Kevin Durant says Brooklyn had the most decorated roster of his career on paper, but he ultimately gave the edge to his loaded 2018-19 Golden State Warriors squad.
Kevin Durant has weighed in on the best NBA team he has ever played on, and his answer came with an important distinction. During a recent episode of Boardroom Talks, Durant first pointed to the Brooklyn Nets when judging strictly by roster names and career résumés, before ultimately identifying the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors as the strongest team he actually suited up with, as Bleacher Report noted.
Looking only at the talent assembled in Brooklyn, Durant said the Nets stood out because of the number of accomplished veterans on the roster. He cited Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Millsap and Patty Mills, explaining that many of those players had already built extensive individual résumés before joining forces.
Durant contrasted that group with the Warriors team he joined in 2016, when Stephen Curry was already an MVP but Klay Thompson and Draymond Green had not yet accumulated all of the honors they would later earn. “We had the names on that team when you’re just looking at straight paper,” Durant said of Brooklyn, while acknowledging why fans would naturally point to Golden State.
When he moved from roster reputation to overall quality, however, Durant changed the answer. “Obviously the best team I played on was the Warriors,” he said, adding that the 2018-19 group was “crazy” with DeMarcus Cousins at center alongside Curry, Thompson, Green and Durant.
That Warriors team entered the 2019 postseason chasing a third consecutive championship but saw its run derailed by major injuries, including Durant’s ruptured Achilles and Thompson’s torn ACL during the NBA Finals. Golden State ultimately lost the series to the Toronto Raptors in six games, ending Durant’s three-season run with the franchise after two championships and two Finals MVP awards.
Durant’s Brooklyn years remain one of the NBA’s biggest what-if stories. The Nets paired three elite scorers in Durant, Irving and Harden but never reached the conference finals, with injuries and availability issues repeatedly disrupting a roster that looked overwhelming on paper. Durant later moved on to Phoenix and now plays for the Houston Rockets, where he averaged 26.0 points per game during the 2025-26 season.
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