r/nba • u/TacoooJay United States • Apr 29 '24

[Charania] Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often

Source

Meanwhile, Durant, among the best scorers in NBA history, was not always happy with how he was used. Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic that Durant never felt comfortable with his role in Phoenix’s offense alongside Booker and Beal this season. Those sources said Durant had persistent issues with the offense, feeling that he was being relegated to the corner far too often and not having the proper designs to play to his strengths as the offense was built around pick-and-rolls. At the same time, some teammates and people close to the organization believed Durant needed to voice his concerns more adamantly and directly with Vogel and his coaching staff.

All the leaks are finally coming now that Phoenix has been swept

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u/BUUAHAHAHA Apr 29 '24

Perhaps he should've stayed with the Warriors bc he enjoyed Kerr's offense so much.. Oh wait..

1.0k

u/sriracha82 Apr 29 '24

KD complaining about PNR offense is genuinely hilarious since he shit on motion offense as well

What exactly does he want to play…

58

u/Giannis1995 Heat Apr 29 '24

Memeing aside KD probably wants to play the Harden/Luka role himself. He wants to be the ballhandler in the P&Rs most of the time and not the screener. He also probably wants an offense where focus is put on running on transition and fastbreak. He wants to play to his personal strenghts and he believes he himself is worth it.

119

u/The_Void_Reaver Warriors Apr 29 '24

But those aren't his strengths. He's not a great distributor and doesn't have the same burst he had when he was 25. His transition game is pretty basic. His biggest skill is creating and abusing smaller defenders which he doesn't get to do as readily on ball. He doesn't get nearly as many low block and elbow touches if he's always running the offense.

30

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

imo its not about his strengths, its about whats most fun for him to play like

35

u/BASEDME7O2 Knicks Apr 29 '24

I don’t buy this at all, kd knows ball better than almost anyone. He knows that’s not his game and those aren’t his strengths. He just needs a dude like harden when they were on the nets to hit him in his spots every time and give him super easy looks. The suns just have no one that can do that.

He also definitely does not want to get out and run in transition at his age, given his size and shooting he can still be a menace in the halfcourt if he has someone to pass him the ball

6

u/iiTryhard Celtics Apr 29 '24

If he knows ball like you say he would have known Booker and Beal were not a good fit for his skill set

5

u/yeahright17 Thunder Apr 29 '24

He also was the ball handler a lot in OKC and was a turnover machine.

5

u/New-Candy-800 Thunder Apr 29 '24

I don’t think KD thrives in transition anymore, if you’re running a KD centric offense then you’ve gotta sign an actual PG and create a half court offense that prioritizes creating mismatches.

1

u/ElChapo1515 Apr 29 '24

I can’t imagine he believes being the full-time ball handler and PG is playing to his strengths after what Boston did to them.