The Kevin Durant Thread (2016 - 17 Pt. 1)

StepBackCrack · Post #341 » by **StepBackCrack** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:29 am

He has been way more aggressive in the last 2/3 games. Accordding to Rose (GSW's sideline reporter), his teammates and Kerr want him to be more aggressive. He is giving them their wish lately and I'm glad to see that. He is finding his perfect way of playing on this team.

JordansBulls · Post #342 » by **JordansBulls** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:35 am

Tomorrow's game vs the Cavs will settle the debate.

StepBackCrack · Post #343 » by **StepBackCrack** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:47 am

JordansBulls wrote:Tomorrow's game vs the Cavs will settle the debate.

There is no debate to be settled tomorrow really. GSW/CLE rivalry won't be settled tomorrow. It will continue for a long time if both stay healthy. If you mean KD/LBJ rivalry, then that rivalry will continue as well (as long as LBJ is a superstar). I don't think either care much about the rivalry but it's gonna be fun to talk about for people now that KD is playing in a new team. It gives beat writers something to write about I guess. "Will Durant have the upper hand now?" kind of articles.

JordansBulls · Post #344 » by **JordansBulls** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 8:50 pm

Only thing going today for the Warriors thus far.

HeartBreakKid · Post #345 » by **HeartBreakKid** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 10:20 pm

Seems pretty clear at this point that it's Durants team

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SlowPaced · Post #346 » by **SlowPaced** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 10:26 pm

Great individual game from KD, but it was funny how his team choked the game away after that staredown against the Cavs bench when they went up double digits in the 4th. You're in no place to be cocky, KD.

Bergmaniac · Post #347 » by **Bergmaniac** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 10:30 pm

SlowPaced wrote:Great individual game from KD, but it was funny how his team choked the game away after that staredown against the Cavs bench when they went up double digits in the 4th. You're in no place to be cocky, KD.

He didn't make a shot after that, IIRC. He should have waited a bit.

picc · Post #348 » by **picc** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 10:33 pm

KD showed up. No hate.

But unanimous MVP kept his hand up after a late shot. That should have been enough for GS to win.

StepBackCrack · Post #349 » by **StepBackCrack** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 10:52 pm

Great game from him today. Shame GSW lost. Steph needs to wake up.

bigboi · Post #350 » by **bigboi** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:34 pm

KD_Steph wrote:Great game from him today. Shame GSW lost. Steph needs to wake up.

It's hard to get in the flow when you have KD demanding the ball every damn possession. It's not even fun to watch, Curry prob won't ever reach his peak

DreDay · Post #351 » by **DreDay** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:48 pm

bigboi wrote:
KD_Steph wrote:Great game from him today. Shame GSW lost. Steph needs to wake up.

It's hard to get in the flow when you have KD demanding the ball every damn possession. It's not even fun to watch, Curry prob won't ever reach his peak

I don't see how you can blame Durant for what Curry did today. Certainly the absence of Durant last season didn't stop Curry from making dumb decisions and failing to create good looks in the Finals.

eminence · Post #352 » by **eminence** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:54 pm

It's a balance. Durant had a great game from an individual standpoint, but at the same time it was one of his worst games in awhile as far as fitting into the team offensively. I expect him to continue to improve on that front and it should happen less and less as the season goes on.

StepBackCrack · Post #353 » by **StepBackCrack** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:54 pm

bigboi wrote:
KD_Steph wrote:Great game from him today. Shame GSW lost. Steph needs to wake up.

It's hard to get in the flow when you have KD demanding the ball every damn possession. It's not even fun to watch, Curry prob won't ever reach his peak

That's just wrong. I have followed most of GSW's games this season and Kevin doesn't dominate the ball more than Steph. Not at all. Also Steph showed he could dominate with Durant on the court. It's just that Steph is going through a slump atm. That's all. Today, the ball movement wasn't there. That's for sure but the ball movement has been great in most of their games. How is Steph's shooting slump is related to Durant? He is certainly missing the space Bogut provides him with his great screens but still that doesn't justify his shooting slump. I think his shooting slump just shows that he is a human after all and it's extremely hard to keep shooting at 45% from the 3 point line with such volume with hands in his face. Also maybe the increase in muscle he has gained in the off-season affected his shooting a bit negatively. That could be a factor.

Steph's role certainly got a bit reduced this season but that's great for his longevity. Durant being there takes off some pressure from him but he can still dominate games whenever he catches fire. He is just going through a mini slump atm. That's all. Durant didn't ruin GSW's system.

