Stephen Curry revealed in a Rolling Stone cover story published Monday that the Golden State Warriors contemplated dealing for Kevin Durant after the Brooklyn Nets star requested a trade earlier this summer.
Curry was onboard with the idea, if it came to fruition, despite the outside questions of whether the Warriors would welcome back Durant, who spent three seasons in Golden State (2016-19), after defeating the Boston Celtics in the most recent NBA Finals.
“There was a conversation internally amongst us about ‘If he was available, would you?,’ ” Curry told Rolling Stone on Aug. 9. “Every team has those conversations, and obviously in our situation, they’re gonna call me and ask me, ‘How do you feel about it?’ “
The Rolling Stone story also pulled back the curtain on how Curry viewed the Durant sweepstakes in general. Durant since has hashed out his issues with the Nets — despite a previous ultimatum that Brooklyn either trade him or fire general manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash — and it sounds like Curry believes it’ll be in KD’s best interest.
Consider the following excerpt from Rolling Stone’s Matt Sullivan, who explains Curry’s reaction to Durant potentially joining the Phoenix Suns or Celtics, two legitimate NBA title contenders who were front and center in KD trade rumors:
“In the course of shadowing Curry last month, I observed him discussing the trade market for Durant with Snoop Dogg. Curry suggested that Durant had unrealistic expectations that his preferred destinations would retain superstar rosters, despite Brooklyn’s high asking price: ‘Man, he thinks that they’re gonna go to teams — like if he went to Phoenix — that they’re gonna be the same team if he’s there,’ Curry told Snoop. Of the Boston Celtics, he said, ‘They have a little bit of everything, but they would have to deal with the organizational transition to get rid of Jaylen (Brown). He’s such a pivotal piece… If they would have done that — ” Curry broke apart his fingertips in an explosion, and agreed with Snoop that Durant was better off staying with the Nets.”
Durant is one of the best basketball players on the planet. There’s no doubt about that. But he’s also turning 34 this month and has dealt with injuries in recent years, whereas Brown — the presumed centerpiece of a Celtics trade for KD — is turning 26 and just played an instrumental role in helping Boston get to within two wins of an NBA championship.
Trading Brown — in addition to perhaps Marcus Smart and draft picks — would have been a huge gamble by the C’s, and Curry seemed to acknowledge that reality in his recent conversation with Snoop Dogg regarding Durant.
