Opportunity and burden for Kevin Durant

With Kyrie Irving and James Harden out, a chance for Durant to attack the narrative of his own creation.

Jun 15

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Adoration in the Name of God, Francisco Goya

James Harden remains out for the Brooklyn Nets. Kyrie Irving will miss at least Game 5 of Brooklyn’s series against the Bucks; any NBA fan who saw his turned ankle would probably agree that he’s not playing again in this series. Kevin Durant and only Kevin Durant will carry the Rest of the Nets into the crucial Game 5 on Tuesday, the last star standing on the East’s most potent superteam.

This is a great burden for Durant, as evidenced by Game 4 of this series, in which P.J. Tucker put himself in KD’s pocket and the Bucks dared the Rest of the Nets to beat them. They could not. Perhaps home cooking — Game 5 is at Barclays — will change the equation.

Or perhaps Durant will pull Tucker’s ‘chute, force the Bucks to overcompensate on defense and use his supreme playmaking ability to spring open looks for Joe Harris and Landry Shamet, bend the defense to clear cutting space for Blake Griffin and Jeff Green, have one of those infamous Kevin Durant games where it looks like he’s the greatest scorer we’ve ever seen.

This is so clearly a burden for Durant, a burden he’s tried to avoid in the years since leaving Oklahoma City, a burden he’s shunned by surrounding himself with other great scorers. To be clear, this is not a critique. In an NBA focused on championships, this was a wise bet: it’s really hard to win titles, you need a large margin for error to guarantee it because stuff happens (see 2019), you build a margin for error with more talent, even duplicative talent. That’s a big reason, whether stated or not, why the Nets traded depth and youth for Harden despite already having Irving. Sure, Durant-Harden-Irving is the stuff of dreams. But if and/or when you lose one of them, you’ll need the other two to beat teams like Milwaukee (assuming Milwaukee is healthy; margins for error are fluid in this way). You trade for Harden just as much for the downside risk of injuries to Irving or Durant as you do the upside potential of a three-headed scoring and playmaking monster.

This is also now an incredibly opportunity for Durant’s legacy. Winning this series and the next and making the Finals “on his own” without Harden and Irving might earn the biggest font on his resumé, bigger than the scoring titles, the MVP, the two Finals MVPs, the championship. And it’s totally doable. The Bucks looked awful in Brooklyn earlier this series. Have they figured something out, or did they just pull out a rock fight in Game 3 and ride the Nets’ injury implosion in Game 4? The Sixers and Hawks are headed for seven, it seems, with Joel Embiid clearly struggling himself. The Nets can do this without Harden and Irving, at least for now, maybe. But this requires a supernova effort from Durant, a historic performance from Durant. Here’s his chance to overwhelm the narrative, to flood the conversation, to leave no doubt in any troll’s mind that he is truly one of the all-time greats.

I mean, he’s already proven himself to be one of the all-time greats. This is a matter of stratum. He can jump up a tier in most peoples’ eyes by pulling this off. And I’m not sure his legacy would have gained all that much from a Finals run with a healthy Irving and/or Harden. But for the critics — and we know Durant is aware of and in conversation with his critics — this could be a huge shift.

The opportunity is there. The burden is there. Which will it be for Durant?

Scores

Sixers 100, Hawks 103 (Series tied 2-2) — Joel Embiid in the first half: 13 points, 4/8 shooting, 1 turnover, Sixers lead by 13, handsome. Joel Embiid in the second half: 4 points, 0/12 shooting (Zero For Twelve, As In Twelve Shots With None Of Them Going In), 3 turnovers, broken, Hawks erase the margin and win by three. Just a horrifying second half for Philadelphia.

The defense held for the Sixers — Atlanta just barely won this game, it was in real question down to the buzzer, the Hawks couldn’t shoot either — but when Embiid struggles like that and the opponent has a rim protector to prevent Ben Simmons from attacking the cup and Tobias Harris isn’t going nuts, it’s tough (to score and to watch). Embiid is clearly in serious discomfort, and I really hope a) playing 36 minutes didn’t cause additional damage and b) he can play in the rest of this series with a bit more lift.

We’re going to have a conversation about Trae Young at some point. The former Trae Young skeptics like to claim that they weren’t wrong about him, he’s just changed as a player. Give me a hawking break, with all due respect. You don’t just “change” overnight from a bad, selfish NBA player to someone with 18 assists and two turnovers against an elite defense in a playoff game at age 22. He was shooting poorly, and hell yeah he still took a ton of shots. But he found a way to get his teammates the ball and led the team to victory.

