This time last year, Kevin Durant was lacing up his shoes for the Brooklyn Nets. The future Hall of Famer begrudgingly returned to the team following a failed offseason trade request, with the intention of eventually joining the Phoenix Suns.

Despite a tumultuous summer, the Nets looked like a contender with Durant leading the way. They turned in an 18-2 stretch early in the year, the most successful 20-game run in franchise history. However, following a failed contract negotiation, Kyrie Irving requested a trade at the deadline. Durant followed suit, and the Nets acquiesced, sending the 13-time All-Star to Phoenix.

Durant said Saturday he did all he could to get to the Suns ahead of last season.

“The Nets refused to get rid of me. I tried, but time ran out,” he told the New York Post's Brian Lewis when asked if he wished he asked for a trade before the deadline. “I wasn't going to miss any games because of this whole thing. Once the season rolled around I was just like whatever happens, happens.”

“It worked out in perfect timing. The way it's supposed to.”

Durant also explained what exactly led him to request a trade from the Nets in the first place.

“Yeah, it just wasn’t no consistency, no continuity on who we were as a team,” Durant said. “And when you want to win a championship, you’ve got to build an identity from Day 1, and it was just a lot of circumstances that were out of the players’ control that got in the way of us building our continuity.

“That’s just the business of basketball. That’s just the NBA in general. But we all got better as individual players, and we learned a lot from that experience — everybody from executives to players — and we can go about our NBA experience with more knowledge now.”

Kevin Durant played just eight regular season games for Phoenix following the trade, averaging 26.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists on 57/53/83 shooting splits.

With Devin Booker and Bradley Beal battling injuries early this year, the 35-year-old has played 36.9 minutes per game, the fourth-most in the NBA. He's been among the league's most productive players while carrying the heavy load, averaging 31.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists on 53 percent shooting from the field and 52 percent from three.