NBA Week in Review; The Offseason, Second Round.
NBA Week In Review: The Offseason.
“I Fell Behind. In The Midst Of Falling Forward.”
In Denver, Was It Just The Absence Of Murrey Or More?
Fourth Quarter. It’s Denver Ball, and The Nuggets Are Down Some Points, the Game Clock Is cracking The Crisp Ice Off Their Shoulders Of the Basketball Players Draped In White with dark Blue Trim Gold Pressed Lettering And Two Pitchaxes Set Across in Their branding. Their Guards Are Pushing the ball Up The court, Fast Break is About To break out In full Effect. The Nuggets are Preparing Another offensive Play. They Have Won A few Crazy Come Back A Time or Two Before, So They Are Aware That they Are Not out Of This Game completely. Nevertheless, It Has been A Hard Fought Couple Of Game For The nuggets. It’s Rarely Any Fun Battling Best At This Point in The Season. The Taxing Nature Of The Game Both In Its Endurance And In Its Deliberation Enter A Degree Of Severity That not Present Earlier bouts, sometimes even in earlier quarters. This Game, This Night, It Is Different. Down 7 The Nuggets Are Charging Back. They Have Work Too Hard All Year Not To. Opposite This Late Charge Another Of The western Conference Top Teams, With Something To Prove. They were Locked out of the playoff Year Prior. As assembled, despite Injury Woes, They want To return To The Top Spot Of The West They Stood Some Time Ago. Lead By A Transcendent Guard with a Tireless trigger Finger, some, Like Myself, Believe They Could Do It. But Now, Tin his Game, They have The Nuggets. The Backdrop In View, Is Not The Pepsi Center CrestAtoptop The Minds Of the million In The Mile High, This Isn’t Game 4 of The West semi-Finals I Am Speaking. Nikola Jokic’s MVP Trophy Is Imminent But Not All So Preeminent, At least not yet. No Matter, This The Verisimilitude of playoff atmosphere In Oracle Arena. Here, This Late April Game Against The Warrior Would Mark The End The Nuggets Playoff Hopes As We Know It.
Here was Nuggets Guard Jamal Murray, Brandishing The Will of The Greatest Magnitude. Murray Has Been Holding On to The Wall Surrounding The Mountain tops of Colorado since Being drafted By The 7th Overall In 2016. Murray Was averaging 21.3 points Per Game. Shooting 41.2% from three, plus 4.8 assists. The Nuggets were 8.3 points per 100 possessions better when Murray is on the court. ( Per.NBCSports). Suddenly All of This Vanished. Back In the fourth. Back On The Break, Murray Planted And Elevated With The Nuggets Playoff Hopes On His Shoulders, For Brief Moment He Appeared Unphased, Undeterred, Unaltered., Then, He Crashed To The Ground. In Obvious, even Palpable Pain. As We Now Know, Murray Suffered An ACL Tear And Miss The Remainder Of The Regular Season And Playoffs. Leaving the Nuggets, At The Three-quarter Point Of The Season, To Would Finish Right Where He had Landed, I Know Bad Taste In Puns, 4th In The West. Which Is Tragic, beyond the suddenness With Which Murray Offensive Impact Was swept away. Considering That The Nuggets were Surging After Trading For Aaron Gordon. They Won 8 of Their Last 9 Games Heading into Their Ill-fated Foray With That Night In Oakland. The Nuggets Were 34-19
When Murray’s Injury Occured, Warriors Game Withstanding, And Finished The Season Successfully At 44-24. Murray’s Absence Would Pay Dividends Michael Porter Junior Who Would Become A Revelation of Sorts Filling In That Secondary Offensive vacancy parallel To Nikola Jokic. In The Nuggets final fifteen Minus Murray, Porter’s Stat Line Read As Such; 33.6 Minutes Per Gam, 23.5 Points, 55.2% Form The Field, 48.4% From Three, 85.7 % From Three. His Field Goals Attempts Rose From Around 12 To Almost 18 in That Spans. Porter Junior Would Prove Crucial Come Round 1 When The Nuggets Need All The offensive tooling In The Shed To Beat The Blazers In 6. But The Second Round would Be Where Murray’s Absence could Not be Marked Off. Porter Junior Would Suffer And Decline In Production Across The Board As The Blazers Honed In On Him Forcing Him The 6’10 Forward To Make. A Living On The Perimeter.
