The Kevin Durant Thread (2015-16 Pt. 1)

[RCM88x]

Kevin Durant was terrible in the playoffs, I don't get how you can get around this... His PER fell to 20.3 for gods sake, that is awful for him. Not to mention his BPM was only 1.8 (compared to Westbrook who's BPM was 11.7!).

He became a true second option and was unable to score off the dribble, in or outside of the paint. He at times became a catch and shoot player, which in the past he was much more than.

[JulesWinnfield]

Spoiler: this post has nothing to do with Durant or the thread so don't read on unless you just want to be bored and waste 15 seconds of your life...

I think I might have clicked a box in error because I'm getting notifications every time a reply is made on this thread even when I'm not quoted. The only way I can unclick that box is to make another reply, so I'm doing that here in hopes it does the trick...

[Quotatious]

Kevin Durant was terrible in the playoffs, I don't get how you can get around this... His PER fell to 20.3 for gods sake, that is awful for him. Not to mention his BPM was only 1.8 (compared to Westbrook who's BPM was 11.7!).

He became a true second option and was unable to score off the dribble, in or outside of the paint. He at times became a catch and shoot player, which in the past he was much more than.

I think BPM vastly overstates the difference between Durant and Westbrook in those playoffs, and boxscore stats don't do a good job measuring defensive impact (Durant played excellent D in the Warriors series), but yeah, I agree. Well, I wouldn't say he was terrible, but he wasn't very good, either. His shooting being so cold is a big deal for a guy who is a scorer, first and foremost. His defense, being better than usual, makes up for that to some extent, but he was still disappointing (just as he was disappointing in '14 playoffs, after a monster RS - I think '12 remains his best playoff run to this day).

[mischievous]

Kevin Durant was terrible in the playoffs, I don't get how you can get around this... His PER fell to 20.3 for gods sake, that is awful for him. Not to mention his BPM was only 1.8 (compared to Westbrook who's BPM was 11.7!).

He became a true second option and was unable to score off the dribble, in or outside of the paint. He at times became a catch and shoot player, which in the past he was much more than.

Kd's offense basically fell to Carmleo level in the playoffs.

[KD35Brah]

Kevin Durant was terrible in the playoffs, I don't get how you can get around this... His PER fell to 20.3 for gods sake, that is awful for him. Not to mention his BPM was only 1.8 (compared to Westbrook who's BPM was 11.7!).

He became a true second option and was unable to score off the dribble, in or outside of the paint. He at times became a catch and shoot player, which in the past he was much more than.

I think BPM vastly overstates the difference between Durant and Westbrook in those playoffs, and boxscore stats don't do a good job measuring defensive impact (Durant played excellent D in the Warriors series), but yeah, I agree. Well, I wouldn't say he was terrible, but he wasn't very good, either. His shooting being so cold is a big deal for a guy who is a scorer, first and foremost. His defense, being better than usual, makes up for that to some extent, but he was still disappointing (just as he was disappointing in '14 playoffs, after a monster RS - I think '12 remains his best playoff run to this day).

Against 2 elite defenses(Spurs and Warriors, 13 games) he averaged 29ppg on 57% TS, does that mean nothing?

Also, was Kawhi good defensively in the Spurs series?

[RCM88x]

Kevin Durant was terrible in the playoffs, I don't get how you can get around this... His PER fell to 20.3 for gods sake, that is awful for him. Not to mention his BPM was only 1.8 (compared to Westbrook who's BPM was 11.7!).

He became a true second option and was unable to score off the dribble, in or outside of the paint. He at times became a catch and shoot player, which in the past he was much more than.

I think BPM vastly overstates the difference between Durant and Westbrook in those playoffs, and boxscore stats don't do a good job measuring defensive impact (Durant played excellent D in the Warriors series), but yeah, I agree. Well, I wouldn't say he was terrible, but he wasn't very good, either. His shooting being so cold is a big deal for a guy who is a scorer, first and foremost. His defense, being better than usual, makes up for that to some extent, but he was still disappointing (just as he was disappointing in '14 playoffs, after a monster RS - I think '12 remains his best playoff run to this day).

I'll agree that BPM is a tough stat to use, I just wanted to reference the stat because it was so surprising to me.

His defensive impact was kind of overstated IMO though, especially in the GS series. He had 2 good defensive games in G3 and G4, but the rest of the series he really wasn't anything impactful. I think people aren't used to seeing him show a high level of defensive intensity and confused it with great defense.

[RCM88x]

Kevin Durant was terrible in the playoffs, I don't get how you can get around this... His PER fell to 20.3 for gods sake, that is awful for him. Not to mention his BPM was only 1.8 (compared to Westbrook who's BPM was 11.7!).

He became a true second option and was unable to score off the dribble, in or outside of the paint. He at times became a catch and shoot player, which in the past he was much more than.

I think BPM vastly overstates the difference between Durant and Westbrook in those playoffs, and boxscore stats don't do a good job measuring defensive impact (Durant played excellent D in the Warriors series), but yeah, I agree. Well, I wouldn't say he was terrible, but he wasn't very good, either. His shooting being so cold is a big deal for a guy who is a scorer, first and foremost. His defense, being better than usual, makes up for that to some extent, but he was still disappointing (just as he was disappointing in '14 playoffs, after a monster RS - I think '12 remains his best playoff run to this day).

Against 2 elite defenses(Spurs and Warriors, 13 games) he averaged 29ppg on 57% TS, does that mean nothing?

Also, was Kawhi good defensively in the Spurs series?

KDs game score in the Spurs and GS series combined to be slightly less than 20.0. Again, not bad, just not his normal level or even superstar level. He put up good raw numbers, and efficiency. But overall was not very impactful, compared to his usual level, and was inconsistent at best.

The only game he really seemed to take over was the Spurs game 5 when he scored 41, but again in that game he only had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. He needed to be better, simple as that.

[KD35Brah]

I think BPM vastly overstates the difference between Durant and Westbrook in those playoffs, and boxscore stats don't do a good job measuring defensive impact (Durant played excellent D in the Warriors series), but yeah, I agree. Well, I wouldn't say he was terrible, but he wasn't very good, either. His shooting being so cold is a big deal for a guy who is a scorer, first and foremost. His defense, being better than usual, makes up for that to some extent, but he was still disappointing (just as he was disappointing in '14 playoffs, after a monster RS - I think '12 remains his best playoff run to this day).

Against 2 elite defenses(Spurs and Warriors, 13 games) he averaged 29ppg on 57% TS, does that mean nothing?

Also, was Kawhi good defensively in the Spurs series?

KDs game score in the Spurs and GS series combined to be slightly less than 20.0. Again, not bad, just not his normal level or even superstar level. He put up good raw numbers, and efficiency. But overall was not very impactful, compared to his usual level, and was inconsistent at best.

The only game he really seemed to take over was the Spurs game 5 when he scored 41, but again in that game he only had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. He needed to be better, simple as that.

Normal level or not, he impacted the series enough to help his team win against a 67 win team while putting up 29ppg on 60% TS with a Oncourt Ortg of 107(for a team that allowed 99 in the RS).

That was game 4(while down 2-1 in the series) where he was put on Danny Green for the 1st 3 quarters and held him to 0 points, then Donovan switched him onto Kawhi in the 4th. He held him to 0 points on 0/5 shooting in that quarter while he outscored the entire Spurs team(16 points) with 17 points(6 of 6 FG) in the same quarter. Not very impactful at all.