Harsh Reality: Why Kevin Durant must suck it up & rally Phoenix Suns | Hoops Tonight

Harsh Reality: Why Kevin Durant must suck it up & rally Phoenix Suns | Hoops Tonight

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So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball for Phoenix there are some Personnel limitations there but I do see a lot of improvement a lot of room for improvement I should say all over the

Floor the defense can be better one of the big issues in this particular game is Kevin Durant who’s been a very good low man throughout his career especially after he went to Golden State he had a really bad game he was particular the two things that stood out to me he was

Slow in that low man rotation so he was getting there too late in a lot of cases and then when he got there he wasn’t uh using his verticality to make guys make shots over the top a lot of the times he’s like trying to get him down low or

He’d have his hands down and guys were just going over the top and finishing and it’s like Kevin Durant when vertical is is a pretty damn big obstacle to try to go through and so by virtue of KD just being a little more focused getting there a little bit earlier and then

Using his verticality to make guys make tough shots over the top of him I think that could help a lot in their helps side defense Grayson Allen and Devon Booker in particular were really sloppy in their off ball rotations which is like absolutely crucial to uh running a

Successful Blitz in pick and roll because you end up with these four on- threes in the backside and like Kevin Durant can protect the rim for you but in order to take away the three-point shots elsewhere you need to get more solid rotations out of those guys so I

Think the defense can be a lot better on offense Devin Booker’s just not playing very well he doesn’t look comfortable getting to his spots which leads me to think he doesn’t have his legs underneath him all the way he’s not shooting well he’s 43% from the field

And 21% from three in his last five games Kevin Durant all season has been kind of inefficient in ISO which is tough because that’s one of their most frequent play types Kevin Durant’s getting only 0.88 points per possession in ISO this year which is down from what we expect

From Kevin Durant right and then as a team the suns are not converting spot up possessions they’re getting just 1.03 points per possession in spot up situations which ranks 20th in the NBA Brad Beal returning should help in a ton of these areas because a big part of

What makes uh uh a big part of what makes Kevin Durant a little bit less quick in his rotations on the backside as a low man is he still is being leaned on for the majority of the offensive creation I know there’s been a lot of talk about Kevin Durant being more

Featured in the offense and there’s no doubt that Devon Booker seems like he has the ball a lot but Kevin Durant is still very very much involved last night not withstanding and and he’s actually leading the Suns in usage percentage over the course of this recent stretch when they’ve been struggling so like

That to me when Bradley Beal can come back and actually remain on the floor it just makes so many things easier because one you’re adding a ton of aggregate ball handling and shooting to the lineup which is going to help you in every single Play Type it’s going to make K’s

Isos easier it’s going to make get Devin uh Booker’s pick and rolls easier it’s going to make the team spot up efficiency Skyrocket it’s going to allow for more resources to be devoted to the defensive end of the floor for guys like Kevin Durant and Deon Booker who haven’t

Been as good as they need and so here’s the thing like I’ve seen a lot of people talking about like oh you know because Kevin Durant that there was that report that come out came out that the suns are monitoring Kevin Durant’s mood and here’s the thing I don’t think Kevin

Durant’s going to be on a different team before the end of this year not unless it turns into an absolute cast and I think Kevin Durant knows that he kind of has to make it work with what he’s got in this situation and I expect him to

They have the tools the problem is and this is important context like it’s easy right now to be like oh they’re too weak off of ktie and Devin Booker because they leaned too much into these stars but it’s like that was never the design of the team the design of the team was

Kevin Durant Devin Booker and Bradley Beal right that was the that was the way this was supposed to work and so again like I think it’s a little unfair to be like oh this whole thing is a failure when it was never intended to work like this it was intended to work with

Bradley Beal in the picture now once Bradley Beal’s in the picture are they suddenly going to become a great team we’ll see we’ve barely seen it so I have my skepticism but I’m not going to jump to that conclusion until I see them play and you know it doesn’t like as long as

They can continue to linger around that play in and and kind of and just remain within Striking Distance of the playoffs if Bradley Beal can come back in a few weeks and they can go on a run everything’s going to be fine so at least within the context of what uh uh

Uh this team was capable of throughout the regular season so I think it’s a little too early to uh to completely consider this a failure that said there is a harsh reality here yes the Suns have a lot of room for improvement within the locker room but there is not

Anything really else that they can do with the roster they might be able to make a ancillary trade for somebody like uh PJ Tucker or maybe they can go get an athlete from somewhere else in the league and turn one of their bench skill guys into an athlete they might be able

To get a buyout guy here or a buyout guy there but there’s no highlevel reinforcements coming here that’s the harsh reality so it’s up to the guys in that locker room specifically Kevin Durant Deon Booker and Bradley Beal to be like what do we got to do to make

This work man because like you can get mad at Shmi metu you can get mad at you know Josh aogi for doing something you can get mad at at at Jordan Goodwin for doing something but at the end of the day those are your teammates for this

Season for the most part like you might be able to make slight tweaks but even the guys you bring in are going to be Castaways from elsewhere which means they’re going to come with floss and so it’s on the stars in that locker room to

Try to figure out a way to make it Work

Jason Timpf discusses the disappointing season Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and the Phoenix Suns have been having so far. Currently sitting below .500, and outside of the play-in game in the western conference, the Suns will need to turn things around in a hurry if they want to contend. Getting Bradley Beal will certainly help, but there are far too many issues going on with the Suns that need to be sorted out. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker simply need to play better for Phoenix to get to where they want.

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