None The Less, Murray Absence Would Hampered The Machinations Of The Nuggets Across The Their Long Sweep At The Hands Of The Suns. As With the Blazers, the Suns Out Marked The Nuggets’ On The Perimeter. Devin Booker Left Michael Porter Junior with His Feet in the Mud, On This Play, And On The Stat Line Comparatively. In-Game 2, Michael Porter Jr. shot 3-for-13 from the field and 2-for-9 from the range for 11 points, ending the game a team-worst minus-26. He, Along With Guard Will Barton Combined For 21 Points. Chris Paul And Devin Booker Combined For 35 Points; This Exactitude, Of Course, Is Just A Microcosm Of How The Entire Series Played Out. That Performance And Others Similar To It Along with Game three’s Production, Run Adjacent. A 15 Point Performance For Michael Porter Jr., who shot 5 of 13 from the floor In A 14 Point Loss. Reflected By Devin Booker’s 28 Points. It is Not A. Fair Comparison, these Two. Given The Different Level Of Star Strata they occupy, But The Point is served On Denver’s Perimeter Woes. The Nuggets Got little Value from Mid-Season Acquisition, turned Questionable Sylistic Select, on Aaron Gordon. Gordon, The Former Magic’s forward, Flaunted A Positive Plus Minus For The First Time in His Career At the Onset The Trade Deadline. By Ten Days In the Trade deadline, Many presumed Denver Had The Mid Fire Sale. Unfortunately, this proves to Not Be The Case. The Nugget Got Little Production Vale Out Of The Former Number 4 Pick Versus Phoenix To The Splits Of 9.2 Points, 3.8 Rebs., And 1.5 assist.
Was It All If The Injury? Despite Averaging More Than 100pluss By The End Of Their 4 game Sweeping At The hands Of The Suns. Nikola Yokic Had Completed His Evolution From Briskly Build Second Round Big Man Into his MVP Form. As Well As Notching A Little History In The Process. Regardless, The NNuggetsWere A Stretch Behind The Suns OOffensiveAnd They need To perceive Of How They Will Bolster TTheirDepleted Backcourt In Murray AAbsence They traded several Guards In the Transaction That Netted Them Gordon, Including former Starter And Frist Rounder Gary Harris. . There Is Not Iron Clad Timetable for Murray’s Return, which Is A Given With These Kind Of Knee Injuries. Murray Was Seen Shooting One foot Across The valley of The Game 4, An Encouraging Symbol OfStrengthh for a Team Who Noticeably Had None. The Nuggets Have Another Year To Evaluate The Molding Of Their Team as Holding. Both Gordon and Guard will Barton Have One More Year Of Their current deal. Barton, As A 14 Million Dollar Player option This Summe,r He May Choose To Void. The Nuggets Are Hard Pressed Against The Cap. Contracts Like Those Attached To forward Paul Milsap And center Javale Mcgee Come Of The Books, To Alleviate Some Of The Strain. The Nuggets Own Paul Milsaps Bird Rights, Which Means The team could Go Over The Cap to Keep If They So Choose. Milsap averaged 9.0 Points And 4.7 Assist Per Game This Season. Still, Their Meager Cap Hold Of 4 Million, Suggest TheNuggets won’t Be In The Market As Movers This Summer. Opting To Hold Out Until Healthy Before Making A Push In The Western Conference.
