Four years and two teams after Kevin Durant left the Golden State Warriors, is a reunion in the cards?
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons pitched a trade that would bring Durant back to the Bay area in the wake of ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s report about Durant’s “frustrations” in Phoenix.
Warriors Receive: Kevin Durant
Suns Receive: Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, 2028 1st round pick, 2029 pick swap
Wojnarowski said part of Durant’s frustration is Bradley Beal’s availability and their underwhelming supporting cast.
“You talk to people in Phoenix and around that organization, they can feel the frustration with Durant,” Wojnarowski reported on Christmas. “Part of that, certainly, is the missed games for [Bradley] Beal. This team was built around those three stars (Durant, Beal and Devin Booker). The underwhelming supporting cast that comes from those massive trades for Durant and Bradley Beal that really gutted the organization and left them having to sign a lot of minimum players to fill out the payroll.”
Simmons rattled off a list of potential landing spots for Durant until he arrived at his conclusion.
“It’s really only Golden State,” Simmons said on his podcast. “Could he go back to Golden State if this got super unhappy?… Matt Ishbia just got this team. He made a big deal about we have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, ‘we’re good. We have 2 of the best 12 players in the league. This is gonna work.’ I think the owner is going to be too stubborn to ever, ever abandon ship with KD after less than a year.”
Yet it is a salivating proposition to have Durant and Stephen Curry playing together again and try to write another chapter of the Warriors dynasty.
Kevin Durant Claps Back at Woj, Denies Report
In a now-deleted response to a fan on Instagram, Durant slammed Wojnarowski’s report.
“Woj says somebody ‘feels that I am frustrated and turned into me being mentally checked out,’” Durant’s comment read. “This s–t crazy, these people can flat out lie on my name and make s–t up and you people will believe it but when my coaches and speak on how I am as a teammate, [you] ignore it. lol (laugh out loud).”
Durant joined the Warriors in 2016 and won 2 championships and 2 Finals MVP. He left the Warriors in 2019 following a failed three-peat chase marred by an on-court altercation with Green and ended in an Achilles injury in the finals.
Durant joined forces with Kyrie Irving and later on with James Harden in an ill-fated Big 3 experiment that spectacularly failed in Brooklyn. He then forced his way to Phoenix at the trade deadline.
Stephen Curry Frustrated with Warriors’ Lack of Identity
The Warriors ended 2023 with a three-game losing skid that dropped them out of the play-in picture in the Western Conference.
Curry voiced out his frustrations as Green’s volatility and lineup instability are threatening to waste one of their remaining championship windows.
“It’s the nature of this team,” Curry told reporters after the loss. “It’s kind of materialized throughout the year. We’ve experimented a lot. Some for forced reasons. Some for us searching for an identity of what are our strengths and playing into that, and we haven’t found that.”
The constant shuffling of the Warriors lineup is taking its toll.
“It’s frustrating for sure. We’re 32 games in. And, any team that is a seriously competitive contender, a good team, can usually answer that question. So, we have to get to that point for sure, before it’s too late,” Curry warned.
