The Warriors pursued a reunion with Suns star Kevin Durant ahead of the 2025 NBA trade deadline, per multiple insiders, but pulled out of trade talks after Durant expressed his unwillingness to return to the Bay Area.
The nixed trade notwithstanding, NBA legend Kevin Garnett still expects a Durant-Warriors reunion to happen during the 2025 offseason. The former MVP made the prediction on his “KG Certified” podcast when told of the nixed trade.
“So, that [trade] ain’t gonna happen during the year, it’s gonna happen this summer,” Garnett said of a Warriors-Durant reunion. “Because guess what? If the Phoenix Suns don’t do [expletive] — if they don’t make any noise in the playoffs — I think a lot of moves are going down. If Luka [Doncic] can get traded, everybody’s got a target.”
Why KD Rejected Reunion With Warriors?
Earlier in the podcast, Garnett speculated that Durant didn’t want to be “an inconvenience” to himself and his family by accepting a midseason trade to the Warriors. However, his podcast co-host Matt Barnes disagreed with the take.
Barnes — who won a championship with Durant, Stephen Curry and the Warriors in 2018 — felt Durant had yet to fully repair relationships in Golden State.
“It looked like there could still be some hard feelings over there [between Durant and Golden State],” Barnes said. “Because if we’re thinking the big picture, KD over there, gives them a chance [to win a championship]. When I hear KD wanted to go back, I’m like, ‘Damn, KD goes back there, they’re cracking.’ Then when I heard, he didn’t want to, this has to be deeper than.
“…KD picks himself up and goes. It’s not like kids are in school and that kind of [expective],” Barnes added. “It had to be deeper than relocation for that paper. Because on paper and in a basketball sense, reunite Steph and KD? [Expective] yeah.”
The Reunion Nearly Happened…
According to multiple insiders, the Warriors were close to a three-team deal that would sent Durant to Golden State, Jimmy Butler to the Suns and Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga to the Heat. However, Durant nixed the deal when he became aware of it, per veteran insider Andscape’s Marc J. Spears.
“I was told that a couple days ago, when Kevin heard about this Warriors rumbling, he was like ‘What? No, I don’t want to go back there’ and was pretty adamant,” Spears said on the February 5 episode of “NBA Today” on ESPN. “He approached the Suns to get some clarity on it and ‘Can you work with me to find a place somewhere else?’ From what I hear right now, I just got a text that it’s dead … like [the Warriors] are moving on it sounds like.”
Durant won two championships with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018, capturing the NBA Finals MVP award on both occasions. He would depart for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019 after suffering a career-threatening Achilles injury in the 2019 NBA Finals against the Raptors. The Warriors won another championship in 2022 without Durant, who hasn’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs since his departure from San Francisco.
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