Why KD believes Warriors trade would have been ‘big blow’ to team originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
A reunion with Kevin Durant was not in the cards for the Warriors this season.
Perhaps for the better, as even the superstar forward would agree.
After Golden State and the Phoenix Suns reportedly agreed to a blockbuster trade that would have sent Durant back to the Bay Area before the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline, Durant himself verbally squashed the deal by communicating he did not want to return to the Warriors.
The deal ultimately did not go through and the Warriors eventually pivoted and acquired star forward Jimmy Butler in a trade with the Miami Heat.
When asked about the near-trade after the deadline, Durant explained to ESPN’s Malika Andrews that he simply was not interested in switching teams midseason, and that his decision had nothing to do with any animosity he had toward the Warriors organization.
Durant appeared on the latest episode of “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis,” where he reiterated why he did not want to be traded and why the move could have been detrimental to the Warriors’, or any acquiring team’s, long-term future.
“As far as the Warriors, I just didn’t want to move, and then as a player like me, I cost a lot,” Durant said. “Me going to your team, it’s going to be a whole new era of your team when I get to your team … I’m still of value, especially in my contract and my production, me just getting up and moving in the middle of the season, it’s going to be a big blow to any team I’m going to.
“I get why y’all want to trade me when you’re looking at it from a simple fact that’s just business. But for me looking at it, it just don’t make sense for either side right now to go through that when we can just play the season out and if that’s the decision you want to make in the offseason then you figure it out. It’s just such a big change to make and I’ve been through it before, I was just like ‘Damn, this not really it.’”
Fair enough.
Had Durant been traded to the Warriors, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported after the deal fell through that Golden State made “several aggressive offers” and was prepared to send young forward Jonathan Kuminga and picks to Phoenix in a potential three-team trade with the Miami Heat for Durant.
The Warriors ultimately held on to Kuminga and their picks in acquiring Butler, who, through six games, has helped turn the team’s season around.
