Some members of the Warriors organization are concerned that Kevin Durant‘s recent behavior could be a sign that he already has one foot out the door, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
The Warriors are coming off a deflating 128-95 home loss to the Celtics on Tuesday, with several figures around the team expressing their displeasure after the game. Among them was Durant, who appeared to be ticked off from the start of his postgame presser, Haynes notes.
“It starts with a passion, and an anger and an intensity, and it wasn’t there tonight,” head coach Steve Kerr said.
Durant was quick to disagree with this when a media member informed him of Kerr’s comment, curiously about his coach’s declaration.
“I thought we move off of joy?” Durant asked, fully knowing “joy” is a phrase Kerr often uses when discussing their style of play. “Now it’s anger? OK. I disagree with that one. I think all around, top to bottom, coaches, players, we just gotta be better.”
Durant tallied 18 points on just 5-of-16 shooting on Tuesday, also recording five turnovers with a minus-20 net rating. Haynes also noted in the same story how some members of the Warriors are not concerned with Durant’s behavior, labeling it as just a common rigor of the regular season.
Durant, a consensus top-three player in the NBA, has the option to decline a $31.5MM player option and become a free agent on July 1.
There’s more out of Golden State today:
- Damian Jones is unlikely to return this season or during the playoffs despite conducting an on-court workout Thursday, Steve Kerr said, as relayed by Anthony Slater of the The Athletic (Twitter link). Jones underwent surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle in December.
- Draymond Green defended DeMarcus Cousins after the loss to Boston, explaining why fans shouldn’t blame Cousins for the team’s defensive woes in recent weeks. “I think so many people are kind of looking at the starting lineup and saying, ‘Oh, DeMarcus is in there and the defense is worse,'” Green said, according to ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “But our defense has been horses— no matter who’s in there. It’s easy to look at the numbers and think the numbers tell a story, but the fact of the matter is we haven’t been competing.”
- Kerr discussed the team’s decision to sign Andrew Bogut on a rest-of-season contract, as relayed by The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. “We looked at this as an insurance policy in the frontcourt,” Kerr said. “A guy who obviously knows our system, knows our players. He’s great for our offense — his dribble hand-offs, passing ability, lob threat — and defensively he’s been one of the best in the game for a long time. He had a great season in Sydney. He’s healthy, he’s fresh. He was the best player available for us. We have to look ahead to the playoffs for different match-ups, and we felt vulnerable particularly in case of injury and against certain match-ups.” Bogut isn’t expected to make his debut with the team for at least another week.
If the Warriors break up this off season, in 20 years each one of them will look back and regret they weren’t able to figure it out.
Seriously. What else can they want? It’s going to be comedy watching KD deal with the NY media
Exactly.
The culture of that team, the unselfishness, wanting others to succeed, the chance at history, the ability to offer the max plus the Bay outside of basketball (since KD is into investing and tech)…if he leaves, he’s leaving a good thing behind.
I think this is the year they get got in the Western Conf Playoffs.
Don’t like 1
We say that every year and every year they get it together in the playoffs. I think the reality is that those guys just don’t at all care about the regular season.
I just am not ready to bet against them once the playoffs start.
I agree. It’s not like other years, they clearly have declined chemistry. It’s obvious KD is leaving, and he isn’t cherry coating his intentions. A lot of teams have taken a big step forward this year too.
How about Durant grows up and matures. His comments are like that of a whining 10 year old. He is an MVP player who has won the last two finals, has his current team walking on eggshells to keep him happy and the rest of the league trying to court him. His pissy attitude is insufferable.
Big difference between joy and anger. Obv Kerr is not walking on eggshells in throwing support to the Green/Cousins side.
NBA has always been more personality-driven than the other sports, due to the nature of basketball. So it’s nothing new to see a superstar like that.
It does get a bit old lately with all these guys attempting to play Player/GM and form super teams and all that.
Well for once I agree with KD, I mean hoops should be all about having fun & joy, if it is all about anger then… maybe is the time to give up!