The state of Arizona is on a week-lengthy bender internet hosting the Tremendous Bowl and Phoenix Open up, and now acquiring news of the blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant.

A single of the finest NBA players of all time is suiting up with the Phoenix Suns.

Which is not just information – that is cost-free beer and rum on faucet for every sports activities lover in the Valley. That is a bacchanal that won’t be viewing straight for the up coming numerous weeks.

That’s why I’m in this article. I’m your specified driver.

Analysts really like the Kevin Durant trade

A person requirements to keep sober when all the Kevin Durant enjoyment moves from hoopla to hype to cultural takeover.

“Phoenix is on fire appropriate now,” Charles Barkley said.

The oddsmakers in Las Vegas are picking the Suns to win the NBA Western Convention and problem the Boston Celtics or Milwaukee Bucks for the title.

Considerably to study:New Suns owner Mat Ishbia’s trial by fireplace

All throughout sporting activities media, analysts are handing out As and A-pluses to the Suns for electrifying the league with their amazing trade.

That’s not the letter grade I give the hometown crew. I give them an “F” and not for “failed.”

For “faceplant.”

It may well be the worst trade in Arizona background

This may well be the worst trade in Arizona sports activities background, and which is a pretty high bar.

This is the metropolis that traded pitcher Max Scherzer and 3 other players to the Detroit Tigers for Ian Kennedy and Edwin Jackson. You may possibly have heard of Scherzer. He went on to win a few Cy Young Awards, pitch two no-hitters and acquire a Earth Series.

What qualifications do I – an editorial page columnist – have to decide the Suns trade?

I’ll demonstrate you my skills: Fifty yrs of struggling. Fifty several years of watching Arizona arenas come to be the Leisure Entire world for getting older superstars.

We have performed this so a lot of times right before it has turn into virtually seasonal, the factor we do together with Thanksgiving and Xmas.

We roast the turkey, we hang the mistletoe and we signal a past-his-key sporting activities legend to ride his past huge agreement into the sunset.

Story proceeds

We have a very long line of previous-primary superstars

The Arizona Cardinals did this with Emmett Smith, the fantastic Dallas Cowboys operating back again. He arrived in this article when he was 33. He retired at age 35. In amongst he broke his shoulder blade.

J.J. Watt, the hulking defensive lineman with the Houston Texans became a Cardinal at 32. He retired at 33. He was wounded significantly of the time he was here.

In 2011, the Cardinals signed Todd Heap, a fantastic NFL tight finish. His tank was virtually vacant. He performed two-damage plagued seasons before he was unveiled in 2012.

The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Globe Series legend Madison Bumgarner past his prime for $85 million. He has hardly ever returned to his former glory.

Some will say, what about Charles Barkley? He performed a good deal of great yrs in Philadelphia, then came to Phoenix and transformed the Suns. Charles Barkley was 29 when he came to Phoenix. He retired with the Houston Rockets at 36.

Kevin Durant is 34. He has a recent heritage of accidents and several missed game titles. Even though paired not too long ago with two other superstars, he was not in a position to get the Brooklyn Nets beyond the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Brooklyn triad was a bust.

Phoenix Suns have mortgaged their long run

On Thursday, we figured out the Phoenix Suns traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder and unprotected very first-spherical picks in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029 for the celebrity Durant and previous Suns draft decide on T.J. Warren, who has been personal injury vulnerable his overall NBA career.

Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson had been excellent draft-working day additions. Both have soared well earlier mentioned anticipations. At age 26, with quite a few key many years to go and maturity nicely further than their decades, both equally are cornerstones you can develop a workforce upon.

They not only perform at a substantial stage, but they help established the tone in the locker place. They are useful athletes and extraordinary human beings, and to realize how deeply their loss is felt in the Suns firm, look at the clip of Suns mentor Monty Williams discuss about their departure.

He does so with authentic disappointment: “Those two are around and pricey to my heart. They practically are like my family.”

4 unprotected very first-spherical draft picks? Communicate about living for currently and the upcoming be damned.

Now we have neither defense nor depth

These are the costs you spend for a 28-yr-outdated Durant, not an injury-susceptible 34-calendar year-old.

The Phoenix Suns are a person tendon tear from auctioning off their following ten years. If Durant declines speedily like Heap and Watt and Baumgartner, the Suns will be considerably diminished from what they have been right before the trade.

Lots of say you have to go for it when a championship window opens. But if the Suns have realized nearly anything more than their previous two decades of achievement, the NBA playoffs are an endurance examination. You much better go with protection and depth.

The Suns now have neither. They might cure that in the free current market, but why are we to feel that Durant, Devin Booker and Chris Paul (not even the exact same Chris Paul he was two several years back) will fare far better than Durant and Kyrie Irving and James Harden?

I hope I’m mistaken about all of this

This is not a screed about the new Suns operator, Mat Ishbia. He’s a hugely completed athlete and businessman with a enthusiasm for NBA basketball. I like that he’s the new owner. But I believe he designed a rookie oversight.

If I’m wrong and the Durant-led Phoenix Suns hoist the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, I will gladly eat this column with the similar enthusiasm and tangy barbecue sauce that Billy Bob Thornton applied to consume the Massey prenup. (See Cohen Brothers, “Intolerable Cruelty”.)

But I’m not wrong.

I’m 50 many years of chilly, tough Arizona sporting activities actuality staring you in the encounter. And I have got the keys to your car.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. He can be reached at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This posting at first appeared on Arizona Republic: Kevin Durant to Phoenix Suns is the worst trade in Arizona record