Video: Kendrick Perkins Believes the Thunder Would Have Been a Dynasty had Kevin Durant Stayed in Oklahoma City

Former Thunder center Kendrick Perkins believes the Thunder would have been the next great dynasty had Kevin Durant stayed in Oklahoma City. We'll tell you if we agree.

Former Thunder center Kendrick Perkins heart breaks at what could have been with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Perkins, who spent four full seasons in Oklahoma City, believes the Thunder could have built a dynasty had Durant not left for Golden State.  

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 Perkins  Says, "If Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant never break up, I see the Oklahoma City Thunder building a dynasty.".."In My opinion, when you look at Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, they could have went down as arguably one of the best duos to have ever played the game or at least top five." 

 "I wish they would have never broke up because they were scratching at the surface, knocking right at the front door of winning an NBA title."..."Just think about it, they had the warriors down 3-1; both those guys always have revenge on their mind."  

Perkins comments came today on ESPN's The Jump after Rachel Nichols posed the question, "What if Kevin Durant would have stayed in Oklahoma City?" Perkins continued, "I think we would have been seeing an Oklahoma City, and Cleveland Cavalier matchup, LeBron and KD, Kyrie, and Westbrook match up for the years to come, I just hate to see that it didn't happen." 

Perkins's former Celtic teammate Paul Pierce wasn't so convinced that any team in the west could put together a string of championships at that time. "If KD stays in Oklahoma, I can see no dynasty for the Warriors; I can see no dynasty at all." 

"You gotta look at the balance of power then, you had the Houston Rockets who were up and coming with James Harden, and of course Golden State, they did what they did." ..."You forget about Clevland Cavaliers, they were making it to the finals, LeBron Was making it to the finals every year, so they [Warriors] don't get KD, LeBron could be sitting on a couple of more titles, so it would be hard to say who would have been a dynasty at that time. " 

For Perkins: it's particularly severe considering he watched Durant and Westbrook grow up in Oklahoma City.  "I just watched Russ, and Kevin Durant grow up in front of my eyes when I got traded from the Celtics."... "And Just knew both of those guys were going to be special. "

While Pierce thinks the relationship between Durant and Westbrook was combustible, Perkins believes any differences they had would have been put aside for the greater good.   Perkins sighted his time in Boston as an example of how superstars put ego in their back pockets. 

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"You guys [Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett]  were older and mature; you guys had accomplished everything individually y'all needed to accomplish."... "The only thing on y'all's mind was winning a ring. "

"I think as the years would have came KD and Russ would have got more mature and got more wiser and put their pride aside and would have found a way to make it work. That was a bad break up man; that was a horrible divorce, Rachel." 

Rember Westbrook's contract was up at the end of the next season after durant left, so there was no guarantee both players would have been in Oklahoma City long enough to win more than one championship. Even without a banner, the Thunder fans got more than they could have hoped for in the eight years the dynamic duo was in Thunder blue.