The last two games got me wondering. Lebron touches the ball on every single poseition of the Heat. He always has the ball in his hand and is always looking to attack the paint. When he gets stopped, he passes to an open teamate. Durant on the other hand, only touches the ball on maybe half of their poseitions, and when he does, he either shoots the ball right away or passes it up right away. His shots are stable most of the time and will end up having 25 to 35 points with 50 FG% no matter what. But do you think this is enough for his team at this point of the series? I mean if it was Jordan, Kobe, or maybe Tmac, you would expect to see them having the ball on every poseition looking to attack. And if you don't touch the ball often enough your hand gets cold and when the critical time comes, you may not be able to get it hot again. I think this is probably why he had more turnovers than Westbrook in the last 3 games. Lebron and even Westbrook was able to put down 40+ points when the team needed it. Durant is more than capable of doing that. With his team's back against the wall, and every other teamate except Westbrook contributing very little on the offensive end, now it's time for him to step up.
He is trying but Battier and Lebron are not letting him breathe. Sometimes he doesn't get the ball until there is 5 seconds on the shot clock which limits how much he can evaluate once he gets it.
This. Durant does get the ball more often than the OP says, but Battier and LeBron force Durant to give up the ball early, making Harden and Westbrook the primary scorer. As an aside, Westbrook scored like, X pts straight in the game last night, but after that, Harden started handling the ball, instead of Westbrook taking it up the floor. smh Brooks.
He's a mostly off the ball player. He's not reggie miller, but he's kinda in that mold, but better. He has limitations through physicality. He's playing against a much stronger guy in lbj who is a better athlete too. He's far from finished,but his game needs.
This is true and when OKC runs 18 seconds off the clock just to get KD the ball, it blows up their offense and makes them very easy to defend. The fact is they have little creativity in their offensive sets and almost purely depend on talent to succeed. Except for game 1, the 1st quarter is where I'm most disappointed with KD (and everyone else except for WB). Nobody on their team seems to have any purpose out there other than wandering around waiting on KD or WB to shoot. KD isn't fully expending himself trying to get open and seems content to let someone else shoot the ball. Kendrick "Pick-setter" Perkins included.
From what I've seen in this series KD has no problem scoring on either Battier or Lebron (once he is able to get the ball that is). Furthermore he has been taking the same amount of shots with the same FG% as he did in the previous series this off-season. I agree they have to find better ways to deliver the ball to Durant's hand.
Durant is a scorer--the best scorer in the league, but he is not a playmaker. Lebron/WB/Kobe/TMAC... are playmakers. Big difference. You rarely see KD at the top of the key holding the ball orchestrating the offense. Why? B/c he can't do that.
Finally living up to those Dirk comparisons.. lol jk But honestly have you noticed KD doesnt get upset or yell when the refs call him for a bunch of bogus offensive fouls. He is sometimes too chill in the game, like he is on cruise control in these finals. Even in the presser( he seemed so clam) even being down 3-1 , reminds me of Dirk( before Avery Johnson coached him) I dont like Westbrook's game, but he is clearly the EMOTIONAL leader of that game, last night sealed it for me
Reminds me of the Rockets/Yao situation. Teams started fronting Yao and making it hard for him to get the ball. The Rockets would then go to some other play. Almost every play Durant gets the ball its outside the three point line. He has to work harder and keeping his position. The Thunder have to be more patient and get him the ball. Westbrook is also at fault because he has the ball in his hands a lot and he doesnt try hard enough to find him. I have noticed there are times he could lob it over the defender because the backside is wide open be he doesnt do it. Durant's length and athleticism should make the lob easy but they try it.
