Warriors' Reported Kevin Durant Plan Has One Major Flaw

The Golden State Warriors are reportedly monitoring another superstar, but this time it's one who once said he doesn't want to be a Warrior again.

ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel reported that the Dubs will be ready to pounce on a Kevin Durant trade if the Rockets' season goes haywire.

The Warriors nearly traded for Durant when he was with the Suns at the 2025 trade deadline, but as Siegel wrote, Durant and his business partner Rich Kleiman stopped the deal from happening.

"The main reasons for Durant halting this trade in the middle of the year were due to his search for stability in Phoenix and simply not wanting to relocate at the time," Siegel wrote. "Multiple sources close to the situation have made it clear there is no friction that exists between Durant, [Draymond] Green, [Steve] Kerr, or any other member of the team."

Siegel added that whether Durant would want to return "is the big question there is no answer to."

But there is an answer to it.

Durant Didn't Want to Be a Warrior Again

Durant has been asked about why he killed the Warriors trade a few times, and he's had some version of the politically correct answer each time, which is he didn't want to have his life uprooted midseason.

He's also said he a) didn't like how the Suns and Warriors were scheming about him behind his back (though he has also admitted that he appreciates the Warriors for checking with him before the trade was finalized), b) wanted to play out the rest of the season with his Suns teammates and c) didn't want the Warriors to clean out their assets for him.

There might some truth to all of these reasons, but in October 2025 he had a segment for Netflix's Starting 5 that showed this was more about something he doesn't like about the Warriors specifically.

"'Don't send me to the Warriors.' That's what I was telling them," Durant said. "I know if you got to trade me, like, make it somewhere else but the Warriors. ...

"I didn't want to go back to the storyline, and then I don't want to go and gut the whole team."

Many people have speculated why Durant wouldn't want to return to the Warriors, and among those reasons, some are things I wouldn't want to admit publicly if I were him. It's possible Durant is choosing not to say one or two of those reasons.

Regardless, there's something about the Warriors that made Durant tell the Suns to trade him "somewhere else but the Warriors."

Whatever that is, there's no reason to think it's changed over the last year-and-a-half.

Warriors Are Waiting for a Distressed Asset

The main issue with going after Durant is he'll likely tell the Rockets to trade him anywhere but the Warriors.

But the idea of waiting for a distressed asset isn't a bad strategy.

After all, that's how the Dubs got Jimmy Butler for one low-end first-round pick, Andrew Wiggins and salary filler. Butler had demanded a trade, taking away some of the Heat's leverage.

The question isn't whether that strategy can work. Instead, it's whether the Warriors have time for it.

If they wait until the trade deadline to try to make a move, they might be buried in the standings. If they wait until next offseason, Stephen Curry will be 39. Who knows if the 2026-27 season will be the last one in which he's flirting with being a top-10 player.

And even in the ideal scenario in which a player the Warriors really want becomes a distressed asset in the next year, they could simply be outbid for him.

Waiting on Durant and others to possibly become available has its costs, which is why the Warriors should pay market value in a trade for the right player well before the trade deadline.

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