StepBackCrack · Post #354 » by **StepBackCrack** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 12:08 am

eminence wrote:It's a balance. Durant had a great game from an individual standpoint, but at the same time it was one of his worst games in awhile as far as fitting into the team offensively. I expect him to continue to improve on that front and it should happen less and less as the season goes on.

GSW players want him to play more aggressively tho. He passes a lot even when he is a great position to shot this season. He did overpass often this season for the sake of ball movement and get even more open shots. Sometimes it's just better for him to shot the semi-open shot instead of passing it to Iggy to shot from the corner. He has done a great job at moving the ball if you watched most of GSW games this season. However, finding the perfect balance of being very aggressive and not hurting the ball movement is certainly a challenge. ISO Durant is not a bad offensive option tho. It's a luxury GSW have when they aren't playing well and need buckets.

StepBackCrack · Post #355 » by **StepBackCrack** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:22 pm

If the game was called fair by the refs, none of the "LBJ outplayed KD" talk would happen. I guess next time these 2 meet I'll just look at who got the W and decide who outplayed who because that's what most care about. I like KD chances of beating LBJ more often than not this season so that's fine by me.

Le-Lyonnais · Post #356 » by **Le-Lyonnais** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 7:08 pm

He had a great game. He's having a great season.

But for someone who left seeking for a pass-happy, find the open man team, he sure looked like his old self during the 4th quarter. Lot of iso bball except this time, he didn't have Westbrook as a scapegoat.

Speaking of Russ, he's thriving in clutch time this season and so is the Thunder. Makes you wonder who really was the problem for all the Thunder's shortcomings in late game situations last year.

All of that being said, I'm still impressed at how fast Durant has fit with this team. Now the issue will be about making Curry fit as well because he sure hasn't been playing like his MVP self this season.

StepBackCrack · Post #357 » by **StepBackCrack** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 8:38 pm

Le-Lyonnais wrote:He had a great game. He's having a great season.

But for someone who left seeking for a pass-happy, find the open man team, he sure looked like his old self during the 4th quarter. Lot of iso bball except this time, he didn't have Westbrook as a scapegoat.

Speaking of Russ, he's thriving in clutch time this season and so is the Thunder. Makes you wonder who really was the problem for all the Thunder's shortcomings in late game situations last year.

All of that being said, I'm still impressed at how fast Durant has fit with this team. Now the issue will be about making Curry fit as well because he sure hasn't been playing like his MVP self this season.

First of all, I appreciate your civil approach when talking about KD considering that you are an OKC fan so thanks for that. 2nd of all, I think he was great yesterday OVERALL but not perfect. If he was perfect, they would have won (even with the refs heavily favoring the Cavs) because I expected better from him in the 4th tbh. I just think it's unfair to blame the loss on him since he was great overall and several things went against GSW (Refs being unfair especially to Green and Steph being super cold).

May I ask how many GSW games you have watched this season? I feel like people who hate GSW and don't like watching them will find it hard to rate how well Durant is playing this season because they aren't watching him to begin with. If people started watching Durant's play in GSW this season yesterday because it was a huge game, then they won't see that Durant made some serious effort to fit in the system. He played lots of ISO ball yesterday and yes he looked like OKC Durant a lot of times but that doesn't mean that he played like that all season. It's really wrong to assume that. If you watched most of their games this season, you would see clearly that he has adjusted his style of play to fit GSW's system. He put serious effort into that to the degree he does overpass sometimes. Even GSW players asked him to be more aggressive. They want him to make the best use of his all-time scoring talent. GSW's dominant style will always ball movement since that what made them great to begin with. That said, that doesn't mean that Kerr should never run any ISO plays for KD because honestly, he is too great of an ISO player to not to utilize that ability when the team need that. KD adds another great option for GSW's offense if ball movement isn't working somehow. It's quite important for GSW to show that offensive versatility. It's really about finding the perfect balance. Kerr has to use Steph right as well not just KD, Green and Klay.

KD35Brah · Post #358 » by **KD35Brah** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 10:35 pm

Read on Twitter

juice4080 · Post #359 » by **juice4080** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 10:39 pm

KD35Brah wrote:

Read on Twitter

if i was a betting man...id bet the house on golden state jan 16
there's gonna be some good makeup sex in oakland on that night

picc · Post #360 » by **picc** » Tue Dec 27, 2016 1:08 am

How much of a problem with iso scoring did you guys have when Kyrie and Lebron were using it to win the last championship?

Was it cancerous then too? Because it seems like a hell of a lot of championships are won by players just busting their man's ass one on one.