Kevin Durant Has Vibe Of Potentially Leaving Warriors In 2019 Marcus Thompson of The Athletic is getting the sense that Kevin Durant could be in his final season with the Golden State Warriors. “Man, KD out,” Thompson said on KNBR. “I feel like he is gone… It does have that vibe, like, ‘This is it. This could be it right here.'” Thompson explained that if the Warriors win their third straight title since signing Durant, there could be an incentive for him to pursue a new challenge. “Here’s the hard part with KD: we don’t know what he wants,” Thompson said. “I don’t know that he knows what he wants. But I know the Warriors don’t know fully what he wants. Is it a championship, supremacy, is it to be the ace?” Durant has won Finals MVP in each of his first two seasons with the Warriors and they are prohibitive favorites to threepeat. “It feels like he has gotten everything he could possibly get from the Warriors, and it’s still not 100 percent like he wants to be here,” Thompson said. “If it was like a relationship, like, ‘Look, man. I gave you all I got. You still looking— you might as well just go.’ That’s how it feels.”
I think he just keeps signing 1+1's until they lose and then he leaves, but who knows really? They look like they're having fun still. I can sense the media is going to run away with that article and the KD to Lakers with Bron chatter picks up steam because...everyone to LA. If a new challenge or being the "ace" of his own team is the reason to leave countless Finals appearances for the rest of his career with the Warriors, why join up with LeBron where he'd get all the blame and none of the credit? Why join up with the guy everyone always had you behind of and your main rival as the best player in the league? Especially after getting 2 FMVP against him at the same position the past 2 seasons? Oh, i totally forgot. Everyone to LA, because LA. LA LA
I can't see how he'll be hated moreso if he leaves while they're still winning. It's like cashing out early when you have a sizable chip lead.
I have a feeling it will be all about Cousins this season. And they got 5 on Team US. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...e-stars-team-usa-roster?ex_cid=espnapi_public
KD going to NY, haha no way. He cannot lead a team either, so good luck for any club with him as your best player.
http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=24990372 Windhorst: There's been a warming of the LeBron/Durant relations recently. There was a warming the other night. What's going on there? McMenamin: Sometimes stuff is so in front of our face. [Mentions LeBron/Lonzo meeting at halfcourt after a game last year] The Durant thing, they take an off day during the season to film a commercial last year. They've been spotted coming out of dinners, spotted during all star weekend, maybe where there's smoke, there's fire. Not saying it's happening but if you don't believe that's one scenario, you aren't looking at the full picture. Windhorst: LeBron put in a call to Durant this year. "Would you think about coming to the Lakers?" I've said Durant has outmaneuvered LeBron in a certain respect. The first 18-20 times they played, LeBron dominated Durant. ... Durant made the move and since that time has dominated LeBron. The way for LeBron to undo that maneuver, to kill the Warriors is get Durant off the team. LeBron has to make the move. He made his opening move. His next move is to get Durant out of Golden State. That's what he has to go if he'll get back to the top again. McMenamin: Durant is #1. Maybe Klay is #2. You have the same double bonus. Add him to your team and make Golden State worse. Windhorst: I don't think Klay Thompson is going anywhere. Seems like he's ready to stay put. Even if Durant goes to New York or somewhere else, if he leaves the Warriors, it's a big win for the Lakers. Nick Friedell: You take Durant off the Warriors next summer, Warriors still win the title a year from now. Windhorst: They'd have a chance. They've had the largest margin for error. They have a MVP in reserve. Steph goes down each of the last 2 years, they have a MVP right there. I think if Durant walks, their margin for error will be reduced. That what LeBron has to focus on. Read the tea leaves & watch the Durant/LeBron interactions this year. I think this is something that will go the whole time.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24988629/zach-lowe-crazy-predictions-2018-19-nba-season Kevin Durant signs with the Knicks I don't think Durant or the people closest to him know what he's going to do. The Warriors don't. They will pitch him on his comfort in the Bay Area; business connections there; and their sparking new arena -- the one for which Durant broke ceremonial ground. I spent last season's Finals talking to everyone I could about Durant, trying to figure him out. The sense I got from the Warriors was that they found Durant unknowable -- and were afraid even much of last season he would leave. Surviving Houston in the conference finals cleared the atmosphere. On the flight home after Game 7, Durant plopped into the seat next to Bob Myers, Golden State's general manager, and declared, "I have never felt more a part of the team," Myers told me. A two-year stint in Golden State would have seemed short given the melodrama surrounding Durant's exit from Oklahoma City. Three approaches LeBron-in-Miami territory. Win another ring, and Durant might feel he has accomplished what he set out to do. He's 30, at the height of his powers, free to choose his destination. He's not going back to Oklahoma City. I'd be dumbfounded if he joined LeBron. He must know the Warriors will always be Curry's team. The social media slights will never stop as long as Durant is there. People who know Durant say part of him must crave the challenge of being the undisputed alpha dog and lead ball handler -- of putting up a 32-10-8 stat line. Some of those same people wonder if he is a little scared of that challenge. A normal human would feel both of those things. But whoever revives the Knicks will become legend. They have a young co-star in Kristaps Porzingis who could take on more of the scoring burden as Durant ages. Durant doesn't have to do this now. He can sign another one-year deal, chase a ring in the Chase Center, and hit free agency again. On the flip side, if he moves to a downtrodden franchise, he might have to ink a