Kevin Durant Q&A Part II
As promised, here is part two of the Q & A with Kevin Durant. In this installment, Durant shares his thoughts on tonight’s NBA Draft, upcoming contract extensions for himself and Jeff Green and why it was tough for him to watch the NBA Finals. Enjoy.
Q: How do you view this draft? Anybody you see that you’d love to have as a new teammate?
A: Since I’ve been in the league, this is the first time that we haven’t had a top five pick. So I really don’t know who to expect is going to be down there at 21. I’m not a front office guy, but I guess whoever is the best available is who we should take. I don’t know. You never know what’s going to happen with the first 20 picks. But I like some players. There’s a couple of guys. Gordon Hayward, I hear he’s a guy that could be a good small forward for us. Bigs, Daniel Orton, Larry Sanders, guys like that could help us out as well. We have a good core of guys and whoever we pick is going to come in an jell with us right away.
Q: I’ve got two names for you. At 21, Damion James. At 26, Dexter Pittman.
A: That would be perfect. That would be perfect for me. Those two guys have had great careers at Texas. They really deserve to be picked in this draft. We’ll see what happens. Those two would be perfect fits for us.
Q: Now that you’ve had some time to reflect on last season and what you guys accomplished, is there anything that you’ve taken away from last year that you can use going into next season.
A: I took a look back. It was disappointing for me to watch the Finals, knowing that we had a chance to beat the Lakers and advance. But that doesn’t take away from the year that we had. We had such a fun year. A lot of people didn’t think we’d get to the playoffs and wing 50 games. But we proved people wrong and that felt good. But at the same time, we wanted to win when we got there. That was a little disappointing. It kind of feels like we expected to win the championship. For example, if the Lakers would have lost their season would have been a failure even though they won 57 games. That’s how I kind of felt. I don’t know if that’s the right feelings or what but that’s how I felt. I guess that’s just my competitive nature. But looking back on it, it was a fun year, a lot of guys got better and I’m looking forward to coming back.
Q: People are already considering this Lakers team the team to beat next year. But knowing that you guys took them six games, almost seven, do you look at that and gain more confidence as a team that is now ready to compete at another level?
A: I think so. A lot of people think we got a chance to fight for another playoff spot first off and give whoever we play some problems. We just got to prove that we can do that. It’s all about coming into training camp with that mindset that we did last year. And I think we’ll do that. We’re looking forward to just taking it a day at a time, seeing who we get on Thursday in the draft. I think that’s going to be key for us. And then just moving forward with summer league and working out together once we get back to OKC. I can’t wait to get back to OKC after my camp in Chicago to workout with the guys and move forward.
Q: What are you expecting midnight on July 1?
A: I’m expecting to get something done. Hopefully I’ll have a deal done and something set. But you never know what can happen. So we’ll see what happens. I’m looking forward to that day.
Q: Are you starting to get excited for your situation and anticipate it more now that we’re within two weeks?
A: Yeah I am. It’s something that kind of shows you made your name in this league. That’s one thing that is kind of personal to me because I’ve worked so hard. Hopefully it gets done. I’m looking forward to that day.
Q: How important is it for Jeff Green’s contract to get ironed out this summer without complication?
A: It’s going to be important. Jeff is a real key part to our team. I really want him to stay. That’s like my brother. I don’t want him to leave. We’ve been so good together, everybody, me, him, Russ, James, Nenad, Thabo. I don’t want to see anything break up over non-basketball-related things. It’s going to be a tough summer for everybody, not just our team but everybody. But I think we’ll stick together.
Q: Jeff’s name has reportedly come up in trade talks by teams looking to acquire him this summer. Would that be disheartening for you if he is not on this team next year?
A: Yeah, it will be. But I know this is the business of the game and I’m not even going to think that far. But I haven’t had any trade rumors. Hopefully they’re just rumors.
Q: Tell me about the camp that you have coming up here.
A: It’s June 30, the second year that we got this going. Hopefully it’s better than last year. So we’ll see.
-DM-
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
[...] Mayberry had a good Q&A with Durant: “Q: How important is it for Jeff Green’s contract to get ironed out this summer without complication? A: It’s going to be important. Jeff is a real key part to our team. I really want him to stay. That’s like my brother. I don’t want him to leave. We’ve been so good together, everybody, me, him, Russ, James, Nenad, Thabo. I don’t want to see anything break up over non-basketball-related things. It’s going to be a tough summer for everybody, not just our team but everybody. But I think we’ll stick together.” [...]