The blockbuster Kevin Durant trade between the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns shook up the NBA in the wee hours of the morning before the 2023 NBA trade deadline. We are now in a vastly different NBA reality than we were just 24 hours ago. The trade changed so much for so many, so let’s look at the Kevin Durant trade winners and losers.

Winner: Kevin Durant

Credit the Nets and KD’s camp for allowing this trade to happen under the radar so Brooklyn could get as much value as possible for the clearly disgruntled star. But this doesn’t seem like a deal that just came together in the middle of the night.

As soon as Kyrie Irving sent in his trade request and the Nets accepted, a Kevin Durant trade was likely in the works. There was no way that Durant was going to finish out the season with Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith as his top wingmen.

Now KD joins a team with another all-time great in Chris Paul, a top 20 superstar in his prime in Devin Booker, and one of the league’s best young big men in Deandre Ayton. That’s a far cry from the Kyrie Irving Circus in Brooklyn.

Durant is the biggest winner in this deal and once again proof that there is no situation a true NBA superstar can get into — no matter how bad — that he can’t get out of it with the snap of a finger.

Loser: Nets owner Joe Tsai

Joe Tsai bought the Nets in 2019 and within four years learned a tough lesson that previous Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and dozens of other NBA Governors have learned the hard way as well. There is no magic bullet to win in the NBA.

Putting Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden together seemed about as close as you could get to buying an NBA championship, and these three won a total of two playoff series in Brooklyn.

Tsai is now back to the drawing board, with just a few so-so draft picks and a bunch of 3-and-D wings to show for his grand plans. What he does have now, hopefully, is a lesson learned about the NBA and magic beans. It’s a lesson he may be able to share with the league’s newest owner in a few years (more on that below).

Winner: Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers

In 2023, the Eastern Conference was probably always going to come down to the Bucks, Celtics, and 76ers. However, you couldn’t say that previously without offering the caveat, “but you can never count out a team with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.”

Well, those two are now off the board in the East, and the Bucks, Celtics, and Sixers now have a clear path to duel it out for the conference’s big to the NBA Finals.

It also clears a path for the Cavaliers to be the fourth team in that mix when playoffs get down to the semifinals. Again, this may have been the outcome regardless, but all four of these teams’ paths just got a little easier. On the other hand…

Losers: Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies

For the Nuggets and Grizzlies— two young teams on the rise — it looked like 2023 was their year. The LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers and Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors seemed to have finally reached their end, and the door was open for the new teams to step up.

Then the Nets created two instant Western Conference contenders in four days, which is why the Nuggets and Grizzlies end up on the wrong side of the Kevin Durant trade winners and losers list.

With the Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant trades, the Mavs and Suns both now have a real shot to win a title. This isn’t to say either is now the odds-on favorite, but adding two superstars like that chances the conference for sure.

Winner: Suns owner Matt Ishbia (for now)

New Suns owner Matt Ishbia finished the paperwork to officially become the team’s Governor on Monday night. By early Thursday morning, he made a move that shook up the entire NBA landscape.

This isn’t uncommon for a new owner to make a bold move like this. Heck, the Nets have done it twice in a decade, but the only contender Prokhorov and Tsai built is in Boston.

Right now, Ishbia looks like a big swinger who may have pulled off a championship move in his first week on the job. And that is entirely possible. Bringing in Kevin Durant could absolutely win Phoenix a Larry O’Brien trophy.

However, Ishbia could also have just added a 34-year-old player to a roster led by a 37-year-old player and given up a ton of picks and two high-end young role players (Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson) to do it. If the news Suns owner swaps places on the next Kevin Durant trade winners and losers list in a year or two, don’t be surprised.