with The Celtics and Bucks.
Paul won’t even have to look to score, Booker will no longer be seeing the best defender every night, and while Ayton may have to take a step back (something that he may not willingly do), if he plays his roll, this could be the team to beat.
Durant and Booker can take turns on offence and the rotation can be staggered so they each get time as the primary scorer on the court, while the other one rests.
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Come playoff time, at least two of Paul, Booker, Durant and Ayton will probably be on the court at all times, and while they may have lost their depth, as long as they can stay healthy, they will only need a rotation of eight to nine players.
While the Suns may seem set (pun intended), there is still plenty of time until the trade deadline, where they might look to add more pieces around their four key pillars.
Worst case, this Suns teams has to become a very desirable place to be for any player who hits the buy-out market, so this Phoenix roster may look even stronger in a week’s time.
Of course we said this about Brooklyn, and that all blew up very quickly, but I’m willing to bet Chris Paul doesn’t go off the rails as much as Kyrie did, and Booker, while he has had his injury trouble this year, has been pretty reliable health wise throughout his career.
Will it all work out?
Only time will tell, but Kevin Durant, who seemed as if he had shot himself in the foot by signing up to the Brooklyn and Kyrie experience, now leaves in his best position to win a title since you could argue, he was on the Warriors.
At the end of the day, Durant lost the battle in Brooklyn, but he may win a war in Phoenix.
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