Kevin Durant: ‘It’s easy to be the best player when you don’t have good players around you’

BigDog63 · Dec 2, 2018

jbasket said: ↑

If KD is the best player alive, then I am also the sexiest man alive.
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Possible, because Wilt Chamberlain is no longer alive. ;-)

daywalker02 · Dec 15, 2018

"Obviously it would be cool to have the ball in my hands the whole game and rack up numbers," Durant told ESPN.com during the Finals. "I can do that. But for me to utilize the full body of my talents, I can't do that. I don't have the energy physically to do that and still defend on the perimeter, block shots, rebound."

Coaches around the league are a little more optimistic about Durant lifting a lesser team toward title contention, provided the right co-star.

"You could absolutely build that kind of offense around him," Steve Kerr tells ESPN.com. Ron Adams, a Warriors assistant who also coached Durant in Oklahoma City, thinks Durant could average at least eight assists per game if he wanted.

"He can be that," says Nash, who works with Durant in the summer and knows him as well as anyone inside the Warriors, "but he's quite happy not being the alpha dog."

Critics will frame that as weakness of body and mind. Durant is still skinny, lacking the physicality of LeBron or even James Harden; Thunder coaches doubted he could sustain Slim Reaper workload over a full season. He is a good passer, not a great one.

He still sometimes pings almost self-consciously between scoring and passing extremes, including during his trough in the conference finals against Houston.

"He's a thoughtful passer," Adams says. "But he's expected to score. And that is a tougher balance for players to find than the observer might think."

Seven-footers rarely have elite handles; could Durant's high dribble withstand game-long pressure? Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn't seem concerned with this.

But Antetokounmpo's team is miles from contention. He needs the ball; finding proper superstar partners for him will be tricky. Durant's disinterest in dominating the ball -- or, rather, his ability to dominate games withoutdominating the ball -- can, and probably should, be framed as a talent: He is the rare top-5 player (aside from point guards) who doesn't diminish the talent of superstars around him. In Cleveland, alongside LeBron James, Kevin Love is pretty much Ryan Anderson, even with Kyrie Irving gone. Chris Bosh had to reinvent himself in Miami as a spot-up shooter. The Rockets made the Chris Paul-James Harden pairing work by rigidly staggering their minutes, and adopting an anomalous isolation system that allowed both plenty of chances to go one-on-one. And now they ask: Can that work with a third star?

Because he can score efficiently and suddenly from everywhere, out of any action, Durant's presence does not bring any diminishing returns even if you pile two and three superstars around him. On consecutive possessions, he is Anthony Davis posting up, LeBron running the show, Blake Griffin screening-and-diving, Ray Allen coming off a pindown. He is a completely unprecedented player.

"He is probably the most talented player in the world," says Bruce Fraser, a Golden State assistant and Durant confidante.

With Durant, Curry can still lead the team (by far) in pick-and-roll usage. Draymond Green can function as point forward. Klay Thompson can be any Klay he wants. "I was always taught that leaders are servers," Pratt says. "That's what Kevin is."

There is nothing historically abnormal about Curry and Durant as a 1-2 punch. They are Shaq-and-Kobe for the 3-point era -- co-stars who amplify each other. What really separates the Warriors -- what makes them infuriating for some, what the regrettable cap spike enabled -- is Green and Thompson serving as any team's third- and fourth-best players.

Durant can be a team's best player and, in bald terms, a floating second option -- a rare duality. That was the vision toward the end in Oklahoma City. Westbrook spread pick-and-rolls became the engine, with Durant starting more possessions off to the side and taking over during crunch time. In Golden State, he found a more active version of the same role -- a way to be a moving decoy on trips he didn't touch the ball, instead of a stationary one.

Golden State's system would push him to sharpen the edges of his game -- screening, cutting, defense, passing on the move. "I like to inject myself into the game in lots of different ways," Durant says.

There have been hiccups, as the Houston series laid bare. There will always be tension between Durant's one-on-one brilliance and Curry's beautiful game -- a tension not spoken or felt so much as it is simply lived. "There is stylistic tension, not personal tension," Steve Kerr tells ESPN.com.

"Neither one has ever felt, or said, 'You are taking from me,'" says Bob Myers, Golden State's general manager.

Curry has never fretted. "We complement each other," he told ESPN.com after Game 3. "We occupy different spots on the floor. The only thing we've had to work on, chemistry-wise, is reading situations -- what plays to call, deciding the balance of who gets to initiate the offense."
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http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23766415/zach-lowe-kevin-durant-golden-state-warriors-dynasty-nba

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