As the drama between Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets continues to leak late into the summer, Warriors forward Andre Iguodala shared his bold take on the situation.
“I think he should stay in Brooklyn,” Iguodala said on Friday’s episode of the Point Forward podcast. “It's such a big market; it's good for the game. Just figure it out; make it work. Everybody grow up and make it work."
Durant reportedly requested a trade from Brooklyn just hours before free agency opened June 30. Over the last six weeks, Durant named a few favored trade destinations and was even interested in reuniting with the Warriors, per reports. He reportedly has since asked the Nets to fire coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks.
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Durant has four years remaining on his contract and won’t become an unrestricted free agent until after the 2025-26 season when he will be 37 years old.
“He is in a situation where it's either, look man, just come out here and play, or don't play because you got four years,” Iguodala said. “We got you for a while, so it's not like you're on an expiring contract, and then you can just take off a year and we just give up a year."
On Monday, ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported that there isn't an urgency in trade talks, and Brooklyn denied Durant's request to part ways with Nash and Marks.
"I think what we have here is really a study of leverage," Windhorst said on ESPN's "Get Up!" on Monday morning. "First off, the Nets do not have leverage in trade talks with other teams. They are not giving them the offers that they want. They see no reason to increase them. And so they're not making any progress there. And Kevin Durant clearly does not have leverage with the Brooklyn Nets. He is asking for things: 'Get me traded. Fire the coach. Fire the GM.' He is being told no. So when you have denied leverage, you have a stalemate. So here we are in mid-August, we might be here at the end of August, and we might be here in mid-September."
Golden State Warriors
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Evan Turner, the co-host on the Point Forward podcast, argued on Durant’s behalf that the Nets should listen to the superstar’s demands, considering his partnership with Kyrie Irving has gone haywire. But Iguodala -- a former teammate of Durant -- wants to see the star's leadership shine and work past the Nets' shortcomings of just one playoff series win the past two seasons.
"I really want him to take on that -- ‘Alright, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do. Let’s bunker down together as a group.’ “