Two significant anniversaries occurred this week for Nets star Kevin Durant, notes Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post. Thursday marked two years since he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon during the 2019 NBA Finals, and Saturday was the second anniversary of his surgery.
Durant has made a full recovery after sitting out last season and has returned to his spot among the NBA’s elite players. He’s averaging 30.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in the first three games of the Eastern Conference semifinals, and his Brooklyn team is favored to capture its first NBA title.
“Yeah, it’s really hard to tell the difference,” coach Steve Nash said. “He’s not only executing at that level, but he’s able to play the minutes and able to sustain such a high level of efficiency. So it’s hard to say that he has any dip at this point. And his game has picked up as we go.
“He’s gotten more reps, more comfort, especially defensively and on the boards. … When you’re a player that hasn’t played for a long time and you’re a scorer like that, you’re going to focus on trying to get that back first. So he did that, and then he started to pick up the other parts of his game. So it’s very difficult to distinguish him now opposed to before the surgery.”
There’s more on the Nets:
- The toughest defensive assignment of the second round has been given to Blake Griffin, who is charged with slowing down Giannis Antetokounmpo, writes Paul Schwartz of The New York Post. The two-time MVP scored 33 points in Game 3, but he shot just 14 of 31 from the field and was 1 of 8 from three-point range as Griffin gave him plenty of space to shoot from outside. “I know he’s got points here and there,” Griffin said, “he had points in the last game, but we’re just trying to make it tough on him.”
- Joe Harris called it “a shooter’s dream” to be surrounded by so much offensive talent in Brooklyn, and Ian O’Connor of The New York Post looks at how he has benefited from the presence of his Big Three teammates.
- Today’s Game 4 in Milwaukee will be a chance for the Nets to prove that they’re really a great team, O’Connor contends in a separate piece. He states that Brooklyn needs to bounce back from the Game 3 loss, just as it did after Jayson Tatum‘s 50-point outburst when the Celtics won Game 3 in the first round.
IMO
If everyone is healthy, Jazz will defeat Nets in 7 games
Griffin doesn’t have any choice but to give Giannis plenty of space outside. He has the lateral quickness of a three toed sloth.
Attn: team “Klay Thompson will be a nonfactor next year coming back from his achilles injury”.
No. No good. Very wrong.
Saying Thompson will be a non-factor may be a slight exaggeration, but thinking he will be 100% at the start of the season is pure fantasy. See John Wall last season.
Next season starts on October 19th, that’s only 11 months after Thompson tore his Achilles tendon. Look at how many games KD missed with the same injury.
Klay doesn’t rely on speed and athleticism like John Wall.
Excatly good point. Plus we all are different and heal differently. You have to wait and see what you got
John Wall didn’t have two consecutive season-ending injuries either the way that Klay did tearing his ACL and Achilles two years in a row. The Splash brothers won’t be what fans were used to during the team’s 5-year championship run. Even if Curry manages to stay healthy for a second straight season, expecting his cohort in the backcourt to miraculously return to the team at 100% at the start of the season is pure wishful thinking. Just being realistic here.
Warriors most significant moves. Will be Obrue, Wiggins, and Green. Plus how the draft works for them. They have to go for it next yr. Their window is closing . They have 2-3 yrs at best. So all moves will be made with that in mind. Cade or Suggs can help them next yr. Both are a good fit. They miss on them they can swing a trade. Kuminga, Green, Mobley don’t fit them for a title run. So they probably make a trade then. They are in a good position to upgrade. No matter what happens in lottery.
That window closed shut after the 2019 Finals. Only the most optimistic of fans in the Bay Area think this is still a championship caliber team.
They won’t get a top-3 pick, so the best they can hope for is whichever guy that’s left at #4 (not Cade so maybe Mobley or one of the Jalens), and that’s less than a 10% chance. Most likely the Warriors will get either the 7th or 8th pick, unless the Wolves are lucky enough to land in the top 3.
As far as trades go, Draymond is virtually untradeable. And they won’t get much in a sign and trade for Oubre, so their best chance to get a quality player will be finding a trading partner for Wiggins. That’s about it.