Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant formed a terrifying partnership on the Warriors for a few years. Yet, the Chiefs admitted in an interview that he had serious concerns about their success, especially after their first steps together…
If Stephen Curry had to remember just one teammate from his Warriors career, it would certainly be Klay Thompson, with whom he formed the Splash Brothers. But Kevin Durant is without a doubt the best player the point guard ever played with. You only have to look at the duo’s insane success between 2016 and 2019 to realize how crazy Golden State was at that time.
Three Finals appearances in as many years with a back-to-back and two Finals MVP titles for the Slim Reaper: it goes without saying that his highly controversial departure from OKC had paid off. But things weren’t going perfectly from the start, as the number 30 revealed on the Knuckleheads podcast in February 2022. Tactically, Durantula’s arrival did indeed involve major upheavals:
Stephen Curry’s doubts about Kevin Durant’s integration
From the first game of the season until the Christmas Day game, it wasn’t a pretty sight. Our record was solid, but it wasn’t where it should have been. Maybe I internalized that as a point guard and as a guy who felt like he had to get everyone involved, there’s a little bit of insecurity, “There’s so much talent. Is this going to work?”
I started counting the shots, thinking, “Okay, he’s going to get 20. He’s going to get 19… How are we going to do this?”
Besides the Chief and KD, there was also the matter of giving Klay Thompson enough balls to shoot from behind the arc, and even Draymond Green enough to act as the offensive mastermind. That’s a real headache, even for a genius like Steve Kerr.
As history has shown, however, the Dubs quickly found the right formula, resulting in one of the most incredible steamrollers we’ve ever seen in over 75 years of the NBA. Led by their two elite scorers, they simply steamrolled the league for three years, and if not for a cascade of injuries during the 2019 Finals, Curry and Durant might have achieved a resounding three-peat.Stephen Curry was extremely apprehensive about the debut of his duo with Kevin Durant, if only because it involved major tactical changes. However, his doubts were ultimately dispelled after just a few weeks.
