Steph Curry boldly says Celtics are better off without Kevin Durant

Steph Curry thinks the Boston Celtics are better off having not traded for Kevin Durant since they would have had to give up important talent to get him.

Kevin Durant was known to be available for a significant portion of the NBA offseason, yet no team ended up trading for him. Why?

Part of it is leverage, of which the Brooklyn Nets had absolutely none since Durant’s trade request was so public. The other part, though, is roster balance, and Steph Curry brought that tension to light in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, and how it relates to the Boston Celtics‘ rumored interest in Durant.

Steph Curry suggests Celtics will be better off without Kevin Durant

In a profile by Rolling Stone, here’s how they described Curry’s take on the Celtics possibly trading for Durant:

"Of the Boston Celtics, he said, “They have a little bit of everything, but they would have to deal with the organizational transition to get rid of Jaylen [Brown]. He’s such a pivotal piece.… If they would have done that—” Curry broke apart his fingertips in an explosion, and agreed with Snoop that Durant was better off staying with the Nets."

Curry also denounced Durant’s desire to move to the various teams on his wishlist, saying that it wasn’t grounded in reality since those teams would have to change drastically to actually get a deal done.

Roster balance is important, and having to give up several good pieces for one great piece is not always a good move. After all, concentrating so much of your team’s talent into one piece can be a risky bet.

It’s still a bold claim from Curry. Unlike other teams who may have had to give up several players to make a deal happen, the Celtics rumors mainly centered on Jaylen Brown and draft picks. Brown is a quality player, central to the core, but does he get them closer to a title than Durant? Most would say no.

Durant is a proven superstar with 12 All-Star appearances under his belt, a season MVP, two Finals MVPs, and two titles. Brown, as Curry notes, is important on both ends and in multiple dimensions of the game, but he has a lone All-Star appearance and usually isn’t the best player on the floor at any given time. Durant usually is.

At the end of the day, Brown will start the season a Celtic and Durant a Net. Whole lotta nothin’ going on here.