Nets’ Durant isn’t wasting his time on Harden thoughts
Beyond the physical acclimation of returning to the court on a daily basis, Kevin Durant plans to invest his time getting to know his role with the Brooklyn Nets.
That role doesn’t include general manager responsibilities.
Durant said Wednesday he’s not wasting a second thinking about trade rumors tying the Nets to James Harden, his former teammate with the Oklahoma City Thunder, because there is too much on his plate without also piling on personnel duties.
“I don’t think about James Harden at all. I mean, he doesn’t play on our team,” Durant said.
The 31-year-old Durant also provided new insight into his expected role with the Nets this season. Durant’s next game will be his first since the 2019 NBA Finals, when he ruptured his Achilles as a member of the Golden State Warriors. A few weeks later, following surgery, he signed a four-year deal with the Nets.
The Nets made the playoffs last season with Durant and Kyrie Irving out and then hired Steve Nash as head coach.
“I’m very excited about the future of this group,” Durant said.
The Nets plan to play a smaller lineup and Durant outlined Nash’s thoughts of having him split time between point guard and center this season. At either spot, the 6-foot-10 scoring machine will be a difficult check.
“I’ve never been one to predict anything but I like our chances of going out there and competing at that high level every single night,” Durant said. “And as tough as that is in this league, I think we’re capable of doing it and we got a lot of guys who have experienced so much in this league. We got champions on this team. We got guys that have been in the playoff runs, have been in Game 7s so it’s always important to have that much experience and knowledge within the group and we’ll see where we go from here.”
ANTETOKOUNMPO ‘NOT FOCUSED’ ON CONTRACT WITH BUCKS >> Anxiety in Milwaukee over Giannis Antetokounmpo staying with the Bucks beyond this season continues to rise.
The NBA MVP said he has locked in on the 2020 season, not his much- discussed future.
“Right now, I am not focused on that,” Antetokounmpo said Wednesday. “I am just trying to focus on myself.”
Antetokounmpo, who turned 26 on Sunday, faces an NBA-imposed deadline of Dec. 21 to decide whether he’ll sign a “supermax” contract with the Bucks and remain with the team or roll the dice and consider entering free agency after the 2020-21 season. The Bucks can offer a five-year, $228.2 million deal that would increase to $243.7 million if the league salary cap returns to preCOVID levels. ABDUL-JABBARREVEALSPASTPROSTATE CANCER DIAGNOSIS >> Kareem Abdul- Jabbar revealed he had prostate cancer in a magazine article he wrote about health risks faced by Blacks.
Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s career scoring leader, provided no other details about that illness in the piece he wrote for WebMD that first appeared Wednesday. In his article, titled “Black Lives Matter,” Abdul-Jabbar writes that Blacks are at higher risk for heart problems and cancer, and said he also had heart bypass surgery. He said he’s been able to get better care than many Blacks, in part because of his celebrity.