The Phoenix Suns shocked the world before the 2023 NBA trade deadline when they traded for Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets. In the process, the front office paired him up with another superstar, Devin Booker , giving them one of the top duos in the entire league.
While the Suns haven't accomplished their primary goal of winning a title with Booker and Durant leading the way, they are a handful for opposing defenses to deal with. And if you ask the former Wildcat about his first season with KD, it's clear he enjoys playing with one of the players he looked up to before making it to the league.
Book dishes on why KD is an ideal running mate
The Kentucky product is the player the Suns have been building their team around for a while now, so when they shifted gears and traded for Durant, fans everywhere expected big things from them. While they have individually been great, their teams haven't been strong enough to win in the playoffs.
Book and KD play very similar basketball styles, and some folks are worried that this may cause them to not mesh well together on the court. Instead, as Devin recently revealed, they've been a perfect match for each other due to how much work they put into perfecting their skills.
"You're just dealing with a guy that really loves his craft," Booker said on The Old Man & The Three. "For me to be a really big fan first, I had a tweet from 2011, I said, 'Kevin Durant is my favorite player, but LeBron's the best.'"
"Just always being a fan and hearing those types of stories about how obsessive he is with his work and how he gets after it and how much of a hoops junkie he is, and then for all those stories to be living up and him surpassing those, you really find out that he only cares about hoops. It's a match for me," he added.
The Suns are expecting big things from the duo
Both Booker and Durant were exceptional in their first full season together and showed they can play well together. The problem is that the rest of their team had a lot of problems throughout the year.
The hope was that teaming Devin and KD up with Bradley Beal, who was acquired last offseason in a trade with the Washington Wizards, would yield a title. The problem was that Beal struggled in his first year with the Suns, a lingering issue that Phoenix has to deal with.
Booker took on a bigger playmaking role for the Suns in order to accommodate Durant and Beal. Still, it's clear that's an area the team needs to address this offseason. Combine that with the need for some center depth, and Phoenix clearly knows where they can improve this offseason.
Related: “I love being on the court with him” - Devin Booker reflects on his relationship with Jusuf Nurkic on the Phoenix Suns
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