Earlier in the postseason, questions abounded about whether the Boston Celtics were better without Kyrie Irving on the floor than with him, noting win-loss outcomes as evidence. Compounding scrutiny over Irving’s championship ability were questions about his leadership. Now, this theme has found a new target: Kevin Durant.

Durant has not played since going down with a calf strain in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Houston Rockets. The Warriors flooded the gas toward a Game 5 victory and ticket to the conference finals on Houston’s home floor. Next, they rolled into the Western Conference Finals without Durant and claimed a 4-0 series sweep over the Portland Trail Blazers, leading some to write Durant off as dispensable.

The argument may be fair if the narrative features Kyrie Irving. But when it comes to Durant — a two-time NBA champion going for his third-straight trophy, former league MVP, multi-time NBA All-Star and back-to-back Finals MVP — the discussion is overly simplistic (at best) and utterly stupid (at worst).

Moreover, interviews with Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Durant’s teammates have revealed the franchise’s thoughts on the matter: The team is better with Durant because of how difficult it is to win without him. Wins without Durant, the team has called “special” because the margin of error drops dramatically without him on the floor and others have to pick up the slack on defense. No Durant raises the level of difficulty for everyone on the roster.

Never one to sit idly by while people trash his good name, Durant — after not speaking with the media since his injury — engaged in a lengthy discussion with reporters on Friday about the noise amplified in his direction.

Durant, who is making progress but not cleared for on-court work yet, said:

It’s been that way since I got here — ‘It’s the Warriors and KD.’ I understand that, and I felt like my teammates and the organization know exactly what I’ve done here off and on the court to become a part of this culture, stamp my flag in this culture and this organization. … I know what I bring to the team, but I also know a lot of people on the outside don’t like to see us together, and I get it.

With the rest of the league viewing the Warriors’ unimpressive regular season as reason to elevate their hopes against the reigning back-to-back champs, it is easy to see why the rest of the league takes issue with a team which has set the bar for winning championship far out of reach.

Also during his presser, Durant called out various statements as “not facts,” including the general idea that the team doesn’t need him and the semantics of separating him from the team by pronoun choice: “their,” which Durant corrected to “our.” (To Durant, being absent with injury does not make him any less part of the team.)

So the facts that need to be issued as reminders for those intent on bringing the silly:

The Warriors went all-in on recruiting Durant to the team because they knew the rest of the league was adjusting to their style of domination, requiring additional pieces to keep the winning going. Before his injury, Durant was leading the league in postseason scoring with 34.2 points. In 2017, the year he won his first Finals MVP award, Durant averaged in the postseason 28.5 points per game, including 89.3 percent shooting from the free-throw line. He also averaged 7.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.3 blocks, 55.6 percent shooting from the field and 44.2 percent shooting from three-point distance. His postseason production was slightly lower in 2018, but healthy enough to warrant a second Finals MVP award. And beyond the box score, Durant repeatedly has come up with clutch plays in the biggest moments. So far in the 2019 postseason, Durant is averaging 34.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists, one block and 1.2 steals, shooting 51.3 percent from the field and 41.6 percent from three and making 90.1 percent of his shots from the charity stripe.

The Golden State Warriors need Kevin Durant, but he needs them too. And based on this remarks, it is doubtful the naysayers will succeed at driving a wedge between him and the team.