Ex-Warriors Teammate Feels Kevin Durant Is Unfairly Blamed For Suns' And Nets' Failures To Create Superteams

It is increasingly becoming evident since the end of the 2024-25 regular season that Kevin Durant has probably played his last game in a Phoenix Suns jersey. Reports of his potential trade have plagued the media since last season, however, concrete reports from reliable NBA insiders make it clear that Durant and the Suns seem serious about his move this offseason.  

His former teammate from the Warriors, DeMarcus Cousins, recently made a guest appearance on FanDuel's Run It Back Show, where he claimed that Durant had become a sort of scapegoat for the teams that failed to capitalize on his prime years, like the Nets and Suns. He claims those teams did not have a plan on how to use Durant, and since bad cultures in a team are not a single person's fault, Durant is unfairly taking the blame for failed superteams on his shoulders.

“Kevin Durant, even at this big age, he’s still a very, very, very good player. I think any team that he goes to that actually has a plan, because I don’t think Phoenix had a plan, and I don’t like that Kevin Durant gets a lot of blame for this. I don’t think Phoenix had a plan, it never made sense in the first place.”

“One thing that bothers me with today’s NBA is where they just put these superstar names together and think, ‘Ah! We got all this talent, we’re supposed to win, we’re a championship team’. They’ve got to wait from the foundation to actually put the team together, and what I mean by team is pieces that actually complement each other.”

“I think that’s why we have the result of what we’re going to see in the Finals. Two teams, two teams where guys all complement each other on both sides, with the Pacers and also OKC. Obviously, with a guy like KD, if he gets to the right situation, he’s right back as one of those top guys competing for a championship.”  

Cousins went on to claim that Durant would instantly impact teams like the Spurs and the Rockets, even the Heat, if they chose to trade for Durant would instantly become championship contenders. 

Durant has been part of three superteams since leaving the Thunder. He had his Warriors superteam with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson from 2016 to 2019. He then moved on to the Nets' superteam with James Harden and Kyrie Irving in 2021-22 and a part of the 2022-23 season. However, this trio was riddled with injuries and only managed to play 16 games together, going 13-3 in that stretch. 

Following this debacle, he was traded to the Suns to play alongside Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. Durant has an 85-60 record with the Suns during his time in Phoenix. They went 33-29 in all games played by Durant this season and 3-17 in games without him. He's still a winning player, but neither of the teams he landed in were winning cultures as franchises. Therefore, it was a mammoth task for Durant to turn it around.  

Durant and Cousins played 26 games together with the Warriors. During that stretch, their record was 20-6. In his limited experience with Durant on the same team and numerous times playing against him, Cousins knows what Durant can do in today's NBA.