Kevin Durant, not Bradley Beal, became the Phoenix Suns player who was the most talked about in the final hours before the NBA trade deadline two weeks ago.
The Suns' apparent curiosity about moving him to the Golden State Warriors in a complex deal that didn't get past the finish line became quite public. ESPN's reporters detailed what looked possible and what didn't happen to leave Phoenix without a blockbuster deal involving Durant leaving or Jimmy Butler incoming.
Durant, in his honest way this past week, told ESPN that the rumors didn't start at his end. He didn't ask for a trade.
Phoenix president of basketball operations and general manager James Jones told Arizona Sports' Bickley & Marotta that the Suns didn't feel the need to smooth things over with their star player after he wasn't moved.
"No, I mean I think that's the story everyone wants to talk about," Jones said Thursday. "Kevin is unique in the sense that he tells you exactly how he feels and he understands this game, top to bottom. ... No smoothing over (was needed) because he wants to do what we wants to do, which is win.
"He's been great. I think it's a testament to his ability to put the game above anything else. We're aware the narratives will continue to bubble up. And like I said, when you're not winning, it gets noisy. The only way to counter that is to win games and stack wins and if we do that, I think we'll have the outcome that we set out to achieve at the beginning of the season."
To Jones' point, Durant told ESPN's Malika Andrews over the NBA All-Star break that he understands why that noise around the Suns built.
Phoenix (26-28) sits in the 11th spot in the Western Conference before ramping back up with a game Thursday against the San Antonio Spurs. It still is just 1.5 games out of the play-in spot. But considering the expectations for the NBA leader in salary spending this season, just being in that play-in mix is far from satisfying for fans and admittedly short of the bar set by the front office.
Along with the reports of a potential Durant trade, a benching of Bradley Beal and the quick erosion of a role for former starting center Jusuf Nurkic that ended with a trade to Charlotte signified the urgency by Phoenix's front office to fix things.
"But obviously when you pay so much for a team and we're not playing up to our expectation, somebody has to go," Durant told Andrews.
"You probably should check in with those guys in the front office throughout the rest of the season and see how they feel about the team," he added. "I know that I'm going to try and keep bringing my best every single day and I let the higher-ups focus on what's next."
That is the tunnel vision mindset of Durant that Jones believes didn't require a sitdown to keep their relationship strong.
And moving forward with Durant still a Sun, Jones said the trade deadline passing has a way of firming up a collective mindset for even a team in Phoenix's position.
"Too often we forget these guys are human and these guys, they're people," Jones told Bickley & Marotta. "They hear, they consume. They know when the team isn't performing the way we're wanting to, we're all interested in getting better. My job is always to look at things but it's also a testament to the talent of this group. Teams, they're interested in our players. ... They try to be opportunistic.
"We always try to make sure we aren't being blind to the facts when a team isn't performing, something's gotta improve, something's gotta change. We make a bunch of different tweaks. But at the end of the day, once you get to the All-Star break and guys know where they're finishing their season, it's a lot easier to lock in and focus and rally around that one mission, which is get as many wins as you can and take this season as far as you can."