Is Durant gonna develop differently than other rooks?

[grantpb]

I just feel like because of the enormous weight placed upon his shoulders and the team's reliance on him, he will not be on the same learning curve as many other rookies.

Other rookies' first seasons are completely for learning. When they make a mistake or a bad decision, the coaches will pull them out, talk to them for awhile, keep 'em on a short leash, let them develop slowly but surely.

Durant is thrust immeditely into the limelight and into the role as the Sonics' superstar and go-to guy...

Which means he is not on nearly as short of a leash as other rookies. P.J. never seems to get onto him for bad shot selection, poor decisions, turnovers, etc.

I just wonder if this is going to affect how he learns. When most rookies are learning the hard way the importance of taking care of the ball and taking good shots, it appears Durant has little to no guidance/correction as far as the mistakes he has been making this year. I don't want him to continue to shoot 39% taking ill-advised shots for the rest of his career...

[wiff]

LeBron had a pretty long leash. Considering Durant only played organized basketball and not street ball or in pick up games growing up, I don't think you need to worry too much about bad habits.

That is exactly what his coaches didn't want to have happen. I have a feeling Durant is his biggest critic. He works to hard to pick up bad habits.

[grantpb]

Well I'm not so worried about him picking up bad habits, more like worried about him keeping the bad habits he currently has...

He has very poor shot selection and doesn't look for his teammates real well.
He doesn't slash or cut hard when he doesn't have the ball, but rather just sits out on the perimeter to wait for the pass...
He sometimes decides when he wants to shoot and will not change his mind about it, even if he needs to force a bad shot to get it done...

I still think he's gonna be a superstar, but I wish P.J. or someone else would be constantly addressing these issues with him so they don't get instilled into his head...

[djthesonicsfan]

I agree with wiff. I think it's almost crazy to ask a 19 year old to be the go to guy on an NBA team, but there are, every few years, rookies that will get that assignment because their talent is so obvious. K Durant is one of those guys. His year is going about like most expected. He'll be the runaway ROY winner. Next year will be a bigger test. His biggest challenge, IMO, is that he needs to gain weight & upper body strength. Normally that's the easiest thing for professional athletes, as opposed to attaining skill set, but given K Durant's body type it'll be his biggest professional challenge. One that he'll need to succeed at if he's going to take his game, and the Sonics, to the next level.

[Dick Tate]

I don't think Durant's situation is really that comparable to LeBron's or Carmello's rookie seasons. LeBron had Carlos Boozer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to help out with the load his rookie season. Anthony had a solid team put around him. In Durant's case, he's on an island with the mentality that he has to score or else. Ifear the habits he lears now may hinder him later in his career when he has a solid team built around him and his teammates are complaining about him being a ball hog.

[BBen]

In Durant's case, he's on an island with the mentality that he has to score or else. Ifear the habits he lears now may hinder him later in his career when he has a solid team built around him and his teammates are complaining about him being a ball hog.

Look, I have to point this out. This is NOT a new thing to Durant. Did you watch any Texas games? He took 206 more field goal attempts than the second most prolific shooter on the team (647 vs 441). That's 18.5 attempts a game vs 12.6 in college. Carmelo Anthony only took 612 shots as a freshman.

I just don't see him taking a lot of shots as a new thing that should concern you. You're getting what you should have expected.

P.S. He's averaging 17.2 shots a game this season. That's less than he took in college.

[grantpb]

Well Durant took a TON of shots in college because he could absolutely score at will. He averaged something like 33 ppg in Big 12 play...

Now he is averaging a lot less points, so it's not surprising that it is on less shots... however they are of a poorer selection because some people in the NBA can actually guard him now...

If he can raise his FG% close to 42% by the end of the year, and show a noticeable progression in shot selection, I would be satisfied...

[vtime]

The # problem I've seen is that he continually passes up easy shots early in the shot clock for harder shots later in the shot clock. If he just takes what defense gives him, then nobody can stop him.

[seanbig]

I don't think he will be able to put on more muscle than bosh did or garnett.....both are, however allstars and the other a MVP.