Kevin Durant Deo’s Not want To “do It” by Himself. “I’m not trying to be a hero…”. Said Durant On the Heels O A Potential Close Game Lost, Which, Now, Nearly A Week later We Now Know KniwKnows As The Precursor The End Of The Nets’ 2021 Season. One Of the Exhilarating Highs, And High Expectation That Ultimately Ended appropriately. Speaking of Exhilarating, “ I Wasn’t Trying To duplicate. it…” ReferingReferring To His 49 point 17 Spanishinquisitionsn on isolation Scoring Of the Game,5 help Put The Nets In Closeout territory. Performance Of The GameBeforee That Put The Nets In Closeout territory.
It’s Malpractice For A writer To Superimpose his Version of Invents AboveAcrossSomeoneelse else's Words. Grappled With A Single thread, Snippet or Sound Bite or in his Case Six Words Of larger quote Then explore, elaborate, Extrapolate From Their the Endless Reservoir of Machinations Bubbling Within The recesses Of A Players Emotions, After A Loss In The Playoffs None The Less. In Most Circles, It Would Be Condemn. But The quote Lays Bear Thethe Interpretation. Durant IsntIsn’t Trying To Do It HimslefHimsel. Durant Didn’t Want To Be The Guy. That Is What He Said. TahtsThat’s How ISeee It. And Maybe That is How It Should Be seen. For Intents And Purposes, Durant Is, Just As he was Quoted Saying, “Just trying to let the game flow”..” his Is No New Ideal, Durant Has Been Disillusioned With with The Décor Of doing It all for some time now.
The Man, NickNamed The “Slim Reaper,” Densely Decorated In A Number Of The NBA’s Most heralded Individual accolades, The Greatest Offensive Generator Of His Generation, Could Not Think Of Evoke such Lofty ideal come game 6. Somewhere Along His 14 Year career Journey Arrived At A Point of Becoming Less Dependent On In His Ability, And More On His Position, HisAppointmentt As A Teammate. “I’m not trying to be a hero out there. I know I can’t win a basketball game by myself. I was wat trying to play the right way”… The Right Way. Many questions Beckon Out from the Borough When The Phrase “The Right Way” echoes out. What is “the Right way” Exactly. For Durant, It Meant Taking Shots Within The Flow of The Offense. Staying “aggressive, applying “Pressure” to The opposition but Operate And Isolate, Not To Duplicate. No, Not to Duplicate the Heralded 49 Point 17 rebound to underscore, Performance. In Game 6, Durant Would Notched 32 Points Expecting More forums teammates, but it Wouldn’t Be Enough. In-games Seven Durant Emerge from His Egalitarian Slumber Rising Once Again To the extravagance Of Individual Opulence and Poured On 49 Points once more. This time, The Nets Would fall Short In Game 7.
When Durant, fresh Off Of A Western Conference Finals Run with The Only Franchise, He had Known. A Place He Called ‘Hom.’. Place He’d Stay And Develop, Quite Possibly win A Championship. Quite Possibly Playout Out His entire Career. Quite Possibly Be The Hero, where He Intimated He Wouldn’t Leave Too. In Okc Durant And Co. Operated Nearly Exclusively In Isolation. “We are not the [Spurs]. We AreNott Going To Make 30 Passes A Possession”-Kevin Durant, 2015. Durant Was UnquestionablyCorrectt. In 2015, The Thunder weren’t The Spurs. They Were Not Equip With High IQ, Quick footer Above Average Shooters And PlayMakers. The Offensive Load Bearing In OKC Never Yielded A Championship. In The Minds Of Many, It Was The Catalyst For Durant’s Free Agent venture The Very Next Summer.
“drive And Kick Durant Remarked, Underscoring His Faith In The Isolation Stylings Of He And co Satr Russel Westbrook. “Simple Basketball.” No Matter, Simpleisn'tt Always Good enough.
Despite His Convictions, Durant Would Succumb To Mounting Pressure And The Success of The Pass Frenzy Franchises. Driven By The appeal Of Synergy, Sacrifice, Symbiosis. In A Classic Cant Beat “em Join Move. Durant Would Famously Sign with The Golden State Warriors in Free Agency 2016. A move Mostly Censured, nearly unanimously outside of Cali, As “betrayal,” “cowardice.”
