After the Luka-AD trade, several big names have been rumored to be changing cities before Thursday’s trade deadline. One of those is Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant who is being linked to his former team, the Golden State Warriors.
Sports writer Chris Mannix and Grant Afseth have reported that the Dubs are seriously thinking about reuniting with the “Easy Money Sniper” and KD is said to be considering the move.
ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins however doesn’t want to see Durant return to the Bay Area. He wants the 2014 NBA MVP to stay put and gut it out in Phoenix.
“No, I don’t want to see a Warriors-KD reunion,” said Perkins. “What I want to see is KD win without Steph Curry. That’s what I want to see. I want to see him win and do it his way.”
KD wants out, again
According to Perkins, Durant has gotten everything that he wanted in his NBA career. When he could not get the Oklahoma City Thunder past the hump, he joined the team that they could not beat – the Golden State Warriors and won two championships with them.
When things got tough in Golden State, he forced a move to Brooklyn and then got James Harden to join him and Kyrie there. That was a failure and so he muscled his way to Phoenix to join Devin Booker. The Suns also added Bradley Beal but now that their trio isn’t working in the Valley, he wants out again and back to Golden State. Big Perk says no to that.
“He’s now been in the seat where he’s able to be the general manager, be able to dictate things, be able to call shots,” added Perk. “Didn’t he get Frank Vogel fired? They weren’t seeing eye-to-eye. There weren’t speaking in the locker room. Now you get a championship coach in Mike Budenholzer and you still not getting it done. No, you have to ride it out. Stay there and ride it out.”
The Suns are in 9th place in the West
Durant wasn’t the only reason why Vogel was fired but that’s another story. Perkins is correct though, it was KD who wanted to go to “The Valley” and team up with D-Book. So if things aren’t going well there right now, he can’t just leave because well, they’re not winning.
The Suns are just 25-24 on the season and are in the 9th spot in the Western Conference team standings. If the regular season ended today, they would need two wins in the play-in tournament just to get to the playoffs. That wasn’t what was expected of them at the start of the campaign.
Kevin is one of the all-time greats. However, he gets criticized because he won his championships by joining a team that he could not beat. The hate will never stop until he wins on his own. At 36, he’s got to do it in Phoenix. If he leaves again, the slander will only get louder.