If you listen to the toxic discourse surrounding NBA basketball, you would believe that the Golden State Warriors are a team saved by Kevin Durant, who joined them during the 2016-17 season.
It seems like Durant needs the Warriors more than the Warriors need him. On Sunday night, Durant’s last team, the Suns, were eliminated from home by the Timberwolves, who won their first playoff series in 20 years.
Phoenix has gone all-out this season, forming the “Big Three” with Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. The Sun’s problem?
They forget that basketball is played with five people at a time. Plus, this whole defense thing is pretty important. The all-in at Valley of the Sun resulted in a No. 6 seed and no playoff wins. And things don’t seem to get much better going forward.
With a huge tax bill and having mortgaged all of their draft picks for the next six years, the Suns, like the Warriors, find themselves in basketball purgatory. Yes, big questions are being asked in Phoenix and big changes could happen this season.
Golden State just started a similar two-week process. At least the Warriors have won not just a playoff series but a title since Durant was released from the Bay. For those counting, the Warriors have five playoff wins to Durant’s two since the 2021 season.
It’s time for Durant to return to the Warriors. It’s a shame that that didn’t happen. First, I don’t think Durant – who gave up on Brooklyn 15 months ago – will be traded again this offseason. I hope the Suns continue to dig themselves out of the hole they’re in. Good luck with that.
Even if this prediction is wrong, I can assure you that he will not become a warrior again.
There is no world in which Jonathan Kuminga, Andrew Wiggins and all the draft picks in the world take Durant, even if he enters his age-36 season.
And with the Suns and Warriors being staring at a mediocre future and with a reunion very remote at best, I think it’s only fair to revisit the Durant-Dub marriage and reinstate the terms of the divorce.
You’ll have to forgive me for living in the past: the future is so dark. I also (silly) followed the example of Inside The NBA and the social media space.
So again I ask: who gets the most advantages out of the Warriors-Durant duo?
The addition of a winger who can score at all three levels like few other players in league history and defend at a high level has also transformed the Warriors – a team that has won 73 regular-season games.in the previous season – became consecutive infallible champions. , the league runner-up and arguably the perfect team in NBA history.
There is still much controversy about the alleged text messages Draymond Green sent to Durant after the Warriors lost in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The hysterical story (no, Green wasn’t crying on Facetime from the Oracle Arena parking lot) defined the relationship story.
But clearly, winning is about more than just gathering superstar players together and rolling the ball down the field.
Yes, even if you’re as supremely talented as the Durant-era Warriors. Durant’s Brooklyn Nets have a Big Three with James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
This team only won one playoff series and was eliminated in the first round in 2022. The Suns tried the same formula, with the same results: a playoff win and now a sweep.
The 2017 Warriors may be the greatest basketball team ever assembled, but the 2018 version went seven games with the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals, and the 2019 team lost the Western Conference Finals (without Durant).in six games.
Although most of the adversity the Durant-era Warriors faced was internal and media-driven, they handled attacks from competitors very well.
These teams have more guts and scraps than they’ll ever get. Did Durant bring that grit to the Warriors or did the Warriors give it to Durant? The answer seems quite clear today.
In an ideal world, both sides – who need each other more than ever – would find a way to get back together and make a final push towards greatness.
It’s clear by now that Durant needs what the Warriors provide – their institutional and systemic leadership on the court, all Steph Curry – and there’s no doubt that the Warriors desperately need a game-changing wing these days Play like Durant.
It is a pity that we do not live in a world close to an ideal world.