Many of us saw the capacity for creative superstar play in Trae from late in his rookie season or earlier, even if the results weren’t there. So we called it: this kid is special. Skeptics chortled and highlighted his flaws. And lo! he’s special. Admit you’re wrong when you’re wrong.

Jazz 104, Clippers 118 (Series tied 2-2) — L.A. jumped on Utah from the tip. They led by as many as 29. The Jazz — led by Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic — made it interesting in the second half.

Kawhi Leonard made it more interesting, though.

NBA on TNT @NBAonTNT

KAWHI. OH MY GOODNESS. 🤯

Donovan Mitchell’s reaction: very good.

LA Clippers @LAClippers

😳

Joel Embiid’s reaction in the middle of his post-game press conference Zoom thing, after a brutal playoff loss: very good.

SportsCenter @SportsCenter

Joel Embiid reacted to Kawhi’s poster dunk in the middle of his post-game interview 😂😳

Kawhi’s postseason has really had it all.

The Jazz need Mike Conley back.

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Schedule

All times Eastern.

Storm at Fever, 7
Bucks at Nets, 8:30, TNT (Series tied 2-2)
Sky at Lynx, 9, ESPN2
Liberty at Aces, 10, ESPN3

Links

Tim Cato and Sam Amick at The Athletic on dissension within the Mavericks organization focused on a certain Haralabos Voulgaris, aka Haralabob, aka former cult NBA Internet figure and gambler, who was hired by Mark Cuban as an analytics director but has allegedly taken over the front office and angered Luka Doncic and others. ($) If the name “Haralabob” means nothing to you and you’re interested in learning why this story caught fire on NBA Twitter on Monday, here’s the requisite background.

The WNBA will hold an All-Star Game on July 14 featuring USA Basketball players vs. other WNBA players. The All-Star voting sounds a little wonky but I’m glad they figured out how to have All-Star in an Olympic year.

The NBA All-Defense teams are out. No real surprises. Four people left Draymond Green off their ballots entirely, which is a big ol’ hmm. It’s worth noting as it may become relevant in All-NBA matters that desite Joel Embiid being listed as a forward and center, he received only eight first-team forward votes for All-Defense. We can tell because Rudy Gobert, listed only at center, received the max 100 first-team votes. Ben Simmons also maxed out on first-team votes. This indicates to me that Embiid will probably be the second team All-NBA center and not a first team All-NBA forward. We’ll see, though.

Really interesting Ramona Shelburne ESPN Insider piece on Chauncey Billups’ decision to become a coach and how he’s focused on boosting Kawhi and Paul George’s playmaking abilities. ($)

Owen Phillips puts into context how weird Giannis Antetokounmpo’s shot profile has become as defenses dare him to shoot and he obliges. I highly encourage you to subscribe to Owen’s newsletter. It’s free (there’s a paid level to get the data and how-to posts) and he’s one of the most insightful data/analytics writers out there.

Mike Sykes on the LeBron 19 and a lack of creativity in the line overall.

The NBA Competition Committee is looking at rules changes around “unnatural shooting motions” aka the James Harden/Trae Young rule.

HAWKS FEVER.

Looking at the WNBA standings with a third of the season down.

The Magic will interview Jason Kidd. Weird fit, no? Meanwhile, the Blazers are interviewing Mike D’Antoni, Chauncey Billips and Becky Hammon.

The Lynx roster is like literally falling apart. Brutal. The WNBA needs to allow for bigger rosters.

Speak for yourself, Morris twins, I really want to hit up Zion NP.

Ohm Youngmisuk @NotoriousOHM

Marcus Morris says Markieff will not be going to Utah to watch Game 5: "I don't know anyone that wants to go to Utah."

And finally: this clip of Bob Costas lamenting a shift in pro sports is being shared around approvingly by people I respect. I find the monologue cloying, reactionary and anti-labor.

Jack M Silverstein @readjack

After the Bulls won the 1998 #NBAFinals, which Phil Jackson had nicknamed "The Last Dance" due to Phil + 10 players (including Jordan, Pippen and Rodman) on expiring contracts, Bob Costas delivered an astounding monologue that would predict the NBA's next 20+ years. Stunning.

The unspoken subtext here is that the NBA was days away from the start of a brutal lockout led by David Stern and franchise owners to halt progress players had been making in terms of salary and freedom of movement. Whether intended or not, Costas in that moment bemoans the end of an era when general managers and franchise owners controlled the league and when the profits were hoarded by those in suits instead of jerseys. How retrograde.

Be excellent to each other.