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Kevin Durant leaving Golden State for Brooklyn through sign-and-trade in 2019 is an simply forgotten element, however an important one which fully modified the trajectory of the Warriors, as ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami have each detailed in latest write-ups.
By agreeing to hitch the Nets in a sign-and-trade fairly than as a free agent, Durant allowed the Warriors to amass D’Angelo Russell from Brooklyn. As Shelburne factors out in her piece, Durant had no incentive to assist the Warriors get one thing in return for him. However the goodwill the Warriors constructed with Durant ultimately bought him over the road.
The catch for Golden State was they needed to commerce Andre Iguodala to shed wage and make the deal work (they have been in a position to get him again as a free agent final offseason, albeit an older and fewer affective model of him).
The Warriors knew Russell wasn’t a really perfect match, however buying him was all about recouping as a lot expertise as doable following Durant’s departure. They knew they may all the time commerce him, and that’s precisely what they did 33 video games into Russell’s Golden State tenure once they despatched him to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins and a future first-round decide, which turned Jonathan Kuminga.
Now the Warriors are in an enviable place the place they nonetheless have their unique championship core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Inexperienced, in addition to a bunch of contemporary expertise, that includes Wiggins (who remains to be young-ish at 27), Kuminga, Jordan Poole and James Wiseman, assuming he can bounce again from damage.
And Durant made all of it doable with that sign-and-trade settlement. By throwing Golden State a bone on his manner out the door, he inadvertently enabled his previous workforce’s return to the Finals, and now he’s watching them play for the Larry O’Brien trophy from dwelling.
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