Andre Iguodala on Kevin Durant: He should stay in Brooklyn

Another reason why Durant should stay according to Iguodala is the length of the contract the 12-time NBA All-Star Durant is still on with the Nets. “This is a situation where it’s either, look, man just come out here and play or don’t play because you got 4 years, 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,” added Iguodala. -via BasketNews / August 15, 2022

But that last available guaranteed spot is being held for Andre Iguodala, who has yet to decide whether he will retire or return. As the calendar flips to August, the Warriors still aren’t rushing any decision. “I leave Andre alone,” Kerr said. “He knows where we stand. If he wants to come back, we’d love to have him. The one thing we feel strongly about with Andre is we want to give him whatever space and time he needs to make a decision. I’m leaving him alone. Whenever he makes his decision is fine with us.” -via The Athletic / August 3, 2022

Before his $500,000 fine for describing the NBA’s current luxury tax system as “incredibly penal” and “very unfair” on the Point Forward Podcast hosted by Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner, Warriors owner Joe Lacob made the argument directly to fellow team owners at the recent Board of Governors session during summer league in Las Vegas that tax penalties should be reduced when teams re-sign players they drafted, league sources say. Three of Golden State’s four highest-paid players (Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green) are Warriors draftees who have only played for one team. Because of the “repeater tax,” Golden State was charged $170 million in luxury tax alone last season and thus spent more than $340 million in salary and tax in winning the club’s fourth championship in eight seasons. Boston, beaten by the Warriors in six games in the NBA Finals, spent nearly $140 million in salary and tax in 2021-22. -via marcstein.substack.com / July 22, 2022

During summer league in Las Vegas, one of the most well-connected team executives I speak to regularly insisted to me that, based on what he was hearing, Kevin Durant was more apt to retire than play again for the Brooklyn Nets. This was in early July. -via marcstein.substack.com / August 15, 2022

I told the tipster that I simply couldn’t believe that. I was a loyal subscriber to the theory that Durant The Hooper loves playing basketball way too much to adopt such a stance. Now? More than a month later? Attaching the R-word to Durant still comes across as serious hyperbole, but it is certainly getting easier to envision him refusing to report to training camp when the Nets get back together in six weeks for Media Day (Sept. 26) and their first practices of the new season (Sept. 27). -via marcstein.substack.com / August 15, 2022