Each week during the 2023-24 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether the trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.
[Last week: Are the 2023-24 Detroit Pistons the worst team ever to try?]
This week’s topic: Kevin Durant should go scorched earth on the Suns
The NBA has seen four Kevin Durants.
Kevin Durant, Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder
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Statistics (641 games, nine seasons): 27.4 PTS (48/38/88), 7 REB, 3.7 AST, 1.2 STL, 1 BLK
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Recognition: 2014 MVP; 2008 Rookie of the Year; seven-time All-Star (2012 ASG MVP); six-time All-NBA selection (5x First Team, 1x Second Team); four-time scoring champion; 50-40-90 club (2013)
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Achievement: 2012 NBA Finalist; four conference finals appearances; 10 playoff series wins
The No. 2 overall draft pick in 2007, Durant joined the Seattle SuperSonics, a Pacific Northwest franchise with a rich history and a rabid fan base, and captured Rookie of the Year honors. He and the franchise moved to Oklahoma City the following year and spent the next eight seasons in one of the NBA’s smallest markets, leading the Thunder to four Western Conference finals, an appearance in the 2012 Finals and nearly another in 2016.
You could understand at the time why Durant wanted to explore other opportunities, and hindsight makes that even more clear. The Thunder parted with James Harden and failed to extract enough value in return for a future MVP. Russell Westbrook‘s brand of basketball, also worthy of a future MVP, did not allow for the free-flowing style Durant felt could maximize both his abilities and the team’s pursuit of a championship.
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Statistics (208 games, three seasons): 25.8 PTS (52/38/88), 7.1 REB, 5.4 AST, 0.8 STL, 1.5 BLK
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Recognition: Two-time NBA Finals MVP; three-time All-Star (2019 ASG MVP); three-time All-NBA selection (2x First Team, 1x Second Team)
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Achievement: Two-time champion (2017, 2018); three-time NBA Finalist; 11 playoff series wins
So, Durant joined the Warriors, basketball nirvana back then — a 73-win roster that could deliver the opportunity to win a title every season for his foreseeable future in the Bay Area. His free-agency decision shifted the balance of power so significantly that we felt dismissive of the exercise for its excessiveness,…
