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The Phoenix Suns have been disheartening to fans as they haven't been the healthiest this season, but we got some good news and severe optimism is surrounding Kevin Durant with his return. So we're going to be diving in and looking at the possibility of when he can arrive next for this team, help implicate some things that are needed in this Suns roster to contend and compete. We'll also be looking at some of the Suns issues that they've been having, how they can kind of fix some of them as well. All of that and more on this episode of Suns Digest. I'm Bruce Velez and you guys have been absolutely fantastic showing your love and support over on the channel. We're really appreciative. Continue to hit that like and subscribe button. It truly does mean the world. Without further ado, let's dive into this video at hand and make sure to grab a snack. First we're going to look at some of the issues that this Suns team has. These issues are bad for this squad and unfortunately, they have been running into these issues for a while now. And one of those issues is obviously the health issue as we all have seen. The injury bug has been staying in Phoenix this entire season from last year and did not leave. As Kevin Durant has been bitten twice, Yusef Nurkic has been bitten three times, Bradley Beal has been bitten, Grayson Allen's been bitten, Ryan Dunn's been bitten. There have been numerous, numerous Suns that have gotten either sidelined with either a couple games or one game with an injury or multiple players that have dealt with multiple injuries. And that is not good for a team that wants to contend and want to compete. And you can't obviously fault them for that. They're trying their best to stay healthy. They're trying to contend. These injuries just happen out of left field and you feel bad for these players as well. So I don't want to fault them on the injury aspect. But that has been one of the issues for this Suns team because as we've seen with this roster, when healthy at the start of the season, they were one of the top teams in the West. So I have to mark that as an issue with this team. Another thing that has been a problem with the Suns is their defense and their ability to be resilient on the defensive side. We've talked about it on Suns Digest here where the Suns have a historically bad defense without Kevin Durant where they almost went ranked one of the worst all time with alongside the ranks of the Wizards and the Jazz this year, which is absolutely insane to hear that the Suns are that atrocious offensively when they have two players and Devin Booker and Bradley Beal who are making $50 million and that kind of goes into the next issue here, which is that the Stars are not stepping up and playing. I was in a Twitter space the other day lurking around just listening to some Suns fans talk about their complaints and one thing that I did hear from a voice was that the Suns are furious that their players and Booker and Beal are not stepping up and delivering and that last game versus the Magic, Booker had five turnovers, was not hitting his shots and Devin Booker didn't have the best offensive game and they need these players to step up for Kevin Durant and pick up that offensive slack when he is out because just because one player is missing does not mean the team can just fall apart completely, specifically when you have a player in Devin Booker who is proclaimed to be one of the top shooting guards in the NBA and Bradley Beal, a player making $50 million who is a little bit older and coming off some injuries but is still expected to be a third star on this team. They have shown glimpses in some games where they can do it but have not been consistent with Kevin Durant out and that is another issue. You cannot have players who I do like stepping up, players like Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neal and Tyus Jones really taking over for this team but they can't be the best players every single night. Players like Devin Booker and Bradley Beal have to make up that accountability. Let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section. Like I said, there's obviously a health issue with this team, there's obviously a defensive issue with this team that can correlate to some of the health problems and there's also an issue with how these star players have been performing in these recent games and their performance where the role players have been kind of taking up for them. I hope I covered all those bases for the Suns. The interior presence at the center position as well is another issue that I didn't really mention but you guys have heard me harp about that a lot on this channel but if there's any more issues that you think the Suns need to deal with throughout the season, let me know down below in the comment section to get into some discussions but we can break down and we can talk about the news you all clicked for and that is this. The Suns desperately need to hear some good news and some good news revolving around Kevin Durant, the star player, the best player, the engine for this Suns team so far as he might be returning from his ankle injury. If you want to look at this report from Julia Stamba, she reports from Bleacher Report, there's optimism that Kevin Durant can return to the Suns from the injury versus the Jazz or the Blazers in these games coming up for the Suns on Friday and Sunday. The next time the Suns do suit up is Friday, Sunday the next game after so the Suns getting some time off, getting some much-needed rest to heal up some of these injuries and Durant could be one of those guys coming back. If you want to look, the Phoenix Suns have optimism that Kevin Durant can return by Sunday from the ankle sprain that he was sidelined him for four games according to ESPN's Shams Charania. The Suns hope Durant can return either during Friday's road game against the Jazz or Sunday's home game against the Blazers. After sitting seven contests with the cap injury in November, Durant returned from four games before he was kept out with his latest injury. The Suns have won just one of the 10 games he has missed so far this season where that game was versus the Utah Jazz. Durant suffered his ankle injury during the first half of last Tuesday's NBA Cup win over the San Antonio Spurs. The injury occurred when Durant stepped on the foot of Spurs defender Julian Champagny while driving to the basket late in the second quarter. Durant did not immediately leave the game but he obviously sat up for the last two quarters and Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer said after the game that Durant had stiffened up by halftime. Potential return later this week would match the original timeline returned reported by ESPN's Shams Charania who wrote who wrote that day after the injury that Durant was expected to miss between one to two weeks. Suns have surged out to an eight-in-one start this season so far with Durant but ever since he suffered that calf sprain injury since November 8th in that winter Dallas Mavericks the Suns fell one and six with him sidelined with a calf injury and since that struggled to produce without Durant recording three straight losses and marking a 17 score differential among his latest injuries. When available Durant has been so successful for this Suns team in delivering and the perennial all-stars health going forward will remain the key to the Suns hopes of postseason contention. For now Phoenix will hope Durant's pending return can help the team ground in the standings after slipping down to 10th in the West. Like I mentioned the Suns have been absolutely atrocious without Kevin Durant. If you want to look at his stats so far for the season you want to click on KD or do not have KD stats oops my bad but we go back to this and we go back to this and we go back to this and we can look at his stats averaging 25.8 points 6.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists on more than 35 minutes per night shooting Kevin Durant like we all know has been that superstar has been that engine for the Suns team a player that the Suns desperately need to come back to be ready for this squad and let their injuries obviously to Durant it has hindered them and guys like Royce O'Neal have stepped up to fill in for Kevin Durant at some points but not everybody has been there. I think there's a difference when obviously Kevin Durant is here he's obviously would be an MVP talks if the Suns if you played enough games it wasn't enough health was healthy enough because he is the clear reason the Suns are afloat right now and the Suns definitely got to fix some things around the edges got to stay healthy hopefully this West will kind of get them back but if Durant can return Friday or by Sunday that would be key for the Suns to kind of get their push off get in the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trailblazers I know I don't want to be rude to those franchises but they're not in contention and they're tanking so if we can beats on the bad teams these next couple games get come back from a nice little rest come back from injury get on a nice little two-game win streak get Durant back into this team I truly think the Suns could then start climbing in this Western Conference because even though they are tense it is a close race and the Suns could easily emerge to fourth or fifth just in a couple game span if Durant is back and things are clicking and if that is the case then I see the Suns going out and making even more moves to increase their odds of competing for a championship but let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section how you ultimately feel about the Suns issues that we went over and how you feel about this news that Kevin Durant is finally progressing on this injury and there's high optimism that he will be back by Friday if not Sunday let me know what you guys think you guys have been absolutely fantastic and showing your support and it's really appreciated over here on Suns Digest thank you guys so much for tuning in and I'll catch you guys in the next video but great rest of your night and go Phoenix Suns peace out everyone