NBA Trade Rumors: If there's one fallout from the NBA Trade Deadline, it's that a Kevin Durant trade demand may be on the horizon.
Heading into the NBA Trade Deadline, the Phoenix Suns were either going to emerge as big winners or huge losers as they would pay the price of the fallout. Even though the dust of the trade deadline chaos hasn't completley settled, it's pretty safe to say that not only were the Suns big losers but that there is going to be some major fallout from everything that transpired over the last week or so.
And the worst of it is not even the fact that Phoenix was literally offering Bradley Beal to almost every team across the league. Instead, the biggest fallout of the Suns' aggressiveness at the trade deadline will fall on the future of Kevin Durant. After word began to spread that the Suns were open to taking calls on KD, it could not have left a good taste in the All-Star forward's mouth.
In fact, the early indications are that KD is upset that the Suns even entertained the thought of trading him. According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, it's a pretty safe assumption to make (at the moment) that KD and the Suns could be headed toward a divorce this offseason.
Even as Windy echoed in the podcast, a lot can change between now and the offseason. However, I find it hard to believe that there's anything the Suns can accomplish this season, perhaps short of a Western Conference Finals or NBA Finals appearance, that would alter what KD's future may be.
The Phoenix Suns played with fire and got burned
The Suns knew exactly what they were doing at the trade deadline. They were aggressive because they needed to be. Phoenix was a team that needed a complete reshuffling of their roster and they weren't able to pull it off. Sure, they added Nick Richards but they whiffed on their No. 1 target, Jimmy Butler. And in the process, they may have fractured their relationship with KD.
In essence, the Suns played with fire and got burned. It was always a possibility and the Suns had to have known this, but they took the gamble anyway because they had to. Currently ranked outside the top 8 in the Western Conference standings, the Suns are not in a good place. Heading into the final stretch of the season, it's hard to envision how things are tangibly going to change for this team.
In many ways, it already feels as if the damage is done. Unless there's a magical ending to the season for Phoenix, it does appear as if big changes are on the horizon. There's a good chance those big changes will begin with a trade of KD.