The Phoenix Suns‘ nightmare of a season turned for the worst when Kevin Durant suffered a left ankle sprain during Sunday’s 148-109 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets.
On Monday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Durant will miss at least one week — a brutal blow to the skidding Suns, who are 1.5 games outside the play-in tournament with the toughest schedule remaining, per Tankathon.
Durant will miss the Suns’ three-game road trip against the Milwaukee Bucks (April 1), defending champion Boston Celtics (April 4) and New York Knicks (April 6).
The Suns have lost their last three games by an average of 28.0 points.
The 36-year-old Durant entered Sunday’s game averaging 26.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.3 blocks. He left the Rockets game with 6:57 left in the third quarter after scoring 11 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
The Fallout of Kevin Durant’s Ankle Injury
Durant’s injury is likely the final nail in the Suns’ coffin this season.
By the time Durant comes back, if he does, the Suns will face the Golden State Warriors (April 8) and Oklahoma City Thunder (April 9) in a brutal back-to-back schedule. Durant will likely be held out in one of those games.
The Suns entered the season with high expectations on Year 2 of the Durant-Devin Booker–Bradley Beal Big 3 experiment. With two weeks left in the regular season, they resemble a lottery team except that their first-round pick in this year’s draft is heading to the second seed Houston Rockets.
Another consequence of Durant’s injury is potentially missing out on one of the three All-NBA teams at season’s end.
“In the scenario Durant misses the remainder of the season: A player who plays 62 games and misses the remainder of the season is eligible for All-NBA. However, they must have played in 85% of the team’s regular season games prior to the injury. Durant has played 82.7%,” ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks wrote on X.
Kevin Durant’s Run in Phoenix Might Be Over
If Durant cannot return from this ankle injury this season, there is a great chance that Sunday’s loss might have been the last time he’s wearing the Suns uniform.
Durant was nearly traded back to his former team Warriors at the trade deadline had he not caught wind of it in the 11th hour.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia did not categorically deny the Durant trade talks in an ESPN story published on March 14.
“I’ll just say that we’re going to evaluate in the offseason,” Ishbia told ESPN. “We’re going to find a way to win, and it’s probably a lot easier winning with Kevin Durant than without him. But at the same time, yes, if we’re not good enough in this iteration of the Phoenix Suns, we’re going to find a way to be better next year. ”
Another Suns source relayed to ESPN that only Booker is untouchable.
“When you’re not winning and you’re not winning the way you want, you’ve got to look at everything,” a Suns source told ESPN. “For us with him, it was, how do we make sure that we’re optimizing Devin and building to make you successful now but also in the future. And Kevin’s had an amazing year. He’s had an amazing stretch here. He’s playing really, really good basketball, but there’s always been a conversation with everyone on our team minus Devin Booker.
“As we talked about it, then teams call us because they’re interested because it’s Kevin Durant, we’re not in a position not to look at everything. We have to be creative.”
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