Irrespective of The Sensationally-obsessed Media cycle That Ensnared Durant, Who was Discarding His Isolated Ideals, as Well The Thunder uniform, like Old Rags, in Exchange From The Motion Offense The Gold And Blue Citi Crest In The Bay. It would Be here, Not In The City He “promised’’ Where Durant Would Enjoyed the true Success He Long aspired For. Two (2) championships, back to back, as well as the finals MVPs To Go Along with A few Awe Inpinirng Performances, Lifted Durant And The Then fallen Warrior Atop Basketball’s Mountain. It Was Also Here, In Golden State, Where The Evolution of Durant’s Game May has Taken A Step Behind. WithIn Seams Of Success There Breads Complacency. When The Game, The Scoring, The defense, The Movements Matter Less. When The Practices Become Motions, and the Games become practices, near shoot Arounds. The Temptation Befall Us, or They Or whoever Is Succeeding At A Craft, To Enter Or Return to The Place we Escaped, where we resided before Success opened its doors.
Reversion of old habits: Somewhere Near The Zenith Of Their success The dalliance between Durant And Warrior Began To Tear At the Fabric of Team. Durant’s final Championship season With The Warriors Was A masterful One. Durant averaged 26.4 Points, ad Narrowly Missed the 90/50/40 Club By One Percentage Point (He shot 88.9% From the FFree-throwLine).
With the championship In hand And Warrior PrOffensiveeive Catalyst Stephen Curry Absent From Action For several Games, Either By design Or Self Imposed wi, ll The Warriors began To funnel Their Offensive Currents through Durant. “Kevin is The Ultimate Luxury. Because A Play can Break Dow,n And You Can Just Throw Him The Ball”. As One can Imagine, With Stephen Curry, Several Mountains of Plays Would Break Down On A Nightly Basis, Which entails That either as A Point Forward in Control The The Ball, Or The First Or Second option On every offensive trip, Durant would have His Way, Or His Old way. THus The Warrior entered the arena Of the “Soft Isolation System”( I Just made that Up), Which Eventually Amalgamated Itself With The Motion System With Curry’s Eventual Return. This Dichotomy In Style Did Little Defeated the potency of the Warriors Historic Offensive Out Pour. The Warriors Were 15 points better with Durant on the court, no surprise. Their Durant Was a 4-time scoring champ up To That date, One of the best basketball players in The World, At the height Of his career. No More Would This Be Embellished Than In The 2018 playoff Rounds When Pace And Movement Tend To Stagnate. Kevin Durant Emerge from His Fall back role into A defense Worse Nightmare. When The Warriors found Themselves, Back against The Wall Versus James harden and The Rockets West Finals, It Was Durant, Who Averaged 30 points That Series Who Got Them Over In the finals. Where He’d Handedly Eviscerate The Cavaliers With A Standout Performance Of 43 in Game 3. Following A Loss in Game 2. The Warriors Never Loss Another game In the Series. The Number Supports The Hypothesis; In the Playoffs, The Warriors Are a plus +4.3 Net rating(the difference Between Defensive And Offensive Rating,g Which Is The Number Of Points Allowed Or Scored per 100 Possessions) With Out Durant Is Off the And +9.2. Kevin Durant’sAll-Encompassingg Isolation Had ripple Effect The Offensive proficiencies of All, The Warriors. With Curry AndDurantt, The Warriors Were +10.6 Net Points Better Than Absent Either. When The Warriors Offense Was Absent Both KD And Draymond, Their Offensive Production Fell Into The Grave By -18.9. In the Playoffs, The Warriors Were collectively Better With KD.
