Report: Warriors exploring feasibility of reuniting with Kevin Durant

Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant’s time playing for the Golden State Warriors was brief, as he spent just three full seasons with the team before he signed with the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2019. But his stint in Golden State was still very memorable.

Durant was fortunate to be part of some of the more dominant teams in recent memory while playing alongside the likes of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Golden State won back-to-back titles in Durant’s first two seasons with the team in 2017 and 2018, and no NBA team has repeated since then. The Warriors also finished with the best record in one playoff run in league history when they went 16-1 in the 2017 NBA Playoffs.

Years removed from Durant’s last game played in a Warriors jersey, Golden State is allegedly investigating the feasibility of bringing him back to the team.

“The Warriors, as Marc Stein reported, did not move forward with their own conversations regarding Chicago’s Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević this weekend, sources said, as Golden State continued to deliberate over the pursuit for Jimmy Butler and — wait for it — exploring the feasibility of reuniting Kevin Durant with Stephen Curry,” Jake Fischer wrote.

Folks within the Warriors organization are also supposedly tossing around the idea of finding a way to bring both Durant and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James to Golden State, though that would be very difficult to pull off from a logistical standpoint.

“Sources say the most ambitious idea being tossed around among Golden State’s decision-makers: Is there any feasible pathway for the Warriors to pull off the dreamiest of outcomes and find a way to bring both James and Durant to The Bay?” Fischer wrote.

“That would require quite the masterstroke. And while pulling that off currently stands as very unlikely, both from a salary-matching and asset valuation standpoint, this is the sort of big-game hunting that has defined these Warriors. From their original Durant free agency thunderbolt in 2016 … to last trade deadline’s inquiries about James … to this past offseason’s aggressive pursuits of both Paul George and Lauri Markkanen and, at times, trying to acquire both of them.

“The path to Durant alone does seem plausible. Phoenix, entering Monday’s business, continued to signal that it does not plan to move Durant before the deadline, sources said, but the Suns are believed to be listening at the very least to various teams’ pitches for the 35-year-old scoring legend. Durant, meanwhile, is said to be aware of all this.”

There have been multiple blockbuster trades that have happened in recent days. Namely, the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers in a three-team deal that also sent two-way star Anthony Davis to the reigning Western Conference champions.

Additionally, former Sacramento Kings star floor general De’Aaron Fox has been traded to the San Antonio Spurs to team up with Victor Wembanyama. Additionally, the Kings obtained Zach LaVine in that trade (via Chicago), and he and DeMar DeRozan are teammates once again. They previously played alongside one another on the Chicago Bulls.

However, Golden State doesn’t have enough time before the trade deadline to just play the waiting game and hope that an ideal offer falls on its lap. The Feb. 6 deadline is mere days away after all.

Even if Thompson is now with the Mavericks and Curry and Green maybe aren’t the players they were when they were teammates with Durant, a trio of Durant, Green and Curry could still potentially make some noise in the Western Conference.