Kevin Durant ‘faded from group’ in last Warriors season, Steve Kerr says

Almost no one was shocked when Kevin Durant elected to leave the Warriors this summer, choosing the Brooklyn Nets as the team to further his basketball career.

That includes Warriors head coach Steve Kerr -- who found out KD had left the Warriors while on a beach in Hawaii.

On the latest episode of "Posted Up with Chris Haynes," Kerr told the Yahoo! Sports NBA insider that he could feel Durant retracting from the team during his final season with the Dubs.

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"We could just feel it last year," Kerr told Haynes. "He sort of faded from the group by the end of the year. Sometimes you just have a feeling about things. We never discussed his free agency. That wasn't my business, even though I was his coach. I was focused on that season and I wanted our whole team to focus on that season and that was every effort of our staff went into whatever team we were playing. Whatever a player does in free agency is up to him, so I totally respected Kevin's right to make a new path for himself in life.

"The main thing right now is we all want him to be healthy and to get back to the great player he is. He gave so much to our organization, helped bring us two titles, two Finals MVPs. Just an unbelievable player. The whole Bay Area is grateful for what he did for us."

It became apparent earlier on last season that Durant's impending free agency likely would end with him leaving town. Durant got into the much-discussed argument with Draymond Green during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers, and he lashed out at The Athletic's Ethan Strauss over a column he wrote about Durant's upcoming decision.