Former NBA champion shuts down case for Kevin Durant & Suns winning title this season: "I don't think it's their year"
NBA champion Richard Jefferson does not believe that Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns are going to win the NBA championship this season. The former NBA player and ESPN analyst turned the pages of history to back up his position. According to Jefferson, most of the superteams that have been assembled in the NBA haven’t had success in their first season.
He took the reference from previous big teams that have been assembled in recent memory. Jefferson referenced 2014-15 when LeBron James came back to Cleveland. The Cavs lost in the NBA Finals but won the NBA Finals next season. Same case with the 2010-11 Miami Heat (LeBron joined), 2007-08 Los Angeles Lakers (Pau Gasol joined) and 2004-05 Miami Heat (Shaq joined).
The former Brooklyn Nets star told ESPN's "NBA Today" that the best Suns would do this season is to go to the NBA Finals. However, he doesn’t believe that they can win it all just this season:
“I don’t think this is their year…What I'm trying to express to you is, a great team like this, it can take two years. They have that window. Five years for Booker. Four years for Bradley Beal, and three years for Kevin Durant.
"We have enough time where history has shown us that great teams can take a full year to meld, and they're much better in their second year. I think that the Suns can do special things, I think that they can go to the Finals, but I think that their best team will not be this season, it will be next season.”
Despite what Jefferson says, there is a wide consensus in the league that the Suns are the team to get out of the Western Conference. Moreover, Kevin Durant is already 35 years old. The Suns need to capitalize on his greatness while he still has good years left in his body.
Kevin Durant humiliates Austin Reaves with a turnaround fadeaway
Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns faced the Los Angeles Lakers in a hyped-up preseason game on Thursday. While fans got to see Lebron James and "KD" share the court after half a decade, it was something else that made the headlines after the game.
Austin Reaves, the Lakers guard was left on an island by Durant in the end seconds of the second quarter. Durant received the pass near the 3-point line and shot a fadeaway jumper over Reaves. With the height disadvantage, there was nothing Reaves could do.
After the play, Durant hit Reaves with a too-shot gesture and told Lakers’ assistant coach Jordan Ott not him put Reaves on him again.
"Don’t have him guard me next week,” said Durant to Ott. Later on, Reaves told the media that there was nothing he could do but give his best to stop "KD", which wasn't enough this time.