Kevin Durant playoff record since leaving Warriors: Inside NBA star's disappointments with Nets, Suns, Rockets originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Throughout his entire career, Kevin Durant has been one of the NBA's best scorers and overall players. That hasn't changed over 18 years. But Durant's level of team success certainly has.
In Oklahoma City, he was regularly leading the Thunder on deep playoff runs as a rising star and MVP. In Golden State, he was one of many stars on a dynastic squad, winning two Finals MVPs with his dominance. But in the years since, fans haven't gotten to see Durant on the NBA's biggest stages.
The now-37-year-old is now well-removed from his Warriors years, but despite his individual excellence, Durant's teams have continually come up short in the playoffs.
Here's a look at Durant's playoff history since leaving Golden State.
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After returning from injury for the 2019 NBA Finals, then tearing his Achilles in Game 5 of the series against the Raptors, Durant became a free agent the following offseason. Even with the knowledge that he likely wouldn't play in the 2019-20 season due to his injury recovery, he decided to leave Golden State after three seasons, with two championships and another Finals appearance.
Durant announced on June 30, 2019, that he planned to sign with the Brooklyn Nets alongside Kyrie Irving, with the two making a new star duo in the Eastern Conference.
Durant did miss the entire 2019-20 season due to his injury, while Irving also spent most of that season injured, but the two returned to the floor in 2020-21 as teammates on the floor for the first time.
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Since he left Golden State in 2019, Durant's teams have made the playoffs five times in six years, not including his injured 2019-20 season in Brooklyn.
Of those playoff trips between the Nets, Suns and Rockets, Durant-led teams have won just two series while going 14-21 in the playoffs overall, as of Houston's Game 4 win over the Lakers in the 2026 first round to cut the series deficit to 3-1.
For his years between the Thunder and Warriors from 2007-19, in comparison, Durant-led teams went 88-51 in the playoffs, including Oklahoma City's 2012 Finals appearance and three additional Western Conference Finals appearances with the Thunder, then two championships and an additional NBA Finals appearance with the Warriors.
Here's a look at each Durant-led playoff run since he left Golden State.
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The Nets went 35-37 in 2019-20 and still made the playoffs, but Durant wasn't playing for that squad led by Irving for most of the season.
When Durant returned in 2020-21 under a new head coach in Steve Nash, the Durant-Irving duo quickly became a trio, with the Nets acquiring James Harden in a January 2021 trade with the Rockets. Brooklyn had plenty of star power and finished with 48 wins, then beat the Celtics in five games in the first round.
However, despite all that star power, health was typically a major issue between Durant, Harden and Irving — and the Nets lost Game 7 of their second-round series against the Bucks, 115-111, with Milwaukee going on to win it all.
Durant had 48 points in Game 7 for Brooklyn, which didn't have Irving available. On a potential game-winning shot in the fourth quarter, Durant's toe was on the line, making it only a game-tying shot and sending it to overtime, where the Nets lost to Giannis Antetokounmpo and company.
Between the talent of the Nets (Blake Griffin, Bruce Brown, Nic Claxton and more as reserves) and the fact that they lost to the eventual champions, this is typically viewed as Durant's best post-Warriors playoff run.