Passerby or superstar? The last chance of 36-year-old Adu!

"You have a historical record of 73 wins and 9 losses, but they were reversed by the Cavaliers under a 3-1 lead in the finals. If Durant did not join, you would be remembered by fans in another way. It was Durant's arrival that truly consolidated your dynasty status and allowed you to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a member of the dynasty."

This is what the smiling assassin Thomas said to the Warriors Green on the podcast show.

Thomas is right. With the record of that year, the Warriors performed an epic regular season performance, with 73 wins breaking the league's historical record, and even staged a 1-3 desperation turnaround in the playoffs. But I didn't expect that the Boomerang came so quickly that in the finals, the Warriors were reversed 3-1 with an absolute advantage. After

, many ridicule from the outside world flocked to him. After achieving such an impeccable result, he missed three match points opportunities in succession. But what is even more unexpected is that Durant, who was turned over by the Warriors in the offseason of the year, chose to join the Warriors who eliminated him, which directly shocked the entire league.

The 73-win Warriors who already have the championship strength, plus a MVP-level Durant, can be regarded as the finale for the NBA. In the end, the Warriors completed two consecutive championships, and Durant successfully won two FMVP trophys. If it weren't for the injury in 2019, Durant and the Warriors would have a chance to challenge the three consecutive championships.

The seemingly honorable moment became Thomas' confidence to question Green. Durant's joining did cause major changes in the league's territory at that time, not only helped the Warriors establish a dynasty, but also allowed the original parent team Thunder to retreat several years to win the championship.

Since that transfer, every rumor of Adu's departure has always stirred up the hearts of the league team, because his top combat power can still have a huge impact on the league structure even after suffering a serious injury.

No surprise, Durant is the one who wants to win, but he always becomes the starting point for others to change

"Nothing is my fault, you can't find anything that can blame me."

Durant has always been keen on the Internet with fans. This summer, he mentioned his past in a mutual spray. And that sentence well depicts his trajectory after leaving the Warriors.

In the 2019 Finals, Durant played with an injury when the team was at a disadvantage. This risky decision ultimately cost him the price of a ruptured Achilles tendon, and then chose to switch to the Nets. Even with devastating injuries, Adu still showed strong performance after recovering. Although the attendance efficiency is not as good as before, the offensive threat is still top-notch. When the team falls into offensive stagnation, he can always be the most reliable breaking point.

Thanks to Adu's joining, the Nets immediately found Irving and Harden to form the three giants, hoping to realize their dream of winning. But the sudden outbreak of the epidemic directly caused this seemingly perfect blueprint to collapse quickly. But this will not completely collapse. In the 2021 playoffs, Adu still showed his dominance. If it weren't for the last goal of the series against the Bucks, they might have really had a chance to win the championship.

The subsequent story completely changed. Irving's personal position prevented him from playing, which immediately made Harden feel dissatisfied and asked to leave the team. Simmons, who was expected, still seems like an optional choice. After head coach Nash resigned, the substitute came to Accord Vaughan, who had no coaching experience. Under the turmoil at the top and internal conflicts of the team, Adu once again applied for a deal to go to the Suns.

Borrowing the above words, Adu wants to win, and he wants to prove himself again after leaving the Warriors. It is never a secret.

"If Durant didn't come to the Warriors, he wouldn't win the championship, because I couldn't think of where he could win the championship."

This sentence was Green's counterattack against Thomas, and this is also the shackles that Durant has always wanted to get rid of.

In the late stage of the Warriors, Durant and Green had a fierce conflict, and the sentence "We were already the champion before you came" was also considered by the outside world to crush the four Warriors. Since then, Adu has been trying to prove that even if he leaves the Warriors, he is still able to lead the team to win the championship.

At present, Durant is indeed a top scorer. Even if he experiences injuries and age problems, he can still make a breakthrough at critical moments. But the reality is that it is already difficult for him to maintain a high-intensity offensive mode throughout the game. When the Warriors won the championship again without him, Durant could only play the main attacker in other teams who was unable to lead the team to win, and this gap directly magnifies the contrast from the outside world.

Although the Suns made it to the finals in 2021, it seems that they are only one piece of the puzzle to win the championship, they paid a huge price to get Durant, and in the end they were a four-way team with full offensive firepower but obviously imbalanced rotation depth. To some extent, this also brought Durant into a familiar circular script again.

Last season, 36-year-old Durant played extremely efficient offensive performance, with a 43% three-point shooting percentage being the second highest in his career, and an effective shooting percentage of 59.8% being the third highest in his career. Such achievements are particularly difficult when they have suffered major injuries and are generally believed by the outside world to decline with age.

But compared with Durant's personal performance, the Suns' team's performance is getting worse and worse. In the three seasons he joined, from the playoffs to the playoffs, Durant has clearly performed efficiently, but the team is getting further and further away from the championship, which has also made Durant, who is about to leave the team again, and the team also intends to use his surplus value to exchange for the team to rebuild assets.

When the finals were in full swing, the Suns suddenly announced a deal, sending Adu to the Rockets in exchange for Jaylen Green and Dillon, with five second rounds in 2025 No. 10 pick in 2025 and 2028.

The transaction was completed, which immediately sparked heated discussions in the league. Many people believe that the Suns belong to the loser and that they were unable to exchange the Rockets for high-potential wings, which made it difficult to recover the already imbalanced lineup. Instead, it was exchanged for defender Jaylen Green, which made the team's back line crowded.

The Sun originally hoped to resolve Durant's deal as soon as possible, but in the end, not only did it not get out of the trap, but it ended up in a cocoon. After the Rockets won Durant, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone did not show excitement. He just said lightly that he was looking forward to Durant bringing new chemistry to the team.

The Rockets performed very well last season, winning second in the West with 52 wins, the record for the most wins in a single season since the era of Harden and D'Antoni. Coincidentally, these two highlight seasons ended with a loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Referring to this year's playoffs, facing the Warriors' high-level defense line, the Rockets have repeatedly exposed shortcomings on the offensive end; the outside line lacks stable singles scoring points, and the overall offensive firepower is difficult to continue. In the end, facing the experienced Warriors, they were defeated after seven games of bloody battle. And strengthening Adu in the offseason is to make up for this offensive gap.

For Adu, his offensive ability is unquestionable, and the Rockets already have front and inside resources, which is enough to cover up the hidden dangers of Adu's defensive decline due to his age. After all, due to the imbalance in the lineup structure during the Suns, Adu was often forced to take over the center position and assumed the responsibility of protecting the frame for a long time, which not only intensified his game load, but also affected his offensive physical strength and offensive shooting choices at critical moments.

It is expected that Adu's mission in the Rockets will be significantly simplified. In regular time, he is the team's high-speed turret for offense without the ball, and once the team enters the scoring dilemma, he is the sharpest sickle. The only question is whether Adu can be the key to the young team's top. After all, after a year of running-in, the Thunder will only be stronger, and strong teams such as the Nuggets have also begun to return to the ranks of favorites to win the championship after strengthening the offseason. Although it is not small, for Durant at the moment, this may be his last chance to prove himself.

From the Warriors, Nets, Suns, to the Rockets today, Adu has always been with the team's expectations, but at the same time he is also carrying doubts. Whether he can prove that he is not just a passerby in the dynasty is a very important question. Or maybe, at this stage, the answer is no longer so important to Durant.