Four-time scoring champ Kevin Durant lead the Golden State Warriors in scoring, spent a considerable amount of time talking about defense on Tuesday night. He talked about quality-defense, featuring spectacular plays and even highlight-level stuff.
These talks came from a guy who in his first nine NBA seasons barely could see the All-Defense Team, much less to be chosen for it. He remarked the defensive duties as fun since he a kid he thinks about defense as getting steals and blocking shots. He feels like he is having a solid defensive year. He still thinks he could do a better job of putting a nice streak of games together on the defensive end.
Though Kevin Durant is making more than his share of individual spoils, he is 10th in blocks, averaging career-best 1.71 per game, he is also taking to team concepts and proving to be quite a willing leader of his team. Team's defensive Guru Ron Adams promised that Kevin Durant will join the Golden State Warriors last July from Oklahoma City.
Adams said that he has all the physical attributes and tools to be a great defender. He further said that every defensive move the player sees, he comes and talks to the Guru about it.
The results so far have been quite impressive. Kevin Durant's defensive real Plus-Minus ranks 39th in the NBA and eighth among small forwards, being right behind Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo but at the same time well ahead of Houston's Trevor Ariza (12th), Cleveland's LeBron James and San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard.
It is largely because of Kevin Durant's work that the Warriors, legitimately concerned about rim protection after losing centers Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli, anyhow lead the league in blocked shots. But, if there is an area the Golden State Warriors would like to see an improvement, it is consistency.
He clearly enjoys in making game-altering defensive plays, such as his rejection of a driving James at the rim in the Warriors-Cavaliers game. Other instance being when he chased down Charlotte's Kemba Walker, swatting his layup off the glass to initiate a fast break that ended with a Stephen Curry jumper.
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