Kevin Durant’s ELITE defense has helped unlock the Phoenix Suns

Kevin Durant’s ELITE defense has helped unlock the Phoenix Suns

My call and my purpose of being a human being is to be the greatest basketball player I could be I mean that’s that’s that’s that’s the reason why I’m alive at this point you know so I got to I got to lock in on every aspect of the game

And become great at it and I’m still Working KD got up there and said that the group that was in there uh near the end of the third I think they closed on like a 14 six run to get it down to 12 or 14 something like that that was what in his mind helped shift the game so you

Got to give credit to those guys for it it was very subtle only outscoring your opponent by eight points over a stretch there it’s not going to turn anyone’s head when you’re down by 20 plus right but it did help kind of crack the door

Open a little bit and then KD being able to guard sabonis was Monumental down the stretch because he was slicing and dicing them all night he had a triple double he was great he’s an Allstar and KD was able to handle that physicality and basically not just guard sa bonus

But switch out onto perimeter guards and stop them as well it was hilarious I think one of my favorite comments last night was somebody who was like uh they went small with Katie at the five and sabonis just completely forgot how to play basketball yeah pretty much I was

Like but honestly like shout out to KD for that one but as well you bring up his defense Gerald you talked about it as well KD has embraced playing defense for this team here’s what he had to say about offering himself up on that end I offered myself up this summer when we

Were having conversations about how we wanted to play and I told Coach I told uh James Josh like my job is to uh be a lock down Defender you know obviously I’m not going to be perfect every night but to go out there and trust that I can go out there make life

Tough for the other opposing players I that’s a part of my job description I mean I mean that’s a f i mean I’m long athletic I can move I’m experienced why shouldn’t I be held accountable to play Topline defense against anybody in the league you know like I’m not saying I’m stopping

Everybody but I think I could make life tough for for any player in the league um you know and it’s some great players out here but I feel like I can just play hard and use my length and my attributes to make life tough and I want those

Assignments so coach trusting me coach staff trusting me even more I know I’m getting older I think that’s probably why uh we didn’t see this a little earlier in the season but um start showing and prooving I prove to the coaching staff that I can do it and

Know trust me more and more I get more opportunities like that first of all man shout out to Kevin Durant man I mean what he’s done in these last four games the challenges on defense the other night against Portland I went back and looked at that tape and

He was chasing Simons all over the damn floor okay now I I wondered this I went home and I was actually in my head I’m saying what did Kevin do that stopped sabonis from being sabonis because he was being so physical he was attacking at well and I’m thinking Kevin Durant

Physically is nowhere near nerkach how did that happen and when I went back and looked at it man it just shows sometimes it’s about effort and it’s about what’s between the ears he didn’t take the pump fakes he he used his length and verticality he said

You’re stronger than me but I know that you like to use your pump to get into a lot of your things I’m gonna sit on that I’m gonna make you shoot over me and if you want to get real physical then I’m going to put you in a spot where you

Might I might take a charge or I may have you in your head so so bonus started taking fadea away jumpers and and I I I’m looking I’m saying that’s a guy that’s been in the league that’s a guy that knows the game and that’s a guy

That can go in the locker room now and say yo guys like we can do this like we can do this if I can go out there and D that guy y’all can step up and do things on on on another level so that’s that’s

Why KD’s KD and that’s why he’s on my Mount Rushmore man that guy’s just got it between the ears it’s just infectious when he plays that way and we’ve we’ve seen and criticized the other side of it when you know the transition defense isn’t there or when the body language is

Bad but when it’s like that you see the effect it has on everybody else the way it lifts everybody up um and he had mentioned to your point about defending sabonis like his goal he knows that sabonis is physical so he said I tried to play him with physicality and push

Out where he was getting his catches further away from the basket he was saying he likes to just hold the ball like this and let guys cut Every Which Way and throw passes and get his triple doubles but I was just trying to get up into him put some pressure on him force

Him to be a little bit uncomfortable and you could see the way it threw off the king’s entire offense in that stretch with the small ball lineup so he knows the game so incredibly well and the fact that he was able to do that in a game

Where let’s be honest most of us including maybe some of the players thought it was already over um that was pretty spectacular yeah I I I loved it and I but I want to give Frank vogle a little credit going to that look because after going up against nerk for a

Majority of that game it was such a vastly different defensive look and utilizing Katie linked and that IQ uh disrupted sabonis enough because he kind of got in that Rhythm and knew what he could get from nerk and it it changed in that fourth and and that was just enough

To kind of get them unsettled and it snowballed like we were talking about because they just went through playing a game against the Bucks and having having all sorts of issues in that fourth so so I think vogle deserves a lot of credit for making the adjustment now is it a

Long-term adjustment no I don’t think you’re going to but it was the right adjustment in that moment and I think you could see it in different situations I was going to ask you that and Gerald and all of you guys we saw the lineup of book Bill Grayson Gordon KD right um I’m

Starting to wonder if that isn’t something that you go to in spurts every game like I and I know matchups is matchup based and sometimes but like I it made me it gave me a little bit of a feel of the old Steve Nash 7 seconds or

