National Basketball Association

Kevin Durant: 'Our players aren't as good as ... they were before'

Published Feb. 19, 2015 9:47 a.m. ET

foxsports

Well, at least now we know how Kevin Durant feels about the Thunder trading James Harden. In a recent interview with GQ, Durant had some interesting comments about the Thunder's transactions over the years and his current situation, including this gem:

"You gotta do your job, and you gotta trust that the front office is going to do their job. It's hard, though. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like, sh*t, I want (to) win. Obviously our players aren't as good as, you know, than they were before. But you have to figure it out."

While Durant's comments are a bit surprising, insofar as he kind of throws his teammates under the bus, it's not as if he's completely wrong. Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and Andre Roberson have all developed nicely, but the Thunder have never been able to replace Harden's scoring and creativity off the bench, despite numerous attempts in the form of Reggie Jackson, Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and, most recently, Dion Waiters.

After the GQ article was published, Durant clarified his remarks, saying he "never wanted to slight my teammates or anybody here."

Here's Kevin Durant talking about his quote in GQ about the Thunder's players not being as good as before: pic.twitter.com/NLeNKtxeW6
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) February 18, 2015