Currently on the San Diego side for the Nets training camp, Kevin Durant is quietly warming up for his… 15th NBA season. Yes yes, already. At 33, he is now one of those veterans who have been at the forefront of observing the evolution of the NBA game over the past decade. An evolution that has cost a lot of players, but KD is rather the type to dominate in all styles.
When Kevin Durant arrived in the Big League in 2007 and started to really make noise in his first few seasons, the League was a lot different from what we know today. Much slower pace, a lot more half-court play and a lot less 3-points. The scores were logically lower than they are now, but Durant was already at the top of NBA scoring as he won three consecutive top scoring titles between 2010 and 2012, averaging almost 29 points with the Thunder. He will add a fourth, with an MVP trophy as a bonus, in 2014. Through the Stephen Curry / Warriors revolution in the mid-2010s, the entire NBA game has changed. The 3-point shooting has become central, the small ball has started to live its best hours, the meaning of the different positions and the expectations that go with them have evolved, and the pace has greatly accelerated. To sum up, the modern NBA has probably never been as focused on attack as it is today, and the numbers are there to prove it (112.1 points average per team over the season last year, record since the 1980s). Certain “traditional” pivots have paid the price in particular (cuckoo Roy Hibbert), while others have taken advantage of this development to explode. In the NBA, adaptation is the key word. Kevin Durant can clearly attest to that.
“We played at a much slower pace when I arrived in the League and today things are going very quickly, especially with 3-points. I think I managed to adapt to this. No matter what happens next, I’ll be ready. “
– Kevin Durant, via ESPN
Today is 2021, and Kevin Durant is still considered the ultimate striker in the NBA. Even after a ruptured Achilles tendon, KD is capable of pulling out a 27-point campaign averaging 53-45-88 in percentages, as was the case last year in his first “real” season in Brooklyn. And even though he’s just turned 33, there’s no indication he’s on the downswing, no matter if the style of play in the NBA today seems more to suit young athletic players. And somewhere, that’s really what makes Durant great. No matter the era, no matter the style of play, KD is here to dominate, period. The Slim Reaper is itself a symbol of the evolution of the game over the years. Initially position 3 at the Thunder where he played alongside interiors Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins, he gradually switched to 4 and it has even happened to him to play 5, whether with the Warriors or the Nets in recent years.
The versatility of the man and his unique profile – 2m10 with the skills of a rear and the shoot of a sniper – allowed à Durant to become in a way the ultimate weapon in current basketball, he who has also progressed defensively and in playmaking throughout his career. When he was in the Thunder, he proved to the entire NBA planet how unstoppable he could be in isolation while taking advantage of the openings created by Russell Westbrook to crash, especially in catch & shoot. At the Warriors, he was able to join an XXL collective already in place, where the movement of the ball and the players was at the heart of Steve Kerr’s system. He simply joined the group that changed the face of the NBA, to make it even stronger. And that is not given to all superstars. If the Warriors have sometimes fallen into isolation galore with KD, it was really at Golden State that the latter fleshed out his game to become more complete on both sides of the field. And today in Brooklyn, Durant is having a blast with two offensive geniuses who really need the pump, namely James Harden and Kyrie Irving. When one or both are absent, as in the 2021 Playoffs, KD can take over without problem and carry an attack on its own, with a lot of scoring but also playmaking. And when his buddies are there, he can leave the creation to his buddies and maximize his offensive efficiency. With the ball, without the ball, on half court or in transition, it doesn’t matter. Kevin Durant can do it all, and that makes him one of the most adaptable players in gaming history.
When you have the talent, the profile and the versatility of Kevin Durant, the NBA game can change from A to Z that does not change much for him in the end. He’s not the kind of player who pays for his athleticism decline with age. He is not the kind of player who loses his impact because of the changes in the NBA’s style of play, quite the contrary. It is not for nothing that we speak of an all-time player …
Text source: ESPN
