“As humbly as I can say it, I’m not a $88 player. I’m an elite player in the league,” Durant responds. “I wanted everything to be affordable, but I knew we had to sacrifice some stuff.
“On these shoes, you get it all, and for a nice price,” continues Durant. “You get the newest innovation, you get the newest Zoom bag, and you get my story along with it. If you’re a fan of what I do in the game of basketball, this is perfect for you. As I evolved as a player, I knew that the shoes, in order for it to stay on the same course and trajectory [that I was headed], I might have to come up a bit on some of the stuff I said earlier. Hopefully people understand, and I think a lot of people have.”
From these two quotes what I think he meant is that in order to have his shoes at $88 he had to sacrifice some stuff (maybe on materials, comfort, design, etc.). He now wants good quality shoes with the "newest innovation" all the bells & whistles, but they are still at a "nice price". He has to wear these shoes to play, so maybe he wanted a higher quality shoe for more comfort. I heard the KD9 are very comfortable.
Also, Nike has to cover his new deal so the price was going up whether KD wanted it to or not.