The Golden State Warriors are looking for a three-peat this season and are the odds on favorite to succeed in their quest to become the first team to win three straight NBA titles since the Lakers in the early-2000s.
The Warriors had a plan in place to keep their core four together for the foreseeable future, albeit at a price tag of well over $1 billion. If they manage to succeed in doing so, they’ll be the favorites to actually achieve the “not four, not five, not six, not seven” titles LeBron James once claimed was the goal with the Miami Heat. However, much like how that Heat run ended prematurely given what those three superstars seemed capable of, the Warriors run could meet a similar fate at the end of this season.
For some time, it was Klay Thompson that many thought could be the one to jump ship and try to find a team that would let him be the top star. That doesn’t seem to be the case as Thompson has been very clear about his intentions to stay in Golden State and his happiness with his situation as a secondary superstar. Now, it appears the issue in keeping this group together will be Kevin Durant, the last addition to their quartet of All-Stars who may also be the first to leave.
Durant will be a free agent once again in 2019 after he inked a one-year deal this offseason with the Warriors when some expected him to cash in on a much larger, long-term deal. He’s kept his options open and there are those in the Bay that feel the writing is on the wall for his departure next summer.
The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson is among those that believes KD could be on his way out, as he told the Murph & Mac Podcast on KNBR recently. Thompson was asked about the doom and gloom surrounding Durant’s impending free agency and noted that he feels like Durant is gone next summer. Additionally, Thompson said a big problem for the Warriors is they, like most everyone else, have no idea what Durant actually wants (9:10 mark of the below audio).
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“Man, KD out. I feel like he’s gone,” Thompson says. “I mean I do. I feel like he’s gone. I mean, right? It does have that vibe, like, ‘This is it. This could be it right here.’ Part of it is, what’s his reason to stay? If they win again does it become just not much of a challenge for him to stay. Here’s the hard part with KD, we don’t know what he wants. 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, is it supremacy, is it to be the ace? Like what is it that he wants? 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. If it was like a relationship, like, ‘Look, man. I done gave you all I got. You still looking— you might as well just go.’ That’s how it feels.”
We’ve heard rumors about Durant having interest in possibly the Knicks this summer or maybe even the Lakers, but to hear someone as plugged in on the Warriors as Thompson put it as simply as he does that it feels like he’s gone is noteworthy. There’s always been a feeling that Durant is a bit of the odd one out within this group, like he’s not quite fully part of the group when it comes to how this star core interacts, but to this point it’s worked great for them on the floor.
Still, Durant will pick up two or three rings and two or three Finals MVPs and still clearly feels like he’s not being respected by people because he’s doing it on this team — just go see his rant about not being a contender for Defensive Player of the Year. Durant will have his rings and, somewhat like LeBron, can go find a place where he can try and do it on his own, or at least make a statement as the star on a team rather than being one of the stars.
