"Looks mentally semi-retired to me" - Skip Bayless makes bold claim about Kevin Durant amid Suns' playoffs uncertainty

Kevin Durant has scored 30,290 points, grabbed 7,768 rebounds, and dished 4,866 assists with career averages of 27.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists. But Skip Bayless thinks Durant is close to retirement, despite the 15-time NBA All-Star averaging 26.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per contest this season. If he remains healthy, he will likely garner All-NBA honors for the 12th time in his career.

Unswayed by the numbers at this stage of KD's career, Skip Bayless stated on Saturday on his show that the Kevin Durant Express will be pulling into retirement station soon.

“The more I watch him at age 36, the more he looks mentally semi-retired to me," the analyst said. "He's participating in this documentary that's being made about his life and times and it just feels to me like he's winding down his basketball and it is reflecting in the Suns’ win-loss record."

"They started 8-1 this year since then, they have gone 20-31," he added. "Think about that, 20-31, they are 28-33 overall as we speak, that's four games out of the play-in, four games behind the Dallas Mavericks for that final play-in spot."

Bayless highlighted how he felt that Durant is still physically capable of playing at a high level but that mentally KD isn't the same anymore.

“The Phoenix Suns just look like they are done to me because Kevin looks like he is on his last mental legs, not his last physical legs, just mental legs," Bayless said. "He's not really into it the way he used to be into it when he went to Golden State."

Rumors swirl around Kevin Durant, multiple teams are expected to make a run at KD this offseason

With each passing game, fans have started losing hope with the Phoenix Suns this season. The trio of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant have not been able to achieve the results that the Suns hoped they would, when the team acquired the services of Beal.

As Beal has been reticent to waive his no-trade clause (which seemed to torpedo a potential trade that would have brought Jimmy Butler to the Suns), and Devin Booker is potentially untouchable, moving Kevin Durant is Phoenix’s most immediate path to pivoting in a different direction.

Fueled by the team's floundering results, trade rumors swirled around the 15-time All-Star prior to the February 6 trade deadline. Although the Suns were entertaining offers, including one from the Golden State Warriors, Durant is said to have declined a mid-season trade.

The intrigue of where he will continue his nearly two-decade assault on NBA defenses continues. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the Suns are set to trade KD and he is aware that the team wants to ship him. Suitors reportedly include the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, and Miami Heat.