Kevin Durant trade rumors shook up the NBA last winter as the Suns tried to dismantle their underachieving team in midseason. Durant recalled that experience this week during an appearance at the Game Plan Sports Business Summit in Los Angeles, saying he learned he was being shopped “around February,” relays Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
“Initially, I was a little upset because I felt like we built a solid relationship, me and the Phoenix Suns,” Durant said. “And to hear that from a different party was kind of upsetting, but that’s just the name of the game. So I got over that quickly and was trying to figure out what the next steps were.”
Durant was linked to several teams in trade talks, but the quickly approaching February 6 deadline made it difficult to put a deal together. He confirmed that the Warriors had real interest in bringing him back to the Bay Area, where he won titles in 2017 and 2018, but Durant had business partner Rich Kleiman shut down that possibility.
“I heard Golden State was in the mix around the trade deadline, but that’s when Rich came into play, and those relationships that we built around the league and also playing in Golden State helped,” Durant told the audience. “We were able to tell them kind of hold off on that.”
Durant remained in Phoenix, but a breakup seemed inevitable after the Suns failed to qualify for the play-in tournament. He missed the final seven games of the season after suffering an ankle injury on March 30.
Durant found himself back on the market when the summer began. Houston, San Antonio and Miami were reportedly on his list of preferred locations, and Minnesota was rumored to be involved in the bidding as well. An agreement on a deal sending him to the Rockets was reached in June, with Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the 10th pick in the draft, which was used to take Khaman Maluach, going to Phoenix in return.
“Since me being on the market in February when there’s also a trade deadline, people were just kind of seeing how their seasons played out and what they needed for their teams,” Durant said. “We knew we would revisit that right around the summertime, and Houston kind of jumped on, and it happened pretty fast from there.”
KD’s hatred of Kerr makes me both hate Kerr even more for chasing away players to help them win, and KD for being so dumb to turn down another title with Kerr.
Davey you use strong language for a guy with 4 rings…. on one hand that say GSW…. kiss the rings Davey. KD is great but his greatness has no rings without Kerr. Eat a bowl
Davey doesn’t understand that no matter how many great players a team has they still need to be organized into a functioning cohesive unit. One player can’t do it all. Every player plays a part.
Giants74 doesn’t understand that Kerr has never coached a team before and apparently Giants74 does not watch the games, because literally every GSW game goes “Curry on court = playing well, Curry leaves court, team stinks” – its been like this literally every year. Kerr’s absolutely terrible rotation use and player selection harms the team. Giants74 cannot see the forrest from the trees.
Giants74, see how awkward it is when you write a user name to the user you are replying to, Giants74? Giants74, stop doing this! Why do so many reply guy trolls like Giants74 always write my user name when replying to me? You don’t do it for anyone else! I can already see you replied to me, your worthless reply guy comments sets off my notifications, you don’t have keep writing my user name, you absolute weirdos!
Kerr stinks, none of you have never provided anything proving otherwise other than the rings Steph Curry won us, which somehow you think Kerr played a positive part in helping win, when he 100% did not. Curry should have 7 rings right now if a decent HC was running the team. I don’t understand how you cannot see this? You must not watch the actual games and just read the results….
Month after month after month you keep asserting that the Warriors would have more Curry championships if it weren’t for Kerr. It is your opinion. Not based in any fact. But, you keep coming up with new ways to bash. It never ceases.
Curry likes Kerr and is involved in rotation moves. You must believe that Curry is wrong.
Curry didn’t win with his previous 3 headcoaches. Don Nelson was voted one of the 10 greatest HCs in NBA history by his peers. Are they all wrong?
Winning as many rings as you say Curry should have is extremely difficult. It is not as easy as you seem to think.
Kerr helped the W’s win in 2015. He inherited a great squad from Mark Jackson so he didn’t have to build much. But Kerr was right man at that time. Jacskon wasn’t winning a title.
It didn’t matter who coached W’s after KD came. Giants74 could have won 2 titles as the coach. Kerr was a big reason KD left. And also why KD won’t come back. KD doesn’t like Kerr.
Since 2019 Kerr has been terrible. He just lets Steph and Dray do their thing. Kerr hasn’t developed anybody else on the team and nobody around the league wants to play for him.
