When Kevin Durant shocked the basketball world by joining the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA offseason, the debate wasn’t if he’d fit in with his new team — it was how.
Amid all the noise, only the “Slim Reaper” himself could bring clarity, and he did, speaking exclusively to “The Vertical” in July 2016.
Missing piece
Many casual NBA fans might assume that simply assembling the five best players — like in a GM video game simulation — would automatically guarantee success. In reality, though, it rarely works that way.
Just take the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers or the Brooklyn Nets in the early 2020s, and you’ll see that even superstar-studded teams often struggle to click, some even going to the point of implosion.
For the opposite to happen — to make it all work — besides chemistry, fit is often regarded as one of the key elements. Luckily for Dubs Nation, their team from the 2016–17 season onward had it in spades, and interestingly, Durant himself wasn’t really surprised by that
This rings true because, just weeks after joining the franchise that had gone to the Finals back-to-back, the 6’11 “scoring phenom was already outlining how he would fit in.
Small forward wanted, small forward delivered
The one-time MVP, who left the Oklahoma City Thunder after nine seasons, said that Golden State was missing one key piece in its starting five. Lo and behold, as he pointed out, it was the exact position, small forward, he had excelled in since being the second overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft.
“I’m not coming into a team where a guy is playing my position and we have try to fit in two guys playing the same position,”explained the 2014 MVP, per ESPN. “I’m not coming in trying to play the point guard, trying to play the shooting guard. I’m a small forward. The team didn’t have a small forward when I signed.”
In many ways, it’s hard not to see KD’s explanation as a kind of shield. Arguably, it looked like a preemptive strike aimed at critics who argued that him joining forces with fellow All-Stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green was little more than a shortcut to success.
Maybe it was to stop that narrative in its tracks when The Slim Reaper pointed out that he wasn’t joining a star-studded team, but simply stepping into one with a precise need — one he was quite suited to fill.
What’s also noteworthy is that Golden State did, in fact, have a capable small forward before Durant arrived: Andre Iguodala. The veteran had won the 2015 NBA Finals MVP despite starting only three of the six Finals games and had earned an All-Star nod in 2012 with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Saying the Dubs didn’t have a small forward was, therefore, simply not accurate. A more precise way to put it would have been to say that Golden State Head Coach Steve Kerr was never intent on giving Iguodala consistent starting minutes. Those minutes eventually went to Durant and it paid off handsomely, as the Warriors captured two titles during his three seasons in the Bay.