A contributing factor that led to Kevin Durant leaving OKC to join the Warriors was his frustration with the Thunder‘s offense and guard Russell Westbrook‘s tendency to dominate the ball, a source close to the “Slim Reaper” told Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. “Ultimately, he got frustrated and felt that they had plateaued,” the source told Beck. “[Coach Billy Donovan] came in, and he still had the same issues that he had with Russ under Scotty [former coach Scott Brooks]. The offense didn’t change much. He still had to take a ton of contested shots every game; and that’s when he had the ball at all. He’s never going to have a game in Golden State where Steve Kerr has to say at halftime, ‘You guys need to get Kevin the ball,’ which happened in OKC.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- The chances are increasing dramatically that the Mavericks will look to trade forward Jeremy Evans, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Evans, 28, has one year and $1,227,286 remaining on his current contract. Dallas is also exploring options to get JaVale McGee and his $1,403,611 salary off the books for next season, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com tweets. If the center remains on the roster past July 12th his deal becomes fully guaranteed.
- The Jazz will keep point guard Shelvin Mack on the roster past Thursday, which means his contract worth $2,433,334 will become fully guaranteed, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
- Unrestricted free agent guard Nate Robinson hasn’t garnered much interest around the league and a number of teams have been turned off by his stated interest in joining the NFL, Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated relays (on Twitter).
- The Warriors are seeking veterans willing to sign team friendly deals to fill out the roster and may be interested in point guard Mario Chalmers and center Kendrick Perkins, Rusty Simmons of The San Francisco Chronicle writes.
“He’s never going to have a game in Golden State where Steve Kerr has to say at halftime, ‘You guys need to get Kevin the ball,’ which happened in OKC.”” True. It’s more likely that Kerr is going to have to say “You guys need to let Kevin touch the ball’.
That’s what I was thinking
bingo
I think the team will actually be less dynamic and way too redundant. More talent less chemistry.
Durant is a phenomenally better offensive player than Barnes and is a better defensive player too, so how are the going to be less dynamic?!? They don’t really lose anything. Green is going to average 15 assist a game!! Durant was in the 50 40 90 club being the focal point of opposing defenses. Who do you guard? They team plays selfless basketball, curry defers to the hot hand all the time. KD’s game fits into their system so well. The only thing that derails this team is injuries, because if they are all heathy it is over.
This team feels like a fantasy draft in 2K where your starting 5 is comprised of high quality starters but never wins the championship because everyone’s overalls go down on the bench because they never get to see the court because of how stacked your starters are….