Small-ball is dead. NBA has moved on. Kerr is done.
Kerr being a bad coach is Davey Js worst take.
Houston Fd everything up with that trade and I am a Durant fan.
Brooks and Fred brought life back into town, then Brooks gets dumped again. Maluach would have been nice to add to the young team, plus many 1st that Houston traded. I honestly would start Green at PG and nail it into his brain. Or keep drafting PGs.Thompson, Sengun, Smith Jr, Sheppard, etc etc. Now Durant is going to have to carry the young team as the only good veteran, Fred isn’t good enough, you have Sengun so you add Adams and Capela?
Even the Cam Whitmore trade was bad IMO
Trade Fred and whatever 1st you can for a better veteran PG. Durant!!!! You can’t win with Fred, you need someone better
If no championship and Durant leaves then I’ll laugh a little
Fred has already won. The many 1sts that Houston traded was actually only 1. That same Maluach.
Fred won as a sixth man. OG too. Stop acting like these guys are something special
Yes Davey Brooks might not have been spectacular but that doesn’t mean you use that as a scapegoat like Memphis did. Brooks brought life back into Houston. I agree Brooks should shut up.
I have nothing for the cursed stuff. People say that about Westbrook and Harden are. I honestly don’t like or dislike Brooks but I can tell you don’t like him
Dillon Brooks is a loser and caused them to underperform in the playoffs. He’s a curse to any team. He will never win a title in this league.
I’m frustrated they traded Wiggins for Butler Davey. I would rather have Wiggins who basically got you a championship while people think Butler is a legend for losing to Jokic. How could you let Denver win. What is this crap
Riley has been pretty lucky, not Kerr lucky
My guy has been taking the easy way out his entire career.
He’s not winning anything in Houston.
Ah yes, winning titles is “easy”.
He didn’t even go 3 for 3, proving how dumb this take is.
You are correct on the last point, Houston isn’t winning a thing. Amen and Sengun and 30 games of injury prone late career KD aren’t enough. Houston isn’t even close to Denver or OKC. The Steph/Dray/Jim unc Warriors are literally better than the Rockets.
Davey you on that sauce.
@pogo Stop replying to me then, hit mute, you weirdo.
BTW comments like these break TOS – either make a proper counter argument to my point, or stop being a troll. Sick of reply guy trolls like you, you never provide anything in the comments, meanwhile I make the comments that cause you to get your panties in a twist so hard you decide I am “on that sauce” because I watched every GSW game since 2012 and know the team better than you ever could. Shut up bro.
They didn’t go 3 for 3 because of injuries.
Yes genius, proving the “superteam” and “KD took the easy route” narratives are dumb. Injuries can take out anyone – you are acting like KD went 3-3. Stop that.
Would Durant have won a championship if he didn’t go to Golden State?
As long as any of Harden, CP3, Westbrook or Embiid were not his teammate, 100%, absolutely.
Warriors better than Houston….lols, OK. Could compete in the Masters Games.
…And what is KDs track record since leaving GS?
@Nrg82
Most would agree that GSW proved they were better last season.
This Houston team will be really fun to watch
I think this team will be fun to watch. If you’re a Houston fan you just got to pray for health.
If I want to get kds take on something I’ll just follow one of his burner accounts
KD should just shut up and play. He just makes it worse by trying to explain his moves. He is in the right place now. He has deep young talent that he can go to war with. Just concentrate on scoring and winning. Let your game speak for itself.
Players that just play are rare these days. Social media sells and sales make money. A study of the effect of social media on, for example, shoe (e.g., KD 19s) sales would be interesting.
Players are entertainers. Fans crave entertainment. Can’t blame the players for doing Social Media.
Social media is something totally different. But also needs to be handled right. KD talking about his basketball moves. He mixes it up with reality and his truth. Basketball doesn’t lie or have agendas. Or ulterior motives. The game is played for all to see. We all know why you can’t win. We know what went wrong in Bklyn and Phoenix. By trying to put a spin on his basketball decisions including leaving the Warriors. Only muddles the truth. And makes him look bad. If you let you game do the talking. Then it will always be about what you are doing now ….. got nothing to do with SM.