Less I remember going into that season and everybody saying well where out where are these guys gonna play you can’t play Joe Johnson and Quinton Richardson and Steve Nash all together Shawn Marin’s too small to be a four mari’s too small to be a five and and

Eventually they were like no that’s what we gonna do and it something sparked quick and they ran with it I’m not saying you can do that long term but I’m starting to question if that’s how you get to the 43 pointers that KD wants right if if you go out there and you

Pump that lineup in five six seven minutes a game spread it out and allow these guys that just spread the floor and be demons at the three-point line if you can get 35 to 40 shots a game man this team’s gonna be really tough to beat well and I think it might answer

Your question of who’s GNA play the five when you’re playing athletic guys maybe maybe KD can spell some of those I he’s not going to play them all but he can be an option maybe you turn to uh that unlocks things on the other end of the

Floors yeah and it kind of goes back to what I said last night and why I keep talking about reps is like this is a perfect opportunity to try out a different lineup and that’s what what why we keep beating this dead horse about having different reps and

Different lineups and having all your guys available it’s so you can try [ __ ] like that like obviously last night worked out in a historic way that none of us were expecting I’m not going to say that’s going to be what it is every time vogle tweets the lineup yes it isal

But this why you have the regular season so you can experiment with these things the Suns haven’t had those same opportunities so last night was a very positive sign that like in a in a pinch in the playoffs if you’re up against a team that has that same type of free

Flowing offense go small switch everything and you know that KD can log some minutes as a small ball five that’s huge to know ahead of time yeah going back to KD’s defense though um I think the reason why maybe we get on him so much when things get a little bit heavy

For this team is because we know that this is what happens when KD chooses to do what we know that he can do and Lead this team in that way because he’s it like you said it’s infectious like these guys all look up to you and have for

Their entire lives so yeah as you go this team goes you know and you can the same can be said about a lot of guys on this team especially within that big three but KD especially I think as he goes this team goes when it comes to en

Setting the tone defensively and I think that’s a very selfless thing for KD to take on this season as well and he also talked about what fuels his drive to be a good Defender what what fuels I mean purpose of being a human being is to be the greatest basketball

Player I could be I mean that’s that’s that’s that’s the reason why I’m alive at this point you know so I got to I got to lock in on every aspect of the game and become great at it yeah I’m still working I thought his call and purpose

Was be a fashion icon he’s stealing Lindsay’s look so that’s a bar though I mean right K Katie has so many lines when he retires somebody needs to go back there you should probably start now because there’s probably a lot of them and super cut all of like those oneoff

Lines it’s just like damn okay Katie tell them like it is let’s just auto tune it and create a whole album I think you know people get Weezy on the phone manow key I know Katie is in the music scene like they should drop these in throughout songs not

Terrible idea you see it all the time these little skits that okay put him on the prel my purpose in life is to beat everybody’s ass CU I’m Kevin Durant I love it yo let’s do it yeah I love it tell me that wouldn’t work out well um but so KD just

Listen defensively the what he has done for this team in this last handful of games even the Clippers game where he told book and Beal like hey don’t worry about me I’ll get myself involved uh I’m going to take on this incredibly tough defensive assignment that’s that’s going

To be important for this team because just his leadership in that area again I say it multiple times but it’s so infectious and this team needs to play better defense we’ve been harping on that all season so Katie please be our savior make this team play defense yeah

It it’s interesting that he mentioned kind of the trust thing from the coaching staff as well because he’s 35 years old you don’t want to put those extra stresses on him but over the last four games we’ve seen him take a sacrificial role on offense I would like

To see him a little bit more involved later you know earlier than the fourth quarter when he got the majority of his shots but defensively it’s been kawhai it’s been LeBron it’s been Simons like you mentioned last night sabonis um and just the fact that he feels that I am a

Lock down Defender like use me in that way if you need me to that’s incredible from your Superstar who’s your best offensive player and one of your oldest significant players on the team yeah I mean and the the it test and the stats show how effective it’s been I mean what

LeBron have 10 the night uh Simons was 11 of 31 yeah I believe we saw what he did to sabonis in in the fourth he’s taking on the challenge but he’s also delivering too because a lot of guys can talk to talk he’s actually backing it up

With at least in the last three games really lock down defense yeah I mean listen it’s early this this could be I mean I I this might be his best defensive season like I I but if he continues to do this I mean will you be shocked if he gets all NBA Defensive

Votes I think the suns are going to have to climb the standings because they’re the I wish that they would expand to three all defensive teams it’s dumb that we have it for pretty much everything else except for defense but I I do think like Warriors seasons were really good

Defensively and those were on like you know top five defenses so the Suns have some work to do as a team cuz voters aren’t going to give it to a guy who’s on a subpar defense you hear that Sons don’t let K down rise to the challenge step up bro

Kevin Durant has been one of the greatest to touch the court since the moment he came into the league, and that is no different on the defensive end during his stint with the Phoenix Suns. The PHNX Suns crew dives deep into KD’s impact on that end of the floor.

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