The Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant and Devin Booker might have missed out on the postseason, but their individual efforts throughout the 2024-25 season have not gone unnoticed.
The Athletic’s NBA staff writer Law Murray released his full 2025 NBA player tier list, ranking the top 125 players in the league. Durant and Booker earned high praise, landing on Tier 1 and Tier 2, respectively.
Kevin Durant remains a Tier 1, top-10 NBA player
Murray described Tier 1 players as those who could be considered the most impactful in the league — essentially, First Team All-NBA caliber. The tier is broken down into subgroups 1A to 1D, with Durant falling in the 1C category.
Durant is not a point guard like Curry. That’s always been the weakest part of his offensive impact, and under Mike Budenholzer this season, Durant averaged a 10-year low 4.2 assists per game. Listed at 6-11, 240 pounds, Durant has the size of many centers. He even averages 1.2 blocks. But Durant defends forwards, not centers, and he just averaged his fewest defensive rebounds in 16 years. Phoenix was a bottom-five defense in 2025.
Durant is still elite at all four scoring levels:
Rumors are swirling about Durant’s future, and wherever he plays next, his best fit is at power forward, so that it minimizes the physicality that comes with playing center while not having to chase perimeter players. Durant has not led his team in touches per game since Second Spectrum started tracking in 2013. He’s a first-option bucket getter — and still one of the most lethal players when it comes to four-level scoring: paint, midrange, 3s and getting to the free-throw line. Thirteen players averaged at least 25 points per game this season; the only other player besides Durant to make more than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3 was Jokić.
Durant led the Suns in scoring at 26.6 points per game, which was also good enough for sixth in the NBA. The two-time NBA Finals MVP was selected to his 15th NBA All-Star game and joined the 30,000 point club — being the eighth player in NBA history to do so.
Durant’s 36.5 minutes per game were the sixth-most in the NBA. Phoenix was 33-29 in games with Durant.
Durant shot 52.7% from the field, which is the fourth-best mark of his career, and 43% from 3-point land, the second-best posting of his career.
Devin Booker among top Tier 2 players in the NBA
Tier 2 players, according to Murray, are stars capable of being the second option — an individual who can be a sidekick to a team’s number one.
Booker leads the group of 2A players and was considered in the running of being in Tier 1.
Devin Booker has been asked to play multiple positions over the last three seasons. He’s still a good decision-maker who can get to his spots with aplomb. He is capable of getting stops. And he makes his catch-and-shoot 3s at nearly a 40 percent clip. But he’s a shooting guard who is overtaxed as a point guard, and his defense has been eroding too much for him to be considered his team’s top wing defender as a small forward. The Suns haven’t done him any favors as they steadily have gone from the NBA Finals to the bottom five in the West.
Booker recorded a season-high 47 points against the Utah Jazz in a 135-127 OT win on Feb. 7 and he tallied four additional performances of 40 or more points. Booker had 25 games of 30 or more points as well.
Booker was Phoenix’s second-leading scorer at 25.6 points per game while leading the team with 75 starts this past season. Throughout the year, he and Durant traded roles as the team’s primary scoring option.
Durant ultimately edged out Booker in scoring and did so more efficiently from the field compared with Booker’s 46.1%. While Durant is considered one of the top 10 players in the league, Booker operated as the 1B, a role he embraced amid an up and down Suns season.
Kevin Durant in Tier 1, 1C list
Here’s who Durant shared the 1C list with:
– Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
– Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns
– LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
Where Devin Booker lands on Tier 2, 2A list
Here’s how the rest of the list for 2A fared:
– Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
– Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks
– Anthony Davis, Dallas Mavericks
– Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers
