There is a lot of talk about Kevin Durant's pending free agency and whether he would consider switching teams this summer.
There are a lot of variables that play into that kind of decision for Durant, and we certainly can't pretend to have any insight into Durant's decision-making process, but we can take a close look at one of the variables that he is certainly considering, and that is the ability to continue to play with Russell Westbrook.
Durant has only played one season without Westbrook in his NBA career, and OKC's dynamic duo have formed a partnership on the offensive end of the court that may be hard for Durant to give up.
The Westbrook-to-Durant connection created 498 shots during the regular season -- 575 including the postseason -- and was the most frequent pass-to-shot combination in the league, topping the second-most effective duo, Rajon Rondo to DeMarcus Cousins, which registered 481 attempts.
For Durant, 35 percent of his shots begin with a pass from Westbrook, and he has an effective field goal percentage on those shots of 58.5 percent. His effective field goal percentage on all other shots is 54.1 percent.
Of course, the partnership goes deeper than just Westbrook setting up Durant. When Durant is the screener on pick-and-rolls, Westbrook is the ball handler on 73 percent of those chances, and the duo score 0.94 points per chance -- which on a team level would make them the seventh-best pick-and-roll offense in the league.
Westbrook has also been Durant's partner on 55 percent of Durant's transition possessions this season, and when they work together in transition, they score 1.4 points per chance, which would make them second best in the league.
So if Durant were to leave the Thunder in the offseason, he would be leaving a teammate that has been a huge part of his offensive excellence.