Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors was a decision the former MVP must have thought out in painstaking detail.
It’s not the type of decision to take lightly.
One of the factors that led to Durant’s exit from OKC was his frustration with superstar teammate Russell Westbrook, per Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck.
“Ultimately he got frustrated and felt that they had plateaued,” a person with insight into Durant’s thought process told Beck.
“(Billy Donovan) came in, and he still had the same issues that he had with Russ under Scotty (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.”
It’s not easy to have an offense built around two guys who need the ball in their hands for a good portion of the shot clock in order to be successful. Westbrook is a good playmaker, but he plays more like a point guard than a shooting guard, and his sometimes-awful shot selections cost the Thunder games, even in the playoffs.
Durant took 19.2 shots per game this season, an increase of nearly two attempts from the 2014-15 campaign. He got his touches, but the ball movement and decision making was lacking at times from OKC’s offense as a whole.
Will it be a different situation for Durant in Golden State?
Maybe, but there’s only one ball, and no matter how unselfish Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Durant claim they’ll be together, they will want their fair share of shots.
Thumbnail photo via Chris Humphreys/USA TODAY Sports Images
