Tag: Kevin Durant (Page 9 of 13)
When handicapping the NBA MIP award, I always like to look at the player’s original draft position. Here’s a table with the last 20 winners of the MIP award. Take a look:
Notice anything? Only one MIP winner in the last 16 years (Tracy McGrady) was drafted in the first 12 picks.
It appears that the voters don’t just look at overall improvement, they also take into account unexpected improvement.
Looking at TrueHoop’s list of MIP candidates that received more than one vote from a panel of voters, here are draft positions for each player: Kevin Durant (2), Andrew Bogut (1), Corey Brewer (7), Joakim Noah (9), Josh Smith (17), Russell Westbrook (4), Aaron Brooks (26), Anderson Varejao (30), Channing Frye (8), Al Horford (3), Andray Blatche (49) and Zach Randolph (19).
Can we safely cross Durant, Bogut, Noah, Westbrook, Frye and Horford off the list?
What in the hell am I talking about, you ask? If you haven’t heard, Phil Jackson told the press that Kevin Durant gets too many calls, and the 21-year-old responded by saying that he felt disrespected.
Rumors & Rants says that Durant fell into the Zen Master’s trap.
Look man, I know you’re a great player, hell the whole world knows you’re a great player and Phil Jackson is definitely aware of the kind of player you are. You think he just tossed that line out there to be disrespectful? Dude, the guy is the Zen master. He’s won 10 championships. He didn’t do that by just randomly disrespecting opponents. He’s planting a line in the media to get you to respond and you allowed yourself to be played. You jumped right in to his game.
What you should have done was respond with something like this: “Well that’s his opinion. He’s a great coach, he’s earned the right to express his opinion.” Bingo, end of discussion. Instead of a throw-away story that would have died after a day or two, now this is going to balloon up and become THE story of the Thunder’s first round matchup with the defending champions.
Now it’s on your shoulders to prove him wrong. Now everyone will be focused on how you play and how you respond if the officials don’t give you the kind of calls you’ve become accustomed to. And now the officials are going to be in the spotlight and will be criticized one way or the other for how they call the games.
Instead of just disappearing this has become a full-fledged incident. Jackson knew exactly what he was doing and you became his latest patsy.
No arguments here. We’ll see if Durant plays better, worse or the same now that he and Jackson are at odds.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Phil Jackson’s mind games have begun, and Kevin Durant is none too happy about it.
Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson told reporters Wednesday that Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant gets preferential treatment from referees.
“Yeah, by the calls he gets, he really gets to the line a lot, I’ll tell ya,” Jackson said, according to The Oklahoman’s Web site.
Of course, those of us that have watched Jackson over the years realizes that this is his not-so-subtle attempt at getting into the heads of the officials.
Still, Durant didn’t take the slight kindly.
“I don’t disrespect nobody in this league,” Durant said, according to the report. “I respect every coach, every player, everybody. I never say anything bad about anybody else or question why they do this or do that. So for them to say that about me, I don’t even want to use no foul language.”
“If the refs pay attention to that and change how they call things because of that, that’s terrible,” Durant said, according to the newspaper. “That’s terrible to the game of basketball and to us. If that happens, then [coach] Scotty [Brooks] could talk, too. Or any other coach could talk, too, just so the refs could switch everything up. But I doubt they do that.”
Durant shot 10.2 free throws per game this season, compared to Kobe Bryant’s 7.4, but in Kobe’s heyday — when he would relentlessly attack the rim — he shot 10.1, 10.2 and 10.0 from 2004 to 2007. I wonder if Jackson thought that the Laker superstar got too many calls during that stretch.
Good scorers who are aggressive get to the line. Durant and LeBron James led the league with 10.2 attempts per game, and Dwight Howard was third with 10.0.
Durant is a really tough cover — that’s why he gets to the line.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
A: Luc Mbah a Moute and Ron Artest
Kevin Durant is answering questions on his Twitter page and as a Bucks fan, it’s great to see Mbah a Moute get some props. He’s challenged offensively, but more than makes up for it on the defensive end. If he can get a decent jump shot, he’d be a great fit alongside 3-4 shooter/scorer types in a starting five.
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