The Phoenix Suns are trading Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and five second-round picks, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia made a splash by trading for Durant, a two-time Finals MVP, on Feb. 9, 2023, just two days after he officially assumed control of the team he’d purchased for $4 billion. The Suns gave up four unprotected first round picks in the trade, and took on Durant’s four-year, $194 million contract that ends after the 2025-26 season.
Later that summer, Phoenix acquired Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards, who had four more years remaining on a massive five-year $251 million deal.
The trio of Devin Booker, Durant and Beal had middling results on the court. They were swept in the first round of the 2024 playoffs and then missed the 2025 playoffs. Although some injury issues contributed to those results, the “big three” went just 45-33 in games in which they all played—not exactly a superteam.
Ishbia paid a hefty price for those unsuccessful teams. The Suns had the third highest payroll in the league in 2023-24 at $191 million, which took them well over the luxury tax threshold for an additional bill of $68 million, per Spotrac. In 2024-25, their combined payroll plus tax penalty totaled $367 million, while no other team exceeded $300 million.
The Suns, however, barely shed any salary by offloading Durant, as they took back Green and Brooks, who are set to earn $33 million and $21 million next season, respectively. At present, Phoenix still has more salary commitments for 2025-26 than any team other than the Boston Celtics. (Not to mention that the franchise is paying the last three head coaches it has fired as well as their new bench boss, Jordan Ott.)
The franchise is also in a predicament with regard to its draft picks. The Suns don’t control any of their own first round picks between 2026 and 2031, with some of those picks owed to other teams and others vulnerable to swaps.
Phoenix is a cautionary tale for overspenders during this new era of the NBA following the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, which increased penalties for repeat offenders and teams greatly exceeding the tax threshold. It also placed significant roster-building restrictions on teams that go over a “second apron,” which was $188.9 million for the 2024-25 season and rises in future seasons. Next year, the tax line is projected to be around $188 million and the second apron will be roughly $208 million.
Meanwhile, depth is perhaps more important than ever, as the pace and space of the game has increased, and stars are more regularly injured. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers, who will duel in a winner-takes-all for the NBA championship tonight, are each playing nine or ten players in every Finals game. On the flip side, the Suns have not managed to fill out their roster with adequate supporting role players.
Notably, the Pacers and Thunder were each in the bottom half of the NBA in payroll this season.
“Ask the other 29 GMs [in the NBA], 26 of them would trade their whole team for our whole team and our draft picks as is,” Ishbia said in May 2024. “We’re in a great position.”
A year and a month later, the Suns have given up their prized asset and currently have 460-to-1 odds to win the 2026 NBA title, according to FanDuel.
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