longer-term deal as a display of commitment to other stars who might join. Is he OK with that? Another wild card: What if Golden State signals it doesn't want to pay full freight for one of Klay Thompson (a free agent this summer) and Draymond Green (a free agent in the summer of 2020, potentially up for a massive designated player extension after this season)? Thompson has no plans to take a discount, and the Warriors don't expect him to, league sources say. Green already is dealing with small injuries; the league is curious about how his game will age. If Durant feels newly essential, he might be more inclined to stick around. (In that way, failing to three-peat might help Golden State's case in keeping Durant -- just as losing the 2016 Finals helped their case in signing him.) As an aside, the Durant noise underscores one of the biggest unasked questions about the Jimmy Butler public art installation: Is Butler sure there is a better situation over the next half-decade than playing alongside Karl-Anthony Towns? Maybe Towns and Andrew Wiggins are intolerable personalities. Towns has to show he cares about defense and grunt work. Wiggins has to show he cares about anything. Maybe Butler doesn't want to live in Minnesota. He seems angry the Wolves didn't salary-dump Wiggins last summer (perhaps attaching a pick as sweetener), duck under the cap, and offer him a maximum extension that would have kicked in this season. There's an argument that Minnesota should have tried. Wiggins has disappointed; Butler is a two-way force. Butler is underpaid. He entered free agency one summer before the cap mega-spike. Bad luck. He also re-signed in Chicago for four guaranteed seasons. He didn't have to do that. LeBron and Chris Bosh didn't, and they got to pick a new team a year earlier than some of their superstar peers. Butler has the right to search out ways to rectify this. The Wolves have the right to say it is a little ridiculous to ask them to dump Wiggins (and possibly more). Meanwhile, Butler was somehow both transparent and laughably disingenuous talking around the issue with Rachel Nichols: That is gobbledygook. It is code. If you're going to pop off about honesty, then be honest and say: "It is actually about money -- that extension I wanted." This isn't to say Minnesota is blameless. Tom Thibodeau, Scott Layden, and Glen Taylor watched their team culture erode and did nothing, assuming it would repair itself. Taylor and the front office have sent contradictory messages to Butler suitors, sometimes within minutes of each other, league sources have said. But the Warriors won't have four in-their-prime stars forever. Chris Paul is 33. Towns has a chance to be the most versatile scoring big man in history. You're gonna leave that dude to go to Miami and play with ... who? You're gonna move to Brooklyn, even though Irving scuttled the dream of teaming up there? Philly would be a different story, and Butler has eyes for them, sources familiar with the matter say. The Sixers have expressed almost no interest in trading for him, sources say. There is some theoretical road map to a Clippers team-up with Leonard. Something about Minnesota must be unbearable for Butler to turn his nose up at a long-term partnership with Towns.
The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers will take a run at the back-to-back Finals MVP, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Personnel from the Clippers are expected to attend a high number of Warriors games this season, sources said. Rival executives are of the belief that Durant, unlike the previous two summers he hit free agency with the Warriors, might be swayed to leave the Bay Area this time around. Until July 1 rolls around, the questions regarding his future will continue to surface. But don’t expect Durant to entertain the inquires in an amiable fashion. “It depends on how I feel that day,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “If I’m in a [expletive]-up mood, you’re going to see. Ask me that question and you’re going to really see what mood I’m in.”
What's the point of that. Are they going to pass out subliminal message posters for fans to hold up. Like a picture of a sailboat + heart + cupcakes. You know the cupcake posters will always catch Durant's eye ... like a cupcake.
Durant leaving the Warriors would be the ABSOLUTE best thing for the NBA. The Warriors would come back to the pack. The Warriors DO NOT win the WCF last year without Durant on that team. I am 100% convinced of that. Rockets had them on lockdown where Durant was the only pressure reliever. Will Durant leave? Will it happen? I think it will. Will Durant go to LA or NY? I don't know. Because I don't quite know what KD's motivations are. I don't think anyone knows really. I am sure LeBron will recruit Durant. LeBron respects Durant (unlike Curry). KD going to NY would be perfect. Keep Kawhi in Toronto. Balance out the league. I hope this happens.
Agreed. The Warriors are very beatable without Durant. Curry has come back to Earth, still a great player but eh, he can be attacked on defense and exposed. Especially since contending teams are likely to have an elite PG to do the attacking nowadays. Draymond Green and Klay are both great players...but they aren't Durant. They bring something I think other teams could match. Cousins is there for this year only. Especially if he plays well, he's going to get his max and split.
Playing an extra seasons worth in post seasons also adds up. They can cry their way to elimination with a "hurt Iguodala"
I think sure the media would have them as favorites but... If you take Durant off that team right now I think we are better than them. I think Boston beats them in the finals, if Kyrie is healthy he'll feast on Curry (or make any damage Curry does negligible) same for Horford who has a tendency to show up for big games, he'd negate Green. Tatum and Brown, could handle Klay. Durant is the one that tips the scales, not only does he tip it, it's like putting an anchor on the scale. He can't be negated, he can't be stopped. Warriors won those games with us because Durant kept them in it. If you recall there were times in that series that the Rockets would have had a significant lead if it weren't for Durant simply keeping the scoreboard moving...Curry finally eventually shows up in the 2nd half or they get hot for a moment and now you're behind.
