Drama club
Surrounded by bad actors, it’s hard not to feel for professional Durant
THERE HAVE been a lot of bad actors around the Nets, disrupting what was supposed to be a gilded path to glory. Sean Marks swore a blood oath with a good man and a good coach named Ken Atkinson, pledged they were in the foxhole together do or die, then fired Atkinson and hired a Hall of Fame player, Steve Nash, who has spent two seasons looking like an intern learning on the job.
Marks and the team’s owner, Joe Tsai, talked all kinds of tough about Kyrie Irving and vaccinations, then caved the moment the Atlantic Division standings became too uncomfortable to look at. James Harden? Harden weaseled his way from Houston to Brooklyn, then weaseled his way out, to Philadelphia.
None is worse than Irving, of course. His one-man act of subterfuge, a precious should-I-orshouldn’t-I bit when it came to opting into the last year of his $36.5 million contract, is just the latest in a pattern of pathetic petulance. And even by Irving’s standards, his patently absurd explanation to The Athletic defied all boundaries of shame:
“Normal people keep the world going, but those who dare to be different lead us to tomorrow. I’ve made my decision to opt in. See you in the fall.”
Even for a serial phony like Irving, that is beyond belief, unless “daring to be different” can be interpreted as “I tried to muscle my way out of town but discovered that the only option for me — maybe — was taking a $6 million one-year deal with the Lakers.”
He will lead the Nets toward tomorrow with $31 million more than that.
Talk about a profile in courage. So the Nets — or at least that portion of the organization that Irving identifies as “normal” — will hold their noses and welcome Irving back after winning this stare-down, and take one more crack at the Eastern Division code. This was always the most hopeful scenario for the Nets if they remain steadfast in following through, to the endgame, their decision in July 2019 to go big-game hunting, bringing on Irving and Kevin Durant.
Of course, every time you mention this you must add this qualifier: “assuming Irving doesn’t wander off the grid too often.” It is the annual surcharge for Irving’s services, something that was already well established in Cleveland and Boston.
The pity of this, of all of this, is that once again Durant is forced to take a front-row seat to the Irving freak show. All Durant has done is his job: consistently, quietly and excellently. There have been some social media hiccups, and a few media skirmishes, but in three years (and two seasons) with the Nets he has shown up on time, played hard, and played as well as anyone in the NBA.
He is 28.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists across 90 games as a Net. He is in the rarefied 40/50/90 shooter’s club as a Net (specifically: 40.9 percent from 3-point range; 52.5 overall; 90.0 from the line). If the Celtics contained him in the playoffs this year (if you can call a 26.3-point average “contained”), it should be remembered that a year earlier, with Irving out and Harden hobbled, he did his damnedest to keep the Nets viable in the playoffs, averaging 34.3 points, shooting 51.4 percent.
Surrounded by surfeit of snowflakes, Durant has been a pillar of quiet reliability.
For the good of the team, for the sanctity of the chase, he will surely do so again this year. He has steadfastly refused to criticize Irving for any of his quirks and peculiarities. He has been a trusted wingman even when Irving has broken formation.
And what has he gained for that? He watched his old crew in Golden State win a title without him. He’s lost two of the three playoff series he’s played as a Net. He had to listen to Charles Barkley say, with some merit, that “before KD gets that great respect from all the old heads, he’s going to have to win a championship as the bus driver.”
If the Nets are indeed going to fulfill their promise, it will be because Durant seizes this team’s narrative as well as its soul. It will be on him — not Nash, not Marks, not Tsai — to rein Irving in. He really does need to drive the bus. He should want to drive the bus, should want to steer it with the Nets, and if he can get them there that bus would sit forever alongside Ralph Kramden’s Bus 2969 for eternal status among Brooklyn buses.
With or without the worst actor in the NBA as his running mate.
Though slumping, Luis Guillorme has earned a role on the Mets. His role has evolved, and it probably is not finished evolving. The slick-gloved infielder began the season as a bench bat and, amid injuries beginning in mid-May, was forced into an everyday job at second base, third or occasionally shortstop.
He responded with immediate and unique excellence at the plate — there are few in today’s game who slap-hit like him — and a steady glove that astounds regardless of what position he plays.
“Luis has been great,” Buck Showalter said this weekend in Miami, a series that was highlighted by Guillorme’s all-out dive Sunday to steal a hit from Jesus Aguilar that was heading into right field. “He makes a play a night.”
As Jeff McNeil is expected to return Tuesday, the question will become whether Guillorme is relegated back to the bench or whether he has earned, at the very least, a consistent part-time job — perhaps at the expense of Eduardo Escobar.
If McNeil and Francisco Lindor are healthy, they will play every day. McNeil has played left and given Mark Canha occasional days off against righty starting pitchers, but Canha has hit righties well. The hole has been at third base, where the switch-hitting Escobar has struggled mightily against righties (.583 OPS). As reliable as lefty-hitting Guillorme has been, he still has not hit lefties (.612 OPS).
Does the best version of the Mets include a third-base platoon? Showalter will begin to tip his hand Tuesday, when the Mets host the Astros and lefty Framber Valdez.
Regardless of the exact role, Guillorme, who only started six games in April, has played himself into what Showalter has called a “regular irregular.” Known for his hands and glove his first four seasons, his bat has been a pleasant surprise — if a recently declining one — this year.
Guillorme has hit just one home run but has been superb at putting his bat on the ball, with nearly as many walks (18) as strikeouts (22). The contact-oriented approach helped him finish May with a .365 batting average that was impossible to put back on the bench.
In 19 June games, though, Guillorme has found more gloves, and a 15-for-65 month has brought the average down to .307 —
which still would have finished this weekend as the ninth-best in the NL if Guillorme had enough at-bats to qualify.
He has not taken the frustrations to the field with him.
“If I can’t contribute on one side of the ball, I’m going to try to contribute on the other,” Guillorme said. “If I can’t get a hit, nobody else can get a hit. That’s the way I look at it.”
His catch to steal a hit from Aguilar was the most miraculous of a weekend in which he played second base, but there were several to choose from, including a smooth double play he jump-started by ranging to his left and a nice backhanded stab sprinting to his right.
Despite logging fewer infield innings than Lindor, Escobar, McNeil and Pete Alonso, Guillorme has been the Mets’ bestrated defensive infielder according to Outs Above Average, which is a cumulative measurement.
Showalter recently campaigned for the All-Star voting to add a utility spot so Guillorme, whose name cannot be found on the ballot, could see his play be recognized. Guillorme agreed with the sentiment — “There’s a lot of utilities on a lot of teams,” he said — and appreciated hearing it from his manager.
“It’s great,” Guillorme said in Miami. “He’s given me the vote of confidence. He’s thrown me out there. He’s letting me play. “I couldn’t be any happier.”
The 27-year-old pointed to his consistent reps that have helped his timing and led to his breakout season. But he has found consistent time because of various ailments that have taken McNeil, Lindor, Escobar, Starling Marte and Brandon Nimmo off the field. With McNeil expected to return from right hamstring tightness Tuesday, there appears to be no hole for Guillorme to regularly fill.
Unless the Mets see a third-base platoon and fewer games for Escobar as the best path forward.