“Team With a Player That’s Better Than Him”: Paul Pierce Narrows Down Teams That Can Help Kevin Durant Win a Championship

There are few things that are certain in today’s NBA. This is a league that constantly surprises its fans, from the Lakers acquiring Luka Doncic, to the Dallas Mavericks winning the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes, to the Indiana Pacers going on a storybook run to Game 7 of the Finals.

Not much is certain, but Kevin Durant getting traded this offseason is one thing that is. There’s not a chance in the world that KD stays in Phoenix, the only question is where will he end up?

That’s a question that Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce tackled on the latest episode of KG Certified, and their answers differ from the usual suspects that have been thrown around such as Houston and San Antonio.

“I think that KD needs to play on a team with a player that’s better than him,” Pierce said, “for them to win a championship, for him to win another title. And there’s only like two or three teams: Milwaukee with Giannis, OKC with Shai.”

Pierce and Garnett batted around the idea of a KD return to the Thunder, but given the blowback he received when he went to a loaded Warriors team in 2016, that reunion seems extremely unlikely, even though the Thunder do have the assets to make it happen.

The Milwaukee idea is an interesting one, and a sharp turn from the recent speculation that Giannis could be traded to initiate a franchise rebuild. The prevailing sentiment now is that Giannis will stay, so what if the Bucks pivoted and found a way to bring in a proven guy like Durant who, even at 37, could make a big difference?

Damian Lillard is set to miss much of the season after he tore his Achilles in the first round of the playoffs, but if he’s able to return near the end of the season, a trio of Giannis, KD and Dame could do a lot of damage in a wide-open East.

Pierce also suggested Denver as a possible landing spot for Durant, to pair him with three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. That’s another fun possibility to think about, and one that hasn’t really been discussed elsewhere.

Both Pierce and Garnett were confused as to why the Knicks don’t seem to be interested in KD’s services. Sure, he spurned them for the Nets in 2019, but that was a long time ago. The Knicks were on the doorstep of reaching their first NBA Finals in more than a quarter-century before coming up just short against the Pacers. Adding KD’s scoring could put them over the top.

Pierce said, “I don’t like him on New York,” because any trade for Durant would inevitably weaken the Knicks’ already thin depth. That’s true of just about any team that might try to acquire him though, because it’s not every day that a future Hall-of-Famer is available.

Unless the Suns are OK with getting nothing but draft picks, KD is almost surely going to end up on a team that gave up real players to get him. After Memphis traded Desmond Bane to Orlando earlier this week kickstarted the offseason, and the Finals aren’t even over yet. We may not have to wait long to find out who Durant’s fifth team will be.