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Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors looks down between plays.
Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant threw a monkey wrench on the Golden State Warriors‘ ambitious plan to bring him back and re-pair him with Stephen Curry.
Shams Charania of ESPN reported that Durant does not want to go back to Golden State.
“The Warriors have been seriously pursuing Kevin Durant over the last week, but sources tell me that Durant has no desire for a reunion. He does not want to go back to the Warriors,” Charania said on “NBA Today” on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
Charania’s report confirmed what Marc Stein and Jake Fischer earlier reported that there is a “distinct sense percolating now that Durant does not want to be traded at all this week” and that he has “serious reservations about a second Warriors stint if he were to be shipped there.”
This ends the Warriors’ pursuit of Durant, who was the Finals MVP of the Warriors’ title runs in 2017 and 2018.
Chris Haynes subsequently reported that the Warriors “do not want to bring in a disgruntled superstar.”
With less than 24 hours before the NBA trade deadline, the Warriors are running out of options in their search for a top-tier star to pair with Curry, Haynes added.
Warriors Desperate to Land a Star
The Warriors have aggressively pursued big-name stars since last year’s NBA trade deadline from LeBron James to Paul George and Lauri Markkanen last summer. But in those nixed deals, especially in the George and Markkanen pursuits, they were unwilling to go all-in.
But The Athletic report painted the Warriors front office as becoming “increasingly impatient” especially in the wake of their Western Conference rivals Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks executing a stunning swap of their stars Luka Dončić and Anthony Davis.
Jake Fischer also said the same along those lines in “The Stein Line” Substack newsletter on Monday, Feb. 3.
Green all but confirmed this after the Warriors beat the Orlando Magic on Tuesday.
“We all know (Joe Lacob’s) pissed sitting at .500. You’d be a fool to sit back and think everything (is OK). Not with that guy,” Green told reporters. “You gotta expect they’ll be aggressive. Luka Dončić just got traded. So everyone thinks everything possible.”
With dwindling options, what is the Warriors’ next move?
Alder Almo is a basketball journalist covering the NBA for Heavy.com. He has more than 15 years of experience in local and international media, including broadcast, print and digital. He previously covered the Knicks for Empire Sports Media and the NBA for Off the Glass. Alder is from the Philippines and is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey. More about Alder Almo
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