Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant on team’s defense in win over Cavaliers
Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin and Greg Moore discuss Kevin Durant’s answer about his defense in win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Netflix launches its ‘Starting 5: Season 2’ featuring Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Haliburton and James Harden on Oct. 16, less than a week before the NBA begins its 2025-26 regular season on Oct. 21.
LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Butler and Domantas Sabonis were on Season 1 of the documentary series.
Durant played last season for the Phoenix Suns, who finished 36-46 and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season, which was the last time they had a losing record before last season.
The Suns later traded him to the Houston Rockets before the 2025 NBA Draft for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the 10th overall pick in the 2025 draft who wound up being Duke 7-footer Khaman Maluach.
It’ll be interesting to see how Netflix unpacks Durant’s story.
On the one end, Durant came into the 2024-25 season a winner of his fourth Olympic gold medal, a record for men’s basketball, in Paris. He became the eighth player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points and made the 2025 NBA All-Star game with Golden State being the host team.
Durant won two NBA championships and back-to-back finals MVP (2017, 2018) with the Warriors.
However, Phoenix had a losing season in Durant’s second full season with the team. The superstar forward had heated verbal exchanges with coach Mike Budenholzer, was part of trade talks before the 2025 trade deadline and received criticism for how the season unfolded.
Phoenix traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jay Crowder and four first-round picks to Brooklyn for T.J. Warren and Durant before the 2023 trade deadline. The Suns became instant championship contenders, but never made it past the Western Conference semifinals in Durant’s tenure.
Now he’s with the Rockets starting anew.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Haliburton, Brown and Harden each had their own unique seasons as well.
Gilgeous-Alexander won the 2024-25 NBA MVP in leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to an NBA championship, beating Hailburton and the Indiana Pacers in seven games in the finals.
Haliburton led the Pacers to second straight memorable playoff run that ended with him suffering a season-ending Achilles injury in Game 7 against the Thunder.
Brown looked to help Boston win back-to-back NBA championships, but the Celtics fell to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Brown’s teammate, Tatum, suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in Game 4 of that series.
As for Harden, he had a bounce-back year in his second season with the Los Angeles Clippers, but the Denver Nuggets eliminated them in the first round in seven games.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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