PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns’ pronounced strength heading into the 2024-25 season is the existence of the dynamic duo of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant — who are frequented in many publications’ top 10-15 player rankings.
Booker was ranked as the second-best shooting guard in the NBA heading into free agency by HoopsHype – behind Anthony Edwards – and Durant suffered a similar fate in their own positional rankings as a forward.
Although Durant is still considered among the league’s elite at nearly 36 years old, he has been listed as the 3rd top SF behind Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers – he also came in outside the top 10 at No. 11 overall in the league.
While James is an understandable choice over Durant, Tatum is certainly a curious choice.
Tatum obviously just won his first NBA title, but it’s hard to justify “SF1’s” spot outside of the hardware.
This is a season where Tatum arguably took a step forward in efficiency, but also took a step back in terms of volume and defensive power.
Durant had arguably the best defensive season of his career in 2023-24, while also being the leading scorer – and the gap in play isn’t big enough to give Tatum that much of an advantage.
Perhaps the most telling element of the Tatum-Durant debate is playoff performance.
Tatum obviously had more volume in the 2024 series. Playing 19 games while being an elite rebounder, defender and playmaker is hard to ignore. His 28.3% three-point shooting is a concern, though, especially given the spacing and innovative offensive system Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla employs.
James and Durant are more of a coin flip: Durant has a clear advantage as a scorer and defender, while James remains a top-notch playmaker at nearly 40.
Both superstars are in the twilight of their careers and are still superstar-level players who are both coming off stronger individual seasons than Tatum.
Durant is still in top shape, still a top-three scorer in the NBA, and has as much upside as any of his peers.
No matter how the three players stack up, they’re all phenomenal players in their own right. Durant has a particularly compelling case to silence the doubters this season — and firmly reestablish himself as the NBA’s best trio while looking to lead Phoenix to a first-ever NBA title in 2025.
