In an interview with Hot 97, Kevin Durant called Kawhi Leonard one of the toughest matchups in the league and picked the LA Clippers as Western Conference favorites.
Kevin Durant may not be seen on the basketball court this season, but the Brooklyn Nets forward won’t let us forget about him. Yesterday, Durant joined Hot 97 to discuss anything and everything NBA related from his season-ending injury to the New York Knicks and their free agency hopes. For us, the most notable quotes surrounded Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers.
Durant, who lives and breathes basketball, was extremely complimentary of Leonard.
"“He got the longest paragraph on the scouting report… …You can’t pull out your whole array of moves on him. I can. But the average player…. It’s still tough for me to pull out all my shit against Kawhi…”"
KD obviously got to experience Leonard firsthand, albeit briefly, in the NBA Finals this season. Leonard tore through the Warriors en route to his second NBA Championship and as many Finals MVP’s.
Since Durant won’t be playing this season, the best small forward in the league race likely will come down to LeBron James and Leonard. Conveniently enough, both play in Los Angeles and will have some epic matchups this season.
With so much shakeup happening this summer, Durant was also asked who he thought would win the Western Conference.
"“I’m only looking at it on paper, they got more talent on the team. But you never know throughout the season”"
He was hesitant after the hosts brought up the Los Angeles Lakers and noted that if the two teams do end up facing each other, that it will be a very tough series. We have already speculated that the Clippers have the deeper roster. Durant, a premiere player in the NBA, along with Brian Windhorst and other NBA executives confirming our bias just helps to drive the point home.
You can view Durant’s whole interview in full above. His compliments of the Clippers come at about 30:09 and his Leonard praise follows at 30:30.
While we won’t see KD playing this season, I for one definitely look forward to his ongoing commentary and hope to see him popping up more to talk hoops as the 2019-20 season gets underway. Speaking of, make sure to keep checking back here for all your LA Clippers news and rumors!