GS is a has been. Nothing is going to get them a ring. No need to live in the past because they drafted well for a few years.
And yet, you are hung up on GS’s past.
Name a better trio than Steph/Dray/Jimmy then. Go. I wanna see how badly you don’t know ball.
LBJ, Luka, and a sack of excrement are better
@caldo19 that’s cap and you know it.
So, KD didn’t want to comeback to GS because of something Rich Kleinman said. Who is Rich Kleimnan? Why listen to him? Why would GS want KD back? How did things turn out in Brooklyn and Phoenix?
Kleiman is KD’s agent and partner in business investments.
Did he also steer him to Brooklyn and Phoenix.
This so old its boring as shhhh. You mean you still don’t know why he went to Bklyn. He should have stayed. There are a few stars who think they are bigger than the game. All of them come back to earth at some point.
They did want him back. And it didn’t happen. Next page
Kerr has had them in a position to win 6. Kerr didn’t kick LeBron. Kerr did not cause KD and Klay’s injuries. Kerr did help a lot in 2022 and they started this shortly after he took over. I am not sure Draymond’s success happens with any other coach. Say what you will but you have to acknowledge the good with the bad with Kerr. Kerr just wants to win.
Kerr literally said the 15-50 season was his favorite season because no pressure. He absolutely does NOT want to win. He’s “half days every day” Kerr, that’s why he ruins lottery pick developments, he is coasting and just purely relying on Curry to win. The Wolves were not even close to the Warriors last year, they should not have rolled them after Curry got injured like that – that’s purely on Kerr. If he wanted to win, he would play his 5 most talented players the top 5 MPG. Instead he shoehorns in as many undersized shooting guards as possible into his idiotic rotations and blocks Kuminga and Moody for literally any reason to play 2way players instead of them – a winning coach would have played them as often as possible.
Even if you love Kerr, his performance from the Draymond punch-onwards has been “worst HC in the NBA”-level. He does literally nothing competently anymore, if he ever did before. Steph Curry is the #1 reason why GSW has 4 rings, and if he had a HC with a clue he could have had 6 or 7 by now.
You are delusional @Davey J. Worst coach?!??
From the Draymond punch to present: 100% fact. He has not done a single thing competently.
He is certainly over rated but it’s way too many trash coaches in the NBA
@Casor – I don’t disagree with any of this take either.
Trolls and calls everyone else a troll. Argumentative on opinions not facts. Welcome to Davey Js world.
As a grandparent of six, I recognize the signs of chafing diapers, and boy howdy is today the day for some Johnson’s Baby Powder! With all the competition the cake taker of insipidity here is Davey J’s, “He absolutely does NOT want to win.” when speaking of Mr. Kerr. There is still time to exceed the quote of course, but I have my doubts. ” Bueller? … Bueller? … Anyone? “
He’s a FankenStein……. has lost his civility.
Maybe if Don Nelson didn’t insist on Chris Webber being a undersized C (6’10) then maybe GS would have another ring. All you had to do is trade Billy Owens for a actually C. Small ball uhhh
Kerr not wanting a C too….., GS could have another ring
Durant go to GS to save your legacy
I need to some more research but it seems like Rick Barry is the one guy to carry a team to a championship
I want to see who has the worst team record in Player X missed games, in a championship season.
For example, 2021-22 Warriors went 8-10 without Curry.
Missing 1 guy and a title-winner instantly becomes an under .500 team? Sounds like a carry to me.
—- The Countdown —-
September 21, 2025 ……. 10 days to go till Kuminga signs his QO. Can still make a sign-n-trade till September 30. 10 days to signing Horford, Melton, Payton………
link to sports.yahoo.com
“the good will of a player option.”
“The theory on this has been from the beginning, if we’re going to take a number that keeps the team under the second apron and what matters most is the win-now and maximizing Steph [Curry’s] window and building a roster, fine. That’s great, we will fall in line,” Turner said. “But allow us to have the back end of the deal. JK can still stay on the Warriors. There’s nothing that says he couldn’t. They’ll have his Bird Rights. But it’s his choice.”
He will fold.