michaelm wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:TheLand13 wrote:
A lock? No. Durant's not going to keep up this level of defensive play. But I will say that this is the best he's looked at that end since 2017, a year where I felt like he had a realistic chance of making the all defensive team.
Agree that he's not a lock but that he definitely deserves props for his defensive focus this year.
He's always been a physically blessed defender (crazy length with good footspeed relative to his size), but he's rarely been focused or "good" at defense in his career. He was fun in Golden State as part of an elite defense when he could be an extra rim protector, play small ball center next to Draymond, and show up some switchability when they went to the death lineup. But he wasn't the guy there doing the heavy lifting. It was more of a bonus when KD locked in on defense.
But there's a noticeable focus he has this year (so far), and it's on the list of reasons why Brooklyn has been able to weather all their garbage.
If KD is the best defender on a team in the regular season the team is in trouble/there are problems.with coaching as it is imo a misuse of him to have him taking heavy defensive responsibility particularly at center in the regular season cf 2019. It is a huge bonus he can be effective defensively at center in the play-offs
Nic Claxton has been the Nets best defender, has played exclusively at center, and plays almost all his minutes alongside KD.
KD is, at best, the 4th best defender on this team (Claxton, Simmons, O'Neale), and not shouldering big defensive responsibilities. He looks great in switches, but Brooklyn leans on Royce O'Neale, Ben Simmons, Claxton, and even Yuta Wantanave to get all the dirty work done. Durant deserves some attention for having his best defensive season in a while, and looking clearly more focused, but he's usually the 3rd or 4th most important defender in any Brooklyn lineup (depending on how many small guards Brooklyn tries to play at a time haha).