When he arrived in Brooklyn, everything was expected to go smoothly for Harden since he would be reuniting with Durant, his teammate on the Oklahoma City Thunder for three years. However, it turned out that Harden and Durant weren’t on good terms in their brief time together in Brooklyn. According to Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN, Durant and the Nets weren’t thrilled to see Harden “out of shape” when he joined the team.
Knowing that he’s still chasing his first NBA championship title, they were expecting Harden to be committed to conditioning and self-care. Unfortunately, the All-Star shooting guard didn’t put much effort into improving his physique which Durant believed has contributed to his lack of explosiveness and sluggish play.