The Golden State Warriors will return to the court as NBA champions in October and are among the favorites to win in 2023. According to Finals MVP Steph Curry, there was a serious discussion whether to blow the roster up to bring Kevin Durant back to the Bay Area. Durant had submitted a trade request to Nets owner Joe Tsai before deciding to stay with the team.
Curry told Rolling Stone that while he’s happy to run it back with the group he has and “can win it again, as constructed,” he initially wanted to play with Durant again. Apparently, the Warriors discussed what a blockbuster trade could look like.
Via Rolling Stone:
“And if you said, ‘Oh, KD’s coming back, and we’re gonna play with him,’ I had so much fun playing with him those three years, I’d be like, ‘Hell, yeah!’ Then you have to think: What does that actually mean? What does it look like? You tell me I’m playing with (current Warriors teammates Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and Draymond Green), I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah!’ There’s all types of emotion and things that happen to the league. And if anybody’s saying that you wouldn’t entertain that conversation — no disrespect to anybody on our team — but you don’t know how things work. But you also understand, like, if we run this thing back, I’ve got complete confidence in my team that we can win it again, as constructed.
So, all those things were true. And it started with me wanting to play with KD at the beginning. Yeah, it’s about winning, it’s about having fun, playing the game of basketball.”
