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This is to piggyback off of James’ post. Y’all know how I feel about KD. Great one-on-one scorer, horrible leader and teammate, negative locker room presence, and I’d rather have just about anyone else on my favorite team. Many of you are a little more nebulus on KD. Yet the fact remains, the team was no better and went no further with Durant in the lineup than they did without him.
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In addition, a recent report by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon cites Durant as the source of Houston’s obvious locker room issues last year. It was referred to as “turmoil”. Here’s what MacMahon said:
“There were issues of connectivity in the Rockets’ locker room. [Fred] VanVleet directly and significantly impacts both of those issues,” said Tim MacMahon. “Kevin Durant was part of both of those problems. I would say you could even say Kevin Durant was at the top of the list of both of those problems. At the same time, KD was kind of thrust into — I’m not going to say unfair — but a position that didn’t play to his strengths, having to be the primary initiator down the stretch of games, having to be the default leader, the guy most responsible for the mood of the locker room. Those don’t play to his strengths. Those do play to Fred VanVleet’s strengths, and kind of take those burdens off of KD’s shoulders this year.”
If things go south this season or even don’t improve, we all know KD could easily want out. He has a player options next season, so he could opt out and the Rockets lose him for nothing. In that scenario, they would need to trade him by this year’s deadline to avoid losing him for zilch.
So what do you guys think? Do they trade KD at this year’s deadline?
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Cast your vote, tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with the results.
