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Kevin Durant missed Game 1 suddenly, then he missed the rest of the series after his lone appearance in Game 2 because of an ankle sprain. The Rockets won two games without their superstar, but the team was entirely too dependent on him, which made winning the series too tall of a mountain to climb. Houston had a good year with Durant in the mix—earning the fifth seed in the Western Conference and falling just two games shy of No. 3. But the Rockets were “way too reliant” on Durant, an anonymous NBA scout told Sports Illustrated. The good news is that reinforcements are coming. “Getting Fred VanVleet back will be big,” the scout said. “He's going to be better than Reed Sheppard was last year. Not that Sheppard was that bad, but, Fred's a better creator. He's a better paint threat guy off the dribble. He may not be a better catch-and-shoot three-point shooter, but he's more adept at getting it off in the pick-and-roll. So they have a couple guys that can set screens, especially if Steven Adams is healthy. So I think he'll be a weapon for them that they didn't have.”
Michael Porter Jr.: "KD is a good dude, but he is known for having burners, so who knows. People, everything with AI, with this, with that, you don't know what's real. So, I'm not about to say it's for sure him without knowing for sure. But like if I had a teammate and like a group chat came out where my teammate was talking crazy about all of us, that would be wild though."
Durant, who averaged 26 points a game last season for the Houston Rockets, is still near the top of his game. His legacy as one of the game’s all-time greats is secure. But with the Olympics returning to the United States, he has a simple reason for wanting to do it again. “It’s just fun, man,” Durant told The Athletic late last season. “It’s an incredible time. You get to travel the world. I don’t know if we’re gonna get to travel the world with it being in the States, but the last few years, we would go (to) Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Paris, London, Canary Islands, Madrid … being in places that changed not just my perspective about the game, just about life in general. I’ve been in places I’ve never even thought about being in if it wasn’t for the game. That experience is one of the best, man. I encourage everybody to play for their country.”
Former Team USA coach Gregg Popovich put it even more simply after coaching Durant in the Tokyo Games in 2021. “No Kevin, no gold.” When told of Kerr’s words, Durant took them to heart. “I’m humbled and honored to get that recognition,” Durant said. “So many great players have played. They probably didn’t play as long as me; that’s probably why I get that. I’ve been on four Olympic teams. We’ve won gold every time, so I’ve just been around. I show up. “I think that’s what my career has been based upon, just showing up and letting the chips fall where they may. … I experienced some great coaching with Team USA, and that’s really what brings me back.”
Kerr witnessed that passion firsthand. He has long praised Durant for his preparation through the day-to-day grind of an NBA season. With Team USA, he saw something else. He saw how much Durant loves representing the red, white and blue. “He also loves FIBA,” Kerr said. “He loves the experience of being on a team, with all these guys who he is normally competing against. I think he likes the travel. I think he likes eliminating the NBA bulls— that you have to go through for eight months, and it becomes the most pure sporting experience of a player’s life at that level. Kevin, at his core, he loves basketball as much as anybody I’ve ever been around.”
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Durant has been so moved by representing Team USA that he has encouraged other players to take advantage of the Olympic experience whenever it presents itself. “Bol Bol had the chance to play for South Sudan, and I was encouraging him to do so,” Durant said. “I think he might have been injured, but I’m like, man, you need to go experience the Olympics. … Being able to play on that stage and see the pride that people have for where they come from, I think every player should experience that.”
Who are your current top five players in the league? Danilo Gallinari: Current Top 5, I always, I guess I always go with the old heads first: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James. And then I put Anthony Edwards and Nikola Jokic.
During prolonged film sessions, Kevin Durant’s trainer has scrutinized the ways he could handle double teams better and reduce his turnovers. When assessing the big picture, however, Dash Lovell argued passionately that Durant does not deserve the criticism for his role in the Houston Rockets’ season-long inconsistency and eventual first-round playoff exit. “How can KD be this efficient and it’s his fault that they’re losing?” Lovell told R.org.
That prompted Durant to spend this offseason striking a healthy balance between recharging his body and sharpening his craft. Lovell said most of that entailed focusing on handling double teams in hopes that his passing remains as efficient as his shot selection. “He’s still one of my favorite guys to work with, and it’s not because he’s Kevin,” Lovell said. “It’s because you never see a Hall of Famer look at you and say, ‘Am I doing this correctly?’ He wants to be taught at this age.”
Why has it been a big emphasis to throw doubles at him compared to anything else to focus on? Lovell: “Because if you watch most teams, when they throw doubles at him and he’s tired or fatigued, we want him to get better at not turning the ball over out of the double team. So it’s about making sure that he develops as a passer through the double team. So that was one of the points of emphasis from watching his film. It’s about making sure that he continues to develop. It’s not that he can’t pass. But in the offseason, it’s about throwing those bodies at him and letting him see some doubles and just repping that out and making him have to pass through those double teams. That was a big emphasis. That was just from watching film. We wanted to make sure that he did that and make sure that we repped that out a lot so that he was prepared for those types of things.”
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Assuming KD doesn’t have any major injuries, it’s pretty likely he’ll surpass Kobe Bryant for fourth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. (Durant has 32,597 career points. Bryant scored 33,643 career points.) Where do you rank that upcoming milestone compared to everything else that KD has done? Lovell: “We love Kobe. Kobe is one of the greatest, and we miss him so much. I just know that Kobe would be proud of him. Kevin has got so much respect for Kobe, and so much love for him. So it’s like being there with your brother. I think it’ll be an exciting moment for him. It’s a moment of respect. Kevin played the game the right way. He takes fewer shots. So I don’t think passing Kobe or passing anyone is a goal for him. It’s just him being efficient. I’ve never heard him say, ‘I’m going to pass this’ or ‘I’m going to pass that.’ Those are never things you’re going to hear him say. We never talk about those things because it was never about passing other players. He just works. And he is just efficient. If he was really trying to pass players, he would take more shots. So that’s not even the goal.”
NBA Courtside: Jeff Teague on Max Kellerman comments saying Joel Embiid has a bad work ethic: “Him saying he’s not the hardest working superstar, I think we all know that. You can tell by his health, he’s probably not the most dedicated person to the craft. I can see that. Kevin Durant probably one of the more dedicated players to basketball. See how recovered from his injury and still be playing at the high-level. Joel Embiid is one of the most talented players ever, but maybe he doesn’t have the same work ethic. I think he work hard I know how hard it is to be really good at basketball for him to be at the top at one point at time and be the MVP of the league, I know he put in work but to be around all those greats and not being the hardest worker don’t mean you don’t work hard you just don’t work as hard as LeBron.” (Via person to the craft. I can see that. Kevin Durant@club520podcast)
Durant is still a fan of American school and suggests that European guys learned from his compatriots: "Basketball is played all over the world. That's the goal, to develop basketball everywhere. It was also time for the internationals to be the best in the league. They've been coming since the 80s, it's natural that some of them became the best. The real question is who influenced them?" Durant asked. "It's the Americans who had an influence on them. It's cool that some of them won MVP awards, but who did they look up to. Jokic, Porzingis, Shai, they all wore Iverson's jerseys and imitated his crossovers. They try to play like us and they succeeded in their own way."
Kevin Durant: "One of my main goals is to be the GM of Team USA. In one of these Olympics, one of these years, I want to do that job one time."
