National Basketball Association

Why the Warriors 'need' Kevin Durant

Published Jul. 7, 2016 7:29 p.m. ET

foxsports

OAKLAND, Calif. — To the rest of the NBA, Kevin Durant's decision to sign with the Warriors likely seems like piling on. Golden State already won an NBA title and set a regular-season wins record with All-Stars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Did they really need to add a career 27-point scorer on top of that?

But Golden State coach Steve Kerr didn't view his recruiting trip to the Hamptons last week as a casual stab at an added luxury.

"I told him — we need you," Kerr said after Durant's introductory press conference here Thursday. "We're not just going to add you for the sake of adding you."

After all, as Kerr told an overflowing crowd of season-ticket holders, corporate VIPs and, yes, media members, "We lost in the Finals. We want to do better. And you can't do any better than adding KD to the current crew."

To head coach Steve Kerr, acquiring Kevin Durant is more than luxury — it's a need.

In his first public appearance since rocking the sports world with his July 4 decision to leave the Thunder, Durant recounted his "organic, authentic" meeting in the Hamptons with Curry, Thompson, Green, Andre Iguodola, Kerr, owner Joe Lacob and GM Bob Myers. He described going to bed the night of July 3 still torn, then waking up at 7 a.m. the next day and telling his family, "I want to go to the Warriors," and the subsequent tears shed in a difficult call to his jilted Oklahoma City friends.

But ultimately, Durant is a basketball junkie, and it's clear that the opportunity to play in the Warriors' fun and uniquely free-wheeling system greatly appealed to him.

"It's safe to say Kevin would fit into any style," Kerr said, "but with the guys that we have already ... I think that was attractive to him to be able to play with Draymond, Steph and Klay because of the way those guys play."

During their short time together, Kerr showed Durant clips of the Warriors' offense and described how he saw the forward fitting in. Durant in turn had questions — most notably, "What happened in the Finals?"

"The last three games [against Cleveland] we stopped scoring at a high rate," Kerr said. "That's why I told him — we need you."

No need to Photoshop anymore — here's how Durant looks in his new gear.

The Curry/Thompson Warriors were known first and foremost for their prolific 3-point shooting, and in Durant they add yet another guy who can hit from outside, a career 38 percent 3-point shooter.

To Kerr, though, he's a 6-9, 240-pound forward who can run and move like a guard — exactly the type of player he prefers for his run-and-gun system.

"Kevin can be a great cutter in our offense and he can play in the post," he said. "What makes us good already is we have as many or more playmakers on the floor as anybody. The game is always easier when you're playing with three or four guys who can really pass, cut and move.

"With the number of shooters we have [with Durant], if we're doing our job, we should have open shots for everybody."

And it's not just the offensive end where Kerr believes Durant to be a fit.

"Nothing in this league is easy," Durant says of the perception he took the easy way out. "There's no shortcuts."

"We had a pretty tough time in the playoffs with Kevin's length and versatility defensively, and of course that's kind of been our calling card as a defense the last couple of years," Kerr said. "The versatility, the ability to switch, Kevin fits perfectly into that style."

Kerr laid out the Xs and Os, but it's clear Durant's new teammates — in particular longtime friend Iguodala — were most persuasive. At one point they left the brass behind for a players-only discussion in another room.

"I wanted to see those guys face to face," Durant said. "I wanted to look Steph in his eyes and ask him how he felt about a guy like me joining this team.

"... Andre was huge," Durant said of his friend. "He spelled it out. He said it would be the most fun you'll have in your life, and the guys all love to play basketball, they love each other, they love the environment. He was just real, man, and I believed him."

Durant knows full well that many are now casting him as a villain for bolting to the team that knocked out his Thunder in the past two Western Conference Finals. He can't control that. But he does take exception to anyone casting his move as the "easier" path to a championship.

Season-ticket holders and other Warriors VIPs were invited to Thursday's press conference-slash-celebration.

"Nothing in this league is easy," he said. "There's no shortcuts. We've still got 82 games to play. It's an adjustment period. I think this is the hardest road because I don't know anybody here. I've never lived in this community, never played for this team, and I took a leap."

He's not going to find much empathy from the rest of the league or sports fans in general. They see a generational superstar joining a ready-made championship contender that will now be expected to dominate not just in 2016-17 but for many years to come.

What Kerr almost nonchalantly describes as a natural marriage of skill and system just happens to be the sport's most seismic player move since LeBron James took his talents to South Beach.

"We think he suits us perfectly," Kerr said, "and the combination of all those guys playing together should be fun to watch."

Unless, of course, you're among the rest of the NBA.