35.8 Reasons Why Kevin Durant is the MVP of the Association
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Most of Durant’s offense during that series was coming from the middle of the floor or the outside. He was shooting a lot of threes and taking a lot of midrange jump shots because Memphis wouldn’t allow him to get into the lane without giving the ball up. Only 15.8% of his shots came from in the restricted area. That’s over 20% less than how many of his attempts have come at the rim during this stretch.
Durant obviously isn’t facing the Memphis Grizzlies 2012-13 defense in a series right now, so things are different. When the opponent has multiple games to scout you, find your weaknesses and capitalize on them things get harder. That’s what happened to Durant last season. But if he’s caught in that bind again this season, will things be any different?
Only time will tell. And, again, Westbrook should be playing barring any complications with his nagging knee. But things will open up again once Westbrook is back on the floor.
Still, playoffs be damned, there’s no questioning the stretch that Durant is putting together right now. We’ll see how long he can keep this up, but there’s no doubt that he’s playing the best basketball in the league right now.
There should be no question about how great Durant is as a player. He’ll go down as one of the better scorers to ever pick up a ball and could probably retire as a Hall of
Famer right now. But this stretch really solidifies what we’ve known for two or three years now.
What will be interesting to see is how Durant performs come playoff time if Westbrook is absent. He should be back by then, but if he isn’t defenses will obviously stack the lane against Durant and force him to play outside. It’s not something that he isn’t capable of doing, but rim shots are the most desired in the game. 37.8% of Durant’s attempts are coming in the restricted area. He’s shooting a gaudy 63% from that spot; that doesn’t include the attempts that he draws shooting fouls on. The rim is an important part of Durant’s scoring and that’s clear. Now, looking at his shot distribution from the playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies.
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By Michale Sykes II