Like the rest of his Olympic teammates, Kevin Durant is busy in London trying to focus on winning a gold medal. Meanwhile, back in the States, a trade has been completed that will shake up the entire landscape of the Western Conference. Dwight Howard is a Laker. That has an obvious affect on Kobe Bryant, but it is also very relevant to Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden — Kobe’s US Olympic teammates.
When asked about the trade on Friday, Durant seemed disinterested.
“Nah, I really don’t care,” he said according to Bruce Arthur of the National Post.
Harden also indicated that the news didn’t faze him.
“It doesn’t change much,” he said. “Was I surprised? No. Big market. Lakers always do a great job of getting great players. Doesn’t take away from us at all.”
As Howard told us with his fantastic impersonation of Kobe, he has had at least one conversation with his new teammate. Durant and company are focused on Olympic basketball at the moment as they should be, but there’s no way they can convince us that the Lakers adding both Steve Nash and Howard “doesn’t change much.” Oklahoma City is still the defending Western Conference champions and should be considered the team to beat until we see the chemistry of the new Big Three, but the road to the NBA Finals has gotten much tougher this offseason.
H/T Eye on Basketball
Photo credit: Beto Duran
