Kevin Durant Must Leave The Warriors, Pippen Explains Why

Kevin Durant is arguably among the top three players in the NBA at the moment along with LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard, while Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry are also likely to be contenders.

The small forward is a two-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors and has also picked up the NBA Finals MVP on both the occasions he has played in the summit clash.

Durant continues to get hate for ditching Oklahoma City Thunder and joining Stephen Curry’s bandwagon in Oakland and that is unlikely to ever stop. He continues to be questioned about his decision to join a winning team rather than try to build a championship winning team.

The forward, however, has held his own since joining the Warriors and played a key role in them winning back-to-back NBA titles. The Bay Area team are again favored to win the championship in 2019 and it could put Durant in contention to be named among the greatest to play the game.

Durant is already among the elite in terms of average points scored per game during the course of the season. He currently sits in fifth place with 27.14 points per game, which is 0.01 behind fourth-placed LeBron James and three points behind leader Michael Jordan.

And Jordan’s former Chicago Bulls teammate Scotty Pippen feels that Durant could go on to become “the greatest player” or at least the greatest scorer to ever play the game. But he insists that he will have to leave the Warriors to achieve that status.

Pippen is concerned that Durant will not be able to fulfill his true potential by playing with arguably two of the greatest shooters the NBA has seen, namely, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The duo are top of the season average three-pointers made per game.

Curry held the record for most three-pointers made in a game – 13 – until recently when it was broken by teammate Thompson, who went one better. And the former Bulls forward feels Durant is in ”chill mode” as he does not have to carry the shooting burden due to the aforementioned duo’s presence.

“KD could be remembered as the greatest player, the greatest scorer to ever play the game,” Pippen said talking about Durant, as quoted by the Express.

“But because he’s playing with two of the greatest shooters to ever play the game, he’s on chill mode. That’s crazy,” he added referring to Curry and Thompson.

“Nobody can stop this guy. He’s six foot 11, he can shoot over anyone, he can get a shot off at any time. He’s a defender. But he’s such an unselfish player and he plays the game the right way.

“He went into a situation where he hasn’t stepped on anybody’s toes,” the former Bulls forward explained talking about Durant’s controversial move to the Warriors in 2016. “He hasn’t gone there to try to be the league’s leading scorer -- which, we all know, he can.”

“And he’s just in chill mode. He is gonna be a guy that could have averaged 35, 40 points in this league – and he’s accepting winning overall. Nothing individual. It’s about the team.”