An NBA blogger has suggested that the Warriors should trade for Kevin Durant from the Suns in the upcoming offseason.

The following trade proposal was put up by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes for the Warriors and Suns:

A 2025 first-round selection, along with Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and Kevin Durant were acquired by the Golden State Warriors from the Phoenix Suns.

For the Suns this season, Durant shot 52.3% from the field, 41.3% from beyond the arc, and 85.6% from the free throw line, while averaging 27.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 5.0 assists. He scored seven points per game and ranked fifth in the NBA in that category.

Despite finishing the 2024 season with a 49-33 record, the Suns were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves. After only one season, they brought in Mike Budenholzer and let Frank Vogel go.

The Warriors were without Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green this season, even though they had a strong roster.

Durant spent the 2016–17 and 2018–19 seasons with the Warriors. After two titles and two Most Valuable Player awards, KD left for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019.

The upcoming season will bring Durant $49.9 million, with $53.3 million in 2025–26.

Durant has only won two postseason series since departing the Warriors. On two occasions, he has lost in the first round of the playoffs.

“If this trade falls through on draft night, the Suns will try to get an extra first-round pick from the Warriors in 2027, which is the only other team they can include in the deal,” Hughes wrote. While the organization has declared Kuminga untouchable, the Dubs will attempt to replace him with someone like Brandin Podziemski.

On top of all those disagreements during negotiations, Golden State is still paying about $3 million more than what is legally permissible (and that’s before you factor in Kevon Looney’s non-guaranteed $8 million for 2024-25).

Putting that aside, there are few teams more focused on a win-now schedule than the Suns; the Warriors are among them. With two more years remaining on his contract, it appears the franchise is serious about building a championship-caliber roster around Curry. Despite the health concerns associated with his upcoming 36th birthday, Durant is likely to be a more useful short-term contributor than Kuminga, Wiggins, or Moody when the upcoming season begins.

“Would Phoenix quickly acknowledge that trading for KD was a mistake?” I highly doubt it. However, this does not alter the fact that the Suns are a very costly and rigid team that will endure a string of disappointing seasons should any of its three star players suffer from declining or splitting up. The one option to mitigate the impact in the second half of this decade is to engage in a Durant deal. It would provide depth, young talent, and draft picks to the roster.

In 208 games played for the Warriors, Durant averaged 25.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists, solidifying his place as one of the all-time greats in NBA scoring.

The Suns will enter the 2024–25 season with two max-level talents (Bradley Beal and Devin Booker) and three new combo forwards, according to Hughes’s writing. With Kuminga’s potential, we have reason to be optimistic about the future, and the roster makes a lot more sense now. Bringing KD back to serve as a savior instead of the bandwagon-hopping free-agent he was in 2016, the Warriors fully embrace the ‘final ride’ concept.