Getty Kevin Durant in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Toronto.
It has been three months since Kevin Durant was traded to the Brooklyn Nets via a sign and trade with the Golden State Warriors. The two teams struck a deal that sent Kevin Durant to Brooklyn along with a first-round pick in exchange for D’Angelo Russell. Durant would sign a 4-year deal worth $164 million with the Brooklyn Nets, and Russell signed a $117 million contract with the Warriors over four years.
What does Kevin Durant think about his time with the Warriors?
Kevin Durant was featured on a recent episode of HOT 97’s Ebro in the Morning.
“Yeah, I enjoyed waking up to play basketball, that is all I wanted to do with my life as a kid,” Durant told the show’s hosts Ebron Darden, Laura Stylez, and Peter Rosenberg.
“So, yeah, of course, and winning a championship at the highest level reaching the highest level as an individual yeah. I had the best years of my career there so far.”
Last month, Durant was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and was asked his former coach Steve Kerr’s motion offense.
“The motion offense we run in Golden State, it only works to a certain point,” Durant said to the Wall Street Journal‘s J.R. Moehringer. “We can totally rely on our system for maybe the first two rounds. Then the next two rounds we’re going to have to mix in individual play. We’ve got to throw teams off because they’re smarter in that round of playoffs.
“So now I have to dive into my bag, deep, to create stuff on my own, off the dribble, isos, pick-and-rolls, more so than let the offense create points for me.”
The 2013-14 regular season MVP, is one of the greatest isolation players the NBA has ever seen. He possesses the ability to score in a variety of different ways. For example, Durant can score with his jump shot, off the dribble, and back you down and shoot the fade over you.
During his three-seasons in a Warriors uniform, Durant only put up 17.5 shots per game, down 1.6 from his 19.1 attempts across nine seasons with Seattle and Oklahoma City, according to nbcsports.com In Steve Kerr’s system.
His shooting percentage was up as a member of the Warriors at 52.4 percent from the floor with the Warriors as opposed to 48.3 percent with the Sonics/Thunder.
Even though Durant did not have the ball in his had every play, the Warriors were able to win two Championship, but when they need a bucket down the stretch, Kevin was their first option.
Steve Kerr responds to Durant’s critique.
Later in September, Kerr responded to Durant’s critique of his system in an interview with The Athletic’s Anthony Slater.
An interview with Steve Kerr on a ton of topics in advance of what he calls the Warriors ‘most important’ training camp since 2014
“I wasn’t at all offended what Kevin said because it’s basically the truth. “You look at any system, I mean, I played the triangle with Michael Jordan. The offense ran a lot smoother all regular season and the first couple rounds of the playoffs than it did in the conference finals and Finals. It just did,” said Kerr.
That’s why guys like Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant are who they are. They can transcend any defense. But defenses in the playoffs, deep in the playoffs, combined with the physicality of the game — where refs can’t possibly call a foul every time — means that superstars have to take over. No system is just going to dice a Finals defense up. You have to rely on individual play. I didn’t look at (his comment) as offensive. I look at that as fact.”
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Warriors: Kevin Durant Sound off on His Time in the Bay