I mean, you're trying to present some overthought theory, but all you have to do is look at history to get the answer. Yea bro, it was such a hard challenge that they obliterated the league two years in a row, including a fucking SWEEP on LeBron in the finals.
KD is older, Suns have a way weaker D, the players are nowhere as near as complementary to KD's skillset. On top of that there is an infinitely higher mental pressure, cause their window is like 1 year, 2 years tops. Dubs were still pretty young, and they confirmed it but winning yet another ring after KD left.
"It was a harder challenge" - no it fucking wasnt. They won back to back and swept Bron lmao. You think you're presenting some galaxy brain take, but all you're doing is overthinking it. All KD had to do was match Harrison Barnes' output, and theyd still be the best team in the league lmao.
You came at me so hot, yet didnt say one thing that made sense. Just keep repeating the word 'nuance', you really think your contrarian nonsense is some galaxy brain take. Just open a wikipedia page and you can quickly find how much of an enormous challenge the Dubs faced after adding KD.