Durant finding his way with Warriors
Off-season’s biggest acquisition averaging a team-best 26.2 points on Stephen Curry-led club
OAKLAND — Outside of perhaps Scott Brooks, there is no coach in the NBA at any level who knows Kevin Durant as well as Rex Kalamian does.
So when Kalamian, now in his second year with the Toronto Raptors as Dwane Casey’s lead assistant, speaks about Durant, he does so from depth of knowledge of the player and the man.
The two were together for six years in Oklahoma City with Kalamian, Brooks’ assistant coach, missing out on Durant’s first and final years with the Thunder. The two still text semi-regularly, so the bond is a strong one.
With Casey under the weather Tuesday, Kalamian handled the post-practice coach’s duties with the media and was only too happy to talk about Durant, a guy who got a lot of the Raptors’ attention as the two finished off the season series Wednesday night in Oakland.
Kalamian, who watched plenty of game film of the Warriors in advance of the matchup, is seeing a different Durant than the one he knew in Oklahoma City.
“The thing I see from Kevin Durant is he is attacking so much more in the open floor now. Whether he’s got the ball in his hands or off a rebound, he’s just pushing and flying up the floor,” Kalamian said. “Right when you think his game has peaked, all of a sudden he shows you another dimension he is willing to do every single time down the floor. Not only is he attacking, but he is finding players and he is making great passes.”
Durant was without question the biggest prize of the off-season. He was courted by various teams from the Thunder to the Washington Wizards to the Boston Celtics, but the chance to join a team with immediate championship aspirations won out.
And while no team would ever turn down the opportunity to add a unique talent like Durant, there’s also little doubt his arrival has brought with it challenges, too.
Remember, the Warriors were already at a championship level before his arrival and retained the key pieces that got them there. Working in a guy who has averaged 19 shots a night over his career, even a guy who makes almost 49 per cent of those attempts, is a process.
Stephen Curry, a player of equal stature in the hierarchy of the NBA, is taking about three shots a game less this season than he did a year ago. In December, he’s taking five fewer shots than he did in 2015-16.
Finding that perfect balance, where the team is operating at peak efficiency, is still a moving target.
There is no question the talent is there and, as Curry has said on a number of occasions, the basketball IQ is also there, so it’s not a matter of if the team will find that perfect balance, but when.
This will mark the third time the Raptors have seen the Warriors this year. They met to open the pre-season in Vancouver with Toronto winning that meaningless tilt 97-93.
They met again in mid-November with the Raptors on the back end of a back-to-back that began the night before in Cleveland against the reigning NBA champs, while the Warriors were in Toronto waiting for their return.
On the strength of 35 Curry points, the Warriors got out of town with a 127-121 win.
Since that day, the Warriors have worked out a few more kinks, got that much better at incorporating Durant into their system and found out what works best. He’s averaging a team-best 26.2 points a night along with 8.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
Yet still, it’s not all the way there yet. DeMar DeRozan, who played with Durant at the Rio Olympics this summer and counts him among his good friends in the league, has no doubt the Warriors will eventually hit that peak efficiency.
In his eyes, Durant is just too good not to make it work.
“To me, you can’t doubt him,” DeRozan said. “When you see him, what he is capable of doing ... I think people felt a certain way about him going to Golden State, so he may not get the credit he would be getting if he were in OKC or whatever. But you can’t doubt a Kevin Durant because there is only one Kevin Durant in this (league.) A guy of that skill set and that ability to do the things he does just don’t come around.”
Best to get him now before he’s fully comfortable in his new surroundings.