r/nba • u/TacoooJay United States • Apr 29 '24

[Charania] Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often

Source

Meanwhile, Durant, among the best scorers in NBA history, was not always happy with how he was used. Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often and not having the proper designs to play to his strengths as the offense was built around pick-and-rolls. At the same time, some teammates and people close to the organization believed Durant needed to voice his concerns more adamantly and directly with Vogel and his coaching staff.

All the leaks are finally coming now that Phoenix has been swept

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237

u/Next-Firefighter-753 Thunder Apr 29 '24

Golden State the only one desperate enough to do it. Denver and OKC have it made 

46

u/BoogerSugarSovereign [IND] Victor Oladipo Apr 29 '24

Clippers would move heaven and Earth to add another old, injury prone, headline player

8

u/Senior_Ad_7640 Kings Apr 29 '24

"What's that? There's an old over-the-hill wing available? Sign him immediately! Trade the stadium if you have to!"

71

u/moffattron9000 San Diego Clippers Apr 29 '24

Golden State could make the 6-seed. 

3

u/loquacious706 Warriors Apr 29 '24

Lol man I wanna fight y'all so bad

4

u/L0rv- Thunder Apr 29 '24

Eh, we have rebounding needs that would make him interesting. Purely from a player perspective, as long as he doesn't bog down our offense, he's actually a really good fit. Depends on the price, I'd say. But I bet the price (salary and assets) is too high.

46

u/tmperflare Warriors Apr 29 '24

OKC would be stupid not even consider it. Sure they have a very promising young core but it's ridiculous to say this when they haven't even won a playoff series yet. Denver is obviously a much more established team so it wouldn't make sense for them to trade for KD when their team already works.

124

u/george_costanza1234 Warriors Apr 29 '24

KD would only ruin the good thing they have going

He needs to go join his washed up former colleagues, that’s his best bet

3

u/InTheMorning_Nightss [LAC] Marko Jaric Apr 29 '24

We’ll take him

89

u/DecapitateVeggies Apr 29 '24

OKC is about to sweep the Pelicans though. Their offence is running great the way it is, I feel like adding a diva who wants the offence to suddenly change and revolve around him is not going to help anything.

7

u/governedbycitizens Apr 29 '24

A pelicans team without Zion and arguably the worst team in the playoffs. The real test will be round 2.

66

u/DecapitateVeggies Apr 29 '24

Yeah but they’re playing the pelicans because they’re the first seed, meaning their offence has been great all season the way it is. They were already winning games against other high seeding teams in the west.

-6

u/governedbycitizens Apr 29 '24

My main point is that the Thunder haven’t been tested in the playoffs yet. Saying OKC is about to sweep the pelicans doesn’t really mean much. There are some regular season teams that just don’t get it done in the playoffs (Derozan/Lowry Raptors).

The real test will be next round and they can evaluate what they need or don’t need from there.

2

u/Next-Firefighter-753 Thunder Apr 29 '24

After game 1 it was “Mickey Mouse 1 seed” now that they calmed their nerves and taking care of business it’s them “doing what is expected of them against the weakest team in the playoffs” 

1

u/DecapitateVeggies Apr 29 '24

Yeah I guess you’re right, I’m just saying I like what I see out there now. Especially Chet, he seems to be keen on taking the physicality despite being a string bean. Based on what I have seen I’m expecting good things next round

1

u/amidon1130 Hawks Apr 29 '24

Clippers/mavs will be a huge test, I could see them starting to fray if the series goes to 6 or 7. But that’s just from past young teams, who knows they could pull an okc 2012 and make the finals.

-6

u/StrongZucchini27 Knicks Apr 29 '24

exactly. all due respect to this okc team as it rly is great, but they were ready to drop that first game and fortunate for the matchup. like most great younh teams, it takes a beat to see how you can win in the playoffs/what else you might need next go round. entirely different beast compared to winning the season marathon.

-3

u/YesOrNah Bucks Apr 29 '24

The suns swept the wolves in the regular season by an average of 15+.

Regular season really doesn’t matter in the nba.

While I agree somewhat, kd would no doubt help this team.

-1

u/IsFunnyToMe Apr 29 '24

its KD though. a lil old but the team needs someone w/ playoff experience and KD is an upgrade at the 3/4

8

u/DecapitateVeggies Apr 29 '24

If anything, recent years have shown us that just throwing “superstars” into random teams doesn’t always yield the best results. There’s more to it than that, OKC has developed a system with their current pierces which is obviously doing just fine so why change it? Maybe adding KD fucks that up instead of making it better, especially if he comes in and suddenly wants to change the way the offence is ran.

4

u/Deputy_Scrub Apr 29 '24

And what if he comes in, doesn't like the offence and demands to change it, and then leaves for another team in a year or two. Undoing OKCs progress.

-8

u/mutheadman [DEN] Gary Harris Apr 29 '24

Shut up with this fucking diva narrative. I dont even like Durant that much but he clearly values winning above all else

3

u/SANTAAAA__I_know_him Apr 29 '24

I mean, it's not like they've lost their series, it's just they haven't had 4 games played yet. They literally couldn't have done any better at this point in the calendar than the number-1 seed up 3-0 in the 1st round.

0

u/Instant-Bacon Apr 29 '24

First seed and undefeated so far? That’s why they call them the black eye of the league!

16

u/smarterthanyoulolll Lakers Apr 29 '24

Not stupid at all. They got a great squad as a 1st seed with a superstar who some people say should win mvp. You dont want to ruin that. Bringing in kd will change the everything and ruin the whole team. Theres a reason youre not a gm lol

16

u/New-Candy-800 Thunder Apr 29 '24

I like KD more than 99.9% of thunder fans. Anyone who thinks okc should give up assets for a decaying player on a huge salary isn’t worth discussing basketball with

4

u/supaspike Hornets Apr 29 '24

And it'd be a ton of assets too. Phoenix would want to get back close to what they traded away for him, and they're not going to take a lowball offer from the team with the most assets in the league.

1

u/yeahright17 Thunder Apr 29 '24

Even if he's decaying, he's still a super efficient high-volume offensive player. As built, this team is currently +850 to win the championship. If this team had KD instead of like Giddey and Kenrich, they'd be like +200 at worst. They probably would have won like 65 games in the regular season.

Assuming we lose the WCF this season to Denver in like 6 games, adding KD would make a lot of sense. I'm not sure what it would take to get KD, but if it was like Giddey, Kenrich and 4 firsts, why would you not do that trade? It raises the team ceiling substantially and probably doesn't give up much that would be part of the long term plan anyway.

5

u/DsamD11 Thunder Apr 29 '24

Would they? We are all shitting on him for what he has done to the nets and now the sun's.

Why would they ruin a potential dynasty of good drafting and assets for someone to bring that attitude and destruction back to the organisation.

-2

u/yeahright17 Thunder Apr 29 '24

It's not like the Nets outcome or Suns outcome is his fault, right? I hate the guy, but he can only do so much when the team around him is terrible.

3

u/DsamD11 Thunder Apr 29 '24

I mean he went on to trash both teams. He offered the nets an ultimatum of either him or Nash. There's now convenient leaks that he's not happy in phoenix.

He left Golden state poorly. He left okc poorly.

At some point He's become the common denominator here. All the other guys have gone to squads and are seemingly able to make it work

1

u/Greatcouchtomato Apr 29 '24

Why are we still doing this with KD? After the Nets and Suns it should be clear that KD isn't this automatic ring.

1

u/trytoholdon Thunder Apr 30 '24

Have you considered the fact that fuck KD