The another regularly-scheduled installment of the Kevin Durant sweepstakes is set for the upcoming 2025 NBA offseason. The all-time great is rumored to once again be in search of a new home.
Earlier this month, ESPN's Shams Charania explained on NBA countdown that moving on from the Phoenix Suns was never Durant's idea. The aging superstar never requested a trade and was even surprised to be involved in those conversations around the deadline, according to Charania. However, considering the trajectory of the Suns franchise, the plans for this summer appear to include weighing the options for a deal to send Durant elsewhere.
"This offseason, from my understanding, what it would look like is Durant and the Suns would work together on any potential trade to a contender in a trade scenario," Charania stated. "I would expect four to six contending teams to have some serious involvement with Durant."
The Lakers would certainly fit the bill of a contending team, described by the ESPN insider. Some less credible sources have even included Los Angeles among the teams linked to Durant. The temptation would be understandable, but this is a build that the Lakers should avoid in the immediate future.
Lakers cannot fall into the same trap previous teams have suffered from
On paper, a team potentially boasting Durant paired with Luka Doncic and LeBron James should be a terrifying prospect for the NBA. That is, if this was the 2010s.
The fact of the matter is that these 'big three' builds do not equate to championship success anymore. One does not have to look further than Durant's last two stops to understand that.
The Suns took a turn for the worst as soon as they added Bradley Beal into the mix and made it a three star formula in Phoenix. The initial promise of having Durant and Devin Booker flanked by a solid roster of supporting stars had much more optimism for the type of team that could be built in the desert.
Beal was a terrible fit and had too much overlap in terms of his skill set with Booker, but the financial commitment made to those three players was a big part of the problem too. It effectively killed the ceiling of the roster that could surround the three main cogs.
The Brooklyn Nets faced a similar issue with the trio of Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. In all fairness, that team felt much closer to a championship and was largely undone by injuries and other external circumstances. However, they faced a similar problem of competently filling out the roster around their superstars.
When looking at the last five NBA champions, none of them have used this 'big three' formula to win a ring. The Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, and even the 2020 Lakers all prioritized having varying levels of star power at the top and supporting that with a strong, well-fitted roster to their main attractions.
The Lakers would even be wise to learn from themselves in another instance, when they pursued Russell Westbrook and attempted a three star build. No one wants to go into detail and relive that poor build in its entirety for Los Angeles.
Naturally, Durant is a step above in terms of his player quality. Even so, gutting the roster and assembling a new band of super friends would feel like a mistake that clearly fails to learn from the past and present.