“It’s hard for me to dribble through three or four guys and pull up over two dudes with a fadeaway” – Kevin Durant explains why scoring came easier with Golden State than OKC originally appeared on Basketball Network.
During the latest episode of the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash, Kevin Durant touched on the most sensitive period of his career — leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder and joining the Golden State Warriors.
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The Warriors, coming off a record-breaking 73-9 regular season, beat Durant’s Thunder in the Western Conference finals that year after coming back from a 3-1 deficit. But then, they became the first team in Finals history to blow a 3-1 lead, falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.
Fed up with the style of basketball the Thunder played, Durant wanted a change. And Nash understood it, going so far as to say that he was being used in the wrong way.
“The more he plays like a point guard or a playmaker, I think the more brilliant he is,” he said, per the Ben Simmons Podcast. “The way they played in Oklahoma City all those years where he had to like go out and hold his man off at 25 feet, catch the ball, face five guys and put the ball on the deck and try to take a tough pull up from 18 or wherever. The less of that and the more of him just getting in a pick and roll, getting off the ball and moving, or getting off a pindown and putting it down, breaking the defense down. That’s where he’s like the best player in the world.”
Thunder played a lot of isolation basketball
The Thunder played a lot of isolation basketball that season — they were the sixth team in the league in isolation points with 9.2 (first were the Los Angeles Clippers with 10.1). The Warriors that season, despite the tremendous individual talent on the roster, were just 14th in the league in isolation points with an average of 7.0.
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Durant looked back on his controversial move and recalled how easy it was to adapt to Steve Kerr’s system, hinting that he had to work much harder for his points in the Thunder jersey.
“It was pretty easy. When James (Harden) got traded, let’s say from 2013 to 2016, I feel like those are the only years where I played point forward in my life,” he said. “The rest of the time, I’m playing off my teammates. I might mix up a little bit, get a rebound and push and make a play.”
“So it was easy to come off pindowns. It’s hard for me to dribble through three or four guys and pull up over two dudes with a fadeaway. Like we said, you want to be efficient, and if you’re playing off your teammates, that’s the easiest way to be efficient. I was getting more backdoor cuts, more transition layups on top of the ISOs, on top of the catch and shoot threes. My scoring game was way more well-rounded. It was easier. Art of the scoring was getting easy buckets and I always knew that, especially in transition,” he concluded.
Perfect fit in Golden State
Looking at the stats, some might conclude that this story doesn’t hold water since Durant scored more in a Thunder jersey and was also very efficient. But the point is how he got those points.
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The Warriors ran their well-known offense with lots of motion, passing and creating advantages. As a result, the superstar forward had to exert less energy with dribbling through isolations or playing with his back to the basket.
Ultimately, Durant won the only two rings of his career in a Warriors jersey, despite having played for several stacked teams throughout his career. That alone proves that their brand of basketball fit him perfectly.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 4, 2025, where it first appeared.