The Phoenix Suns have suddenly vaulted ahead of the pack in the Western Conference after swinging big on the Kevin Durant trade. Whether pundits see them as clear favorites to win it all or still with questions left to answer, they've undeniably turned themselves into title contenders with one of the most formidable cores in recent memory.

Durant's new Suns teammates feel the same way too. Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton both know what's in store for their squad once they have one of the generation's greatest players back healthy and on the court in Arizona, via ESPN's Nick Friedell:

“It's one of the best players to ever play the game,” Chris Paul said. “Just to know how he approaches the game, his nickname's Easy Money, just somebody who loves the game like that. I think that's what brought me and Book closer together because he just love to hoop. And KD, he just love to hoop. So I'm excited about the process of building this team.”

Asked about whether the KD trade equips the Suns with the pieces necessary to compete for a title, Ayton, didn't hesitate.

“Damn right,” Deandre Ayton said. “You damn right. That's how I feel. Where we're at, especially at the start of the season, we lost a few games and we seen what it's like. I think we got punched in the face so many times where we've adapted and accepted to where, we've accepted adversity, it helped build confidence to where we've been in situations where a team threw everything at us to stop us even though we didn't have the right pieces on the court … knowing what these teams can throw at us, we're ready for it man and it's going to be real fun because it's so many pieces, golly. It's trouble and it's fun because it's about time. We got the firepower for real and you can feel it.”

The Phoenix Suns, who made the NBA Finals just two seasons ago, virtually swapped out an excellent 3-and-D wing in Mikal Bridges for an NBA pantheon player who's clearly a top five current player when healthy. With the parity in the NBA this season, it's hard to bet against a side with potentially three Hall of Famers on its roster.