I know that the coaches has the same tape, and that KD wants to get better – hopefully they got the players to watch that tape to learn from their mistakes . . .

Joe :I’ve noticed this for awhile, but have never been able to put it together in a post as well as Henry Abbott did here. He’s absolutely correct. Anyway