Five months into the regular season, it’s clear that the Suns’ Big Three experiment (Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal) has been a massive failure. While the expectation was to become title contenders right away, they are currently struggling to even stay in the playoff race, stuck at the tenth seed. Many believe that it might be time to blow things up. And it sure seems like Kevin Durant could be the first one out of the door! The Suns were in active talks with the Warriors for a potential KD trade, but Durant was caught off guard and shut down the discussion immediately, unwilling to leave Phoenix and return to the Bay Area.

“I don’t feel like there was a need to make that big a change right now… It didn’t make sense to me,” the player opined. However, team owner Mat Ishbia has made it clear that there might be a roster shakeup this summer. “I still believe in our team. I still believe in Coach Budenholzer. I believe in the guys we have. And at the same time, at the end of the season, if we don’t get to where we expect to get to, I’ll have enough data and evidence that it didn’t work, or it did work. And then we’ll make decisions based on that.

“It’s been a really disappointing year. Very disappointed. There’s not a person in the organization that doesn’t feel that way. We had high expectations. We felt really good about where going into the season and we’ve not met any of those expectations,” Ishbia shared earlier this month. Although Durant will turn 37 next season and has a year left on his contract, he is still a desirable superstar for many teams. Chris Mannix, who is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, believes the two-time champ has already picked his next potential destination:

“I think—and this is just my opinion—that Durant wants to wind up in Houston,” he wrote. Moreover, Durant’s ties with Texas run deep as he played for the University of Texas back in 2006-07 before getting drafted to the NBA.

Of course, the $5.7 billion Houston franchise has a young talented squad that has impressed everyone by rising to the second seed this season under Udoka’s leadership. However, they lack playoff and championship experience and could be one superstar away from turning into legitimate contenders. Durant could be that missing piece. Mannix added in his SI writeup: “I think if the Rockets wanted Durant before the trade deadline, it would have happened. Durant has a lot of respect for Ime Udoka and in Houston he could be a missing piece to a title contender. I’d keep an eye on that after this season.”

Moreover, the rising tensions in the Suns’ locker room are a clear hint that KD might be ready for the next chapter in his career.

A heated exchange between Kevin Durant and Mike Budenholzer raises concerns!

Earlier this week, the Suns suffered another heartbreaking loss on the road—this time against the Lakers. But things seemed more disrupted than usual. During a timeout in the late first quarter, Durant was clearly frustrated at Mike Budenholzer and threw his hands up to express it, with a dejected look on his face. His reaction quickly went viral as everyone began speculating major locker room tensions.

Sideline reporter Katie George tried to provide further insight on the situation and stated: “They were just going back and forth on how they needed to guard Luka Doncic. Bud said, ‘Are you gonna guard him? Are you gonna contest? Are you gonna close out on those 3s?’ And KD said he was getting cross matched, and that’s what led to the open 3s. They were passionately working it out.”

Sure enough, Budenholzer later tried to salvage the situation after the game with his comments about KD:

“He’s always pushing us to win. He’s pushing us to be better. He’s pushing himself. He’s pushing us. You know, he’s fighting through a lot.” Obviously, Durant’s frustration is justified because even at 36 years old, he is playing at an All-NBA level, averaging 26.4 points and over six rebounds.

However, the Suns have failed to stay consistent and are on the verge of missing the playoffs. So, it is likely that both KD and the Suns would want to part ways this summer and look for a more suitable situation somewhere else—maybe the Rockets. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.