The Suns are staring at a brutal reality, and Kevin Durant is right in the middle of it.
What once looked like a trade Phoenix might have won is tilting hard the other way. Durant’s move to Houston, with Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Khaman Maluach heading to the Suns, was easy to laugh at last season because the Rockets never made much noise in the Western Conference.
That cushion is gone now. Houston is off to a 5-1 start, and Durant looks like the missing piece on a team built to matter.
He’s averaging 23.3 points per game, a step below the numbers people have come to expect from him, but the Rockets don’t need him to carry everything. Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard and Fred VanVleet give him real support, and that balance is exactly what Phoenix never managed to build around him.
The numbers tell the story pretty plainly. Houston is sitting 11th in defensive rating at 109.6, which is close to where the Suns finished last season.
Phoenix, though, is now dead last in the NBA at 125.8 on defense. On the other end, the Rockets are leading the league at 120.4 points per game.
That’s a dangerous combination, especially when Durant can still punish a bad possession and score within the flow of the offense.
That was the problem for the Suns when Durant was there, and it still hasn’t been solved. The Rockets have found a way to make him the finishing touch on a functioning attack, while Phoenix is left with a team that looks flat and incomplete.
Jordan Ott has settled into a 10-man rotation as the season moves along, but the group has obvious defensive holes and doesn’t look close to the level needed to compete. Meanwhile, Houston is winning now and still owns Phoenix’s first-round picks in 2027 and 2029.
VanVleet’s presence matters just as much. He missed all of last season with an ACL tear, and now he’s giving Durant the kind of true floor general the Suns still haven’t found for Devin Booker. Phoenix tried to address that issue when Durant was in town by bringing in Tyus Jones to set the table, but it never clicked.
In Houston, Durant has an All-Star-level point guard steering the offense, getting everyone involved and leaving him to finish the job when needed. For the Suns, that timing could hardly be worse.
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Suns Still Have The Same Problem But This Loss Felt Different
The Suns keep saying the emphasis is on defense, but the early returns have been hard to ignore. In their NBA Cup opener against Denver, Phoenix fell 127-120 and gave up a season-high point total, a familiar issue for a team that has spent the first stretch of the season trying to dig itself out of the leagues basement on that end of the floor.
What made this one feel a little different was the way Phoenix stayed in the game offensively and still came up short. Miles Bridges posted 24 points and 10 rebounds, but Jamal Murrays 39-point night kept Denver in control when it mattered most, leaving the Suns at 1-3 and still searching for a defensive answer that has yet to show up. [Read more 🡒]
Suns Rotation Squeeze Is Putting Jamaree Bouyea In A Tough Spot
Jamaree Bouyea was a useful piece for the Suns last season, getting into 46 games and carving out a role with his defense. This year, though, the path has narrowed fast. Phoenixs rotation has tightened as head coach Jordan Ott tries to sort through a defense that has been a problem, and Bouyea has only gotten into two games so far, with his minutes kept to a minimum.
The squeeze could ease if the Suns make a change on the perimeter, and Jalen Green is the name to watch there. If Green ends up moving to the bench, Bouyea would have a better chance to work his way back into the mix. For now, though, his situation is a reminder of how quickly a dependable depth option can get pushed to the edge when a team is still searching for answers. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Dunn Is Forcing A Suns Rotation Debate They Can't Ignore
Ryan Dunns second season in Phoenix has already turned into one of those early rotation conversations that can linger well beyond October. His scoring and rebounding have dipped to career lows, but head coach Jordan Ott has still kept him in the 10-man mix, leaning on him mostly with the second unit as the Suns search for ways to steady a defense that has been a problem.
The appeal is pretty clear: Dunn brings the kind of defensive presence this roster can use right now, and the Suns do not have many obvious short-term answers on that end. The question is whether that value is enough to keep him in a meaningful role if the offense remains uneven, or whether Phoenix eventually has to decide if his defense alone can justify the minutes. [Read more 🡒]