Kevin Durant is Coming to a NBA Arena Near You
Published by Jack Cobra April 10th, 2007 in NBA, Gossip, Cool Club, Kevin Garnett, Andrei Kirilenko, Juice Cards, Adam Morrison, Michael Redd, Dirk Nowitzki
(The Cavalier is on an extended leave of absence. He did not write this and does not know why I chose to write about a pre-NBA player.)
It sounds as if the best player in college basketball last season is going to declare himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft. During his one season at Texas, Kevin Durant led the Longhorns to a 25-10 record while averaging 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.91 blocks per game. His list of accolades is impeccable:
…..he became the first freshman to win all six of the national player of the year awards, including the Naismith and Wooden Awards. He was the first freshman to capture the coveted Wooden Award, honoring college basketball’s best player…….Durant became the first freshman to garner the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year Award….
One more piece of encyclopia-like knowledge for you….Durant’s ESPN.com Player Card says he is a cross between Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett.
Ok, back to me and my opinion….I watched Durant play about 15 times this past season, not including the NCAA Tournament, so I was able to form an opinion of him. Durant was an extremely good college player and probably the college player closest to being ready for the NBA. My opinion is that he could be just as good as both Garnett and Nowitzki once he is in the NBA for a few seasons…..
With his inside/outside game and ability to handle the ball, Durant is a tough player for any player to defend. He’ll post up the SF’s that try to guard him and he’ll take the PF’s off the dribble or step out and shoot over them. While he isn’t the physical specimin that LeFirstRoundExit was coming out of high school, Durant has a 7 foot wingspan that will make it extremely difficult for anyone to block his shot and it will also give him the ability to be a defensive stalwart.
The aspect of Durant’s game that I liked the most was his ‘need’ to take the big shot and his ‘ability’ to play well in big games. Texas was a very young team that Durant carried all year long with big shot after big shot. He would either sit down on the post and scream for the ball or get the ball on the wing and create a shot whenever Texas needed a bucket. He never seemed to run away from adversity when most college players would/could.
It will be interesting to see if Durant is picked 1st or 2nd in the NBA Draft and while I don’t think he is going to be a MJ/LeBadFreeThrowShooter/Kobe type player, I think he is going to be an excellent player in the NBA for years to come.
Seriously, who shot Mamba? Was is the Casual Baby?
It was the Casual Baby, wasn’t it.
Oh, and I suppose I should comment on the actual post…
Kevin Durant=George Gervin. Great player, not a championship-caliber player (only plays one side of the court. See Curry, Eddy). But he won’t have a nickname as cool as “The Ice Man.”
Greg Oden=David Robinson. Team him with one very good supporting player and some effective role players and win at least one championship.
Kind of weird how the top two players in the ‘07 draft are exact replicas of former San Antonio Spurs.
only plays one side of the court ? have you not watched texas all season long this kid blocks and alters shote damn near every play, not to mention rebounds the ball well for a wing.
“Rebounds the ball well for a wing…”
How tall is he? Who cares where he lines up on offense. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re 6′10″, playing college ball (where 7′0″ centers are a rarity) your rebounding ability shouldn’t be compared to an average wing player.
I’m not saying Durant’s not going to be a fantastic rebounder at the next level. I haven’t seen him play nearly enough. I’m just not going to rest my hopes on comparisons between him and an average wing.
Armand: Apparently you have a very loose interpretation of an “altered shot.” Yes, considering Durant’s 6-9 with like a 19-foot wingspan and played in a league with many undersized frontcourts, he was able to — to an extent — alter shots by standing and putting his hands up. Despite all that size, he had 1.9 bpg in 35.9 mpg. That’s 2.1 per 40 minutes, 135th in the country.
And, while I don’t really consider rebounding and defense one in the same (see Fortson, Danny circa 2001), Durant damn well better have put up big rebounding numbers since he was often on the court with three guards, and either 6-7 Damion James or Matt Hill, who combines the mobility of a Shawn Bradley with the strength of a… well, Shawn Bradley. Who else is going to take rebounds from him?
And again, playing in the Big 12, how many great offensive forwards did he face this year? Julian Wright? No offensive game, just put-backs and transition hoops. And he’s probably the only NBA-caliber frontcourt player Durant saw all season. (Fat Baby=Not an NBA player.)
Mario Boggan? Dude’s 6-7 (a generous listing btw) with subpar athleticism and still went for 74 points over three games vs. Durant. Josh Heytvelt, Wayne Chism, Marshall Brown, Shane Clark, Aleks Maric, Antanas Kavaliauskas, all mediocre college players who had big/career days against Durant.
Inferior players were able to go around and/or through Durant all year. I’m not saying he can nver be a good defensive player (because he has the physical assets to be one), but he just doesn’t care on that end right now. And if next year he defends anything like he played defense this year, he’s going to be a major liability, as in one of the worst defensive forwards in the NBA.
(Oh, and for the record, I watched at least a dozen Texas games this year.)
Not a good defensive player? He was on the Big 12 ALL DEFENSIVE TEAM!! I bet if you take that “per 40 minutes” stat and put it on anything, he doesnt rank as high. BUT….seeing as how he averaged 1.9 blocks along with 1.9 steals, I would say not too many people were going around or through him. If they did, they probably got blocked…or at least 1.9 times a game they did. Durant out played every guy that guarded him this year and for that, he isnt credited for being a good player because the level of talent wasnt good enough? I guess Greg Oden was playing against superior players in the Big 10 this year!
Aside from Greg Oden’s stupid foul trouble, he’s a much better defender than Durant, and will be a force on the block in the NBA. Unlike the many “slasher” small forwards around the league, there are not many power forwards or centers with the abilities that Oden will bring to the court each night. I think Oden can bring a game to the NBA much like what Dwight Howard has done. He’s lean, athletic, and plays great defense.
You can have Durant, while I think he’s a great player, he’ll need to add some bulk to that frame.
The Big 12 and the Big 10 are 2 different styles of basketball. The Big 12 has pretty much allowed for a lot more “high flying” while the Big 10 is a more physically demanding conference.
Arin: Did you just site the Big 12 All-Defensive Team? Is that to be taken seriously? That holds all the meaning of being named #1 Dad by your kids.
And yes, you can apply “per 40 minutes” stats to any category (40 divided by average minutes played X the category you want “per 40 minutes” for). I’m not really sure what you’re point is.
I’m also guessing since you’re mentioning 1.9 bpg and 1.9 spg you didn’t see Durant play very often this year, or didn’t pay attention to his efforts on the defensive end. Do you think Dirk Nowitzki is a great defensive player? He gets a block and a steal a game while guarding much better players than Mario Boggan. In fact, Dirk’s defense is considered improved, even though his block and steal numbers have dropped over the past couple seasons. It’s because there’s much more to defense than whether you average one or two blocks and steals per game.
Kevin Durant was not a good defensive player last year, particularly when you factor in his God-given gifts. You know how I know? I watched him play. Players he was assigned to guard, almost all of whom were inferior in both size and athleticism, consistently beat him. And even if you didn’t watch him play once this year, look at the numbers opposing frontcourt players posted against Texas this year.
Durant can improve defensively, and more than likely will. But if he plays defense in the NBA the way he played defense at Texas, he’s going to be a liability. Because if he got lit up by Mario Boggan, what do you think players who are good enough to make the NBA are going to do to him?
(And yes, the level of play in the Big Ten was better than the level of play in the Big 12 this past season. And, if you watched Greg Oden play this season, you’d realize that offense aside, he was one of the best defensive big men to play college basketball in a very long time.)
I have to side with Steve B. here Arin, sorry dude.