Durant, Durant
It’s easy to overlook what Kevin Durant is doing this season. The 19-year-old rookie out of Texas plays on a bad team, on the West Coast, in a city that may not even have an NBA team next year. But make no mistake: Durant is adjusting well to the NBA.
“He’s learned an awful lot,” Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said before tonight’s game. “He’s playing a lot more efficiently. He’s defending a lot better.”
It may come as news to some on the East Coast, but Durant is averaging 19.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in his rookie year. And he’s done it while facing an incredible amount of pressure from opponents.
“I think he’s competing a lot better [as the season has gone on],” said Carlesimo. “Teams have really come after him aggressively and double-teamed him, and exposed him to a lot of things that rookies don’t normally see. Rookies usually get a bit of a pass because everybody is setting their defense for the better players. And rookies, even the good ones, don’t usually get special defenses…Kevin saw a lot of that early, and it was really tough. I think right now he’s handling that much better.”
On a rebuilding Sonics team, Durant is often the sole focus of opposing defenses.
“It’s hard for people to understand how different his rookie year is than most,” said Carlesimo. “I don’t know how far back you have to go. LeBron (James) would probably be similar, in terms of what he’s seen as a rookie that most people don’t normally see.”
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