One Western Conference opponent is asking the same question that many others are right now too — how much help does Kevin Durant need exactly?
The news broke on Sunday that the Phoenix Suns are acquiring yet another All-Star, Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal, to play with Durant. The Suns are taking on the remainder of Beal’s five-year, $251M supermax contract and are sending a few notable pieces back to the Wizards in return.
In response to the bombshell trade, Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic took a shot at Durant over Twitter. “Brooklyn situation all over again,” Nurkic wrote with a laughing-face emoji.
Brooklyn situation all over again 😂
— Jusuf Nurkić 🇧🇦 (@bosnianbeast27) June 18, 2023
Nurkic is referencing the failed superteam that Durant had on the Brooklyn Nets with Kyrie Irving and James Harden. The three stars came together in 2021 and were expected to rule the NBA for years to come.
But various off-court issues with the trio (as well as some prominent in-fighting) doomed the experiment from the start. Durant, Irving, and Harden only won a total of one playoff series together, and all three ended up forcing their way off the team via trade within a two-year span.
On paper, this does indeed look like a similar situation with Phoenix. They are pairing Durant with two highly-paid, ball-dominant guards (Beal and Devin Booker) with pitifully little depth to fill out their roster with (though the Suns did manage to hang onto Deandre Ayton).
For Durant specifically, who already had to join another superteam before in the Golden State Warriors to win his two NBA titles, he is now likely to face even more criticisms of being a “bus rider.”
