GET UP | Brian Windhorst explains why Miami Heat are best ‘realistic’ landing spot for Kevin Durant
so you don’t think Kevin Durant is the player that he used to be well guess what you are dead wrong to paraphrase Mark Twain reports of KD’s demise have been greatly exaggerated let’s start with this durant is the only player ever to put together three straight seasons averaging 25 points on 5040 shooting take one guess when he did that the answer is he’s done it the last three years that streak is active in fact in the five seasons since he tore his Achilles KD has averaged 28 points on 53% shooting 42% from three he remains what he has always been a bucket maybe the best pure scorer that ever lived but there’s so much more to his game over the last two seasons KD has 119 steals and 168 blocks there are a total of three three other players who have amassed as many of both and Durant has also put the D in KD follow this stat with me there were 209 players who last year were the closest defender on at least 500 shots kd’s field goal allowance was ninth among those ninth out of 209 he’s literally doing everything on the floor but Greeny you’re going to say his team was awful not when he was playing it wasn’t in the 62 games he played last year the Suns were 33 and 29 they went 3 and7 without him the point of all of this in case it isn’t clear is that like his contemporaries LeBron and Steph KD has not significantly slowed down plus he’s younger than both of them 6 months younger than Curry almost four years younger than James so now I’m hearing there are teams like say the Knicks who reportedly think they’re better off without this guy to quote Mark Twain again “Get your facts first then you can distort them as you please.” That’s how I see it let me bring my basketball crew back into the conversation for this here come McNut and Allan Han i’ve been waiting for them all morning long winman I’ll start with you in a hotel room in Indiana right now sitting on an end table with a pillow on it trying to make yourself comfortable in a crowded room what do you make of my Durant numbers yeah I I think a lot of teams agree with you Greeny i I just for the nuance here I don’t think it’s that people don’t want Durant i think the disagreement is what Durant wants and what the price to pay for a 37 soon to be 37y old who uh is probably going to want a 2-year $120 million extension that’s the issue in the case of the Knicks because you brought them up it’s more that the what they have on their roster would be so impacted by a Durant trade and so you know that it there’s nuance in there but if you’re asking me whether if I talk to people in the league people believe that Kevin Durant is still an elite player the answer is yes they do okay good because what I was hearing sitting here yesterday was Durant is now an auxiliary piece durant is now a 1B durant is now a guy that needs to be teamed with another superstar to have a chance to win and in the NBA today that’s true of literally everyone what I wanted to demonstrate with Hembo’s work and again we we work on these things together completely in tandem is that every single metric every way of measuring a player’s performance suggests that Kevin Durant remains among the very best players in the NBA and to just turn your nose up at the chance of getting that in the name of some team chemistry we think we’re building or something like that feels to me like a very arrogant move this is an alltime great player who is still in his prime he air quoted team chemistry basically talking to us right staring at us continuity okay i mean I I I I’m just I I can’t take it i’m going to give you the one number that matters most to everybody that’s involved in this situation age that’s the concern because although LeBron James keeps blasting through those glass ceilings about age and showing you that even at 40 you can still play at the highest level in the sport there does come a point where the drop off happens and it’s never a slow drop it is a plummet usually that’s what happens you are waiting for it for somebody like Kevin Durant but he isn’t doing because he’s such an efficient score the problem that I think right now you have is what Wendy said i think the Knicks would love to have them on the roster they would love to have him in the starting lineup with a guy like Jaylen Brunson the problem is you can’t anymore in today’s NBA make a trade like that and still have a team left to play case in point Phoenix Suns they got him they were going to build a super team the problem was it’s three guys and no one else you can’t do that and so it’s not possible i don’t think the extension is even part of the problem i think it’s the cost of bringing him in with a trade because you’ve already done a two for one for Cat now you’d have to do a two for one for him you’re running out of players it’s just not feasible the cost of him only accentuates your point Greeney like you understand that he’s still a viable number one number two option whatever you want to say in terms of a team trying to go on a championship run i think it is the cost because of the numbers that you pointed out and quick point out Golden State got him because of a loophole yes that’s how you were able they just signed him he became a free agent and they were able to sign him in the one year where the TV contracts exploded the salary cap and it was a it was a one-year blip and it wound up being what it was and I think it has completely shaped the narrative around Durant’s career from that point forward mostly in a negative way which is what it is now Windman you also pointed out something else because I keep bringing up the Knicks everyone else sitting here yesterday including you Monica were bringing up Minnesota and the possibility of him teaming up with Anthony Edwards Wendy what did you tell us was said yesterday that didn’t pick up as much traction as it should well my colleague Mark Spears who is very plugged into everything in the NBA reported yesterday on NBA Today that Anne Edwards who was very close with Kevin Durant from last year’s Olympic team looks at him as an idol um he is not actively recruiting Durant he is not a part of this process he’s in Atlanta doing his offseason workouts he’s not involved and you know I’m not going to speak or have conjecture as to why um I know that Ant and having been around the Olympic team last year I know that Ant would defer to Kevin on just about everything and if Kevin doesn’t want to be in Minnesota which has been articulated I could see Ant not putting pressure on him but you know I know a lot of people say “Well why wouldn’t Durant just want to go be with Ant because they’re such a devastating force together?” That was in important context that Spears reported so that’s an interesting one too yeah I kind of like that it’s a little bit of an ode to the old school I would say in terms of and we know how much pride Anthony Edwards took in knocking the Suns out a season ago in terms of the postseason like it’s a it’s a little bit of a tip of the cap to the the way it used to be in terms of not necessarily teaming up and being able to appreciate the opportunity to compete now I I do agree with Wendy if Katie said this what we going to do i think there would be a different conversation but I kind of appreciate that Ant has just kind of held it down and been like I’m going to figure it out one way or another with or without you yeah i’m not going to chase you right i’m not going to sweat it if you want to come play here great if you don’t then he’ll have fun competing against him i think for Kevin Durant right now there are other options at least he hopes so or thinks so i just don’t know if there’s that big of a market right now and it again has nothing to do with greatness everything you said there I completely agree with numbers efficiency everything about him but I think the market is not going to be there for him for what he might want and also what Phoenix might want they might have to trade him to an at a price that people will be shocked about how low it is for a guy of his level and his Let me add one more stat go Indie let me add one more stat greeny um he has missed at least 20 games in six of the last seven years so he did play 62 games this year and 75 the year before some of that is you know legacy of the Achilles but he has missed a lot of games as he’s gotten into his mid to late 30s yeah I mean that that is part of the conversation as I mentioned he played the 62 this year they had a record that was four games over 500 in those games that he played in the 20 that he missed they were three and 17 i will be very interested to see what happens with Durant meanwhile for taking there oh no that happened [Music]
GET UP | Brian Windhorst explains why Miami Heat are the best ‘realistic’ landing spot for Kevin Durant
