DIscussing what Kevin Durant might look like in his new role.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Kevin Durant play basketball. The last time we saw him, he was striking fear into Raptors fans hearts in the NBA Finals as a member of the Golden State Warriors.
Now, he’s in a completely different city with the Brooklyn Nets. One thing that we do know will be the same, though, is his role as an absolutely terrifying offensive threat. The biggest difference there might be what position he actually plays.
Durant has played small forward for most of his career and been a matchup nightmare. He evolved a bit after his move to Golden State and started to play power forward a bit more.
Now, in Brooklyn, he’ll play a bit of power forward and center, Durant told ESPN’s Malika Andrews.
That’s a pretty interesting development for the Nets. It’s one that was expected, but also one that comes with a bit of risk now that Durant is coming back from such a devastating injury.
Let’s dive into the pros and cons of Durant playing big.
The pros
Kevin Durant is a walking matchup nightmare — period.
For smaller players, he’s always tall enough to rise up and shoot over them. For bigger players, he’s always had enough handle and shooting ability to slither his way by them and finish at the rim. If Durant looks anything like his former self, that’s not going to change. He’s still got that height and that silky smooth jumper.
That’s when he was at his best in Golden State. The team’s most dominant lineup with at least 50 minutes played featured Durant at power forward with Draymond Green at center. They had a plus-28 net rating in 38 games played.
The Nets would be absolutely silly not to tap into that. If Durant still looks like Durant, him at power forward would unlock a new, otherworldly level for their offense. Same goes for him at center, where there aren’t many players who could guard him even if the Nets are weaker defensively.
But here’s where the problem actually comes in.
The cons
This could be an absolute disaster for the Nets defensively. We know Kevin Durant is going to lose a step because of his Achilles tear. That could be a huge problem for Durant — particularly if he’s going to play center. This piece from The Athletic’s Seth Partnow offers a bit of perspective on how Durant could be impacted by his injury,
Partnow talked with Dr. Joshua Baxter who is a research assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Orthopedic surgery. The entire interview is worth checking out, but here’s a bit of what Baxter had to say on where Durant might be limited.
“The ACL is still a really bad injury, you don’t want it. It increases the likelihood of osteoarthritis later in life, but it is a ligament injury. So if you can replace that ligament you should theoretically be able to have pre-injury-level function. But with a tendon injury that becomes a complex tendon and muscle issue, you may be living under new functional constraints that limit how much you can push off against the ground and how hard you could cut.”
Think about how this applies to Durant on switches when he has to guard small, jitterbug point guards or when he has to show and recover at center. Can he make that extra effort to get back to the rim and contest a shot? Can he get as vertical on shot contests as he once did? Will he make his rotations on time?
The answer, with what we know, seems to be probably not. And, if that’s the case, Durant could be a huge liability defensively for the Nets at power forward and center.
We’ll see how it plays out. Hopefully, for the Nets, it goes well. If not? We’ll see how they adjust. Either way, it’ll be pretty fun to watch.
