Father time may be bearing down on Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant in a very unique way.
Since breaking into the league, Kevin Durant has consistently been one of the best and most efficient offensive players in the NBA. It's one of the reasons he will likely go down as one of the best and most influential offensive players in league history. For the majority of his career, what has come along with an explosive offensive game has been playoff success for KD. Sure, it took him to team up with Steph Cury and the Golden State Warriors to finally win an NBA Championship but even before, KD was a playoff staple during his time with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
During his nine seasons with the Thunder, KD helped the team make the postseason six times. Overall, those KD-led Thunder teams experienced four trips to the conference finals and one NBA Finals berth. In six years, that's really impressive - even despite their inability to win a title.
With the Warriors, we saw KD take his game to another level as they were nearly unstoppable until injuries caught up with them. Even in his first season with the Brooklyn Nets (after recovering from the Achilles injury), KD was a couple of inches away from a potential NBA Finals run.
Over the last four seasons of his career, though, even though his numbers are still pretty lethal, we may be seeing the early signs of Father Time bearing down on KD. And it's not necessarily from a statistical standpoint. Instead, the argument could be made that we're seeing Father Time bear down on KD in a very unique way - one in which he's become less of a "winning" player for his respective teams.
While he's continued to be on really strong teams, the overall success has not been there - in the regular season or the playoffs. Over his last three seasons (one with Brooklyn and two with Phoenix), KD has only made it out of the first round of the playoffs once. And with the way things are currently trending for the Suns this season, there's not even a guarantee they're going to make the postseason.
As the best player on the Suns, KD deserves a good portion of that fault. Playing next to Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, it's pretty unacceptable for the Suns to be playing this badly right now. But, what if KD's game doesn't translate much to being a "winning" player anymore?
I'm not saying this is entirely why the Suns have struggled so much over the past two years, but it's certainly an interesting possibility. As KD has gotten older, there's been less of a winning impact on his respective teams. There is a trend that does point toward that.
If that is the case, it does lead you toward the question: Can KD be the best player on a very good team? If the Suns are any indication of that over the last couple of seasons, the answer to that question may be no. And maybe, just maybe, this is how Father Time is going to begin to bear down on KD.