But there was A Caveat. The Differing In Styles Would Change The “Culture” Of the Warriors In Some ways That Aren’t obviously Understood Reasonably Explainable. A-One Team, Two Offensive Principles of divergent values, Composited featuring Durant and His Style Fused Into the Other Warriors, The Aboriginals So To Say, and Its Style.
“It Only works To a certain point,t,” said Durantreferringg To the Motion system. “[eventually] were going to have to mix in individual Pla.”. Just as The One That Existed With The 2000s Lakers, divided, fissured Between The Dominant But Faltering Paint Prowess Of Shaquille O’neal And The Rising acrobatic Effectiveness Of A Young Kobe, A rift Would Occur, which we Now Know Played itself Out in free agency a year later Just As It Had When Durant Moved On from The Thunder. Many Us Remember Poignantly The Altercation Between, He, Kevin Durant And Aboriginal, Draymond Green; ‘It Was Better Before You came,’ ‘We Were winning Without You’ And Other Invectives to The Effect. Durant was Unceremoniously Unwelcome. Durant Had Become that Friend You Invited as A Kid because He Had Something, maybe a Ps2, That You And Your Cousin didn’t. He Comes Over So Much It mends Him Into The Unit, Into The Family. But His “attitudes,” His Non-aligned “qualities” from His Home “away,” As a youth I Think Of cursing, begins To dislodge, And Now Grammy Says He Can Longer come Over. He is No Longer Welcomed. Not A faultless, Infallible Analogy But one That strikes a chord. Durant Came To The Warriors, Not wanting To Be the Hero, But Another Player, One Of The Crew. That was Now Gone, And So would He
“Paranoia.” An Injury To Durant’s Achilles And quite Possibly His Ego To Some Effect Ended his Time In Golden State. Injuries To Durant’s psyche, So It appears Ended His Time OKC.
In 2019 Durant Signed A four-year Deal With The Nets. Who Signed His Fiend Kyrie Irving As Well. Of course, Durant is coming Off an Achilles. Needed The Better Part of a Year To convalesce.
Once The Tandem Assembled for Play come The 2020-21 Season They wouldn’t Come To The Court Alone. Only weeks Into The Season,n The Nets would Trade For Disgruntled Rockets, Star Guard James Harden, Gifting A New collective With Durant for Durant. Despite sparingly Playing together, This Nets Team Would Be Favored to Win The East And Ultimately win It all. Of course, Now we Know They Would fail To Achieve This Feat. Fallen To The Bucks In 7, Short One Kyrie, Injured For The Latter Half Of The Series, and James Restricted By Hamstring soreness. Durant Faired Well, To Put It Politely, In their Absence; 42.7 Mins, 35.4 Points, 10.6 Rebounds,5.4 Assists. But He Didn’t want To be The Hero.
Maybe Inspired By His Short Comings In In Oklahoma Or Perturbed By His admonishment From within The Crew in the Bay. Durant, In His Wanting to Belong, Desiring Not to Discredit, Frayed The Moment.
The Offseason:
The Nets Are Set To Retain Their Triumvirate For At least Another Season, With Durant, Irving, And Harden all Having A Year And a Player Option To Boot Going Forward. Team Offices Have Free-agent decisions To make on guard Bruce Brown Who Playing On A rookie Deal And Made Waves For The Nets As A Small Ball Center, And Forwards Jeff Green And Blake Griffin. The Latter Two Who Saw A Career resurgence With the Nets this Season. Griffin’s Play Was Robust After Leaving Detroit Mid-season And Landed In New York, and Began Dunking Again. Green Shot a Career-High 41% from Three And 49% from The Field. The 34 Year Old Became a steady Contribution in The Nets Run To The Eastern semis. His Last Two Contracts Have Been Veteran Minimums, And irrespective Of His recent Energetic Play, These Are the twilight days Of Green’s Career. Both Green And Griffin Are Unrestricted Free agents. The Nets Have Little More Than A Mid-level Exception and a veterans minimum to delve out between the two To Work With And A Small pool Of Contenders To Contend With For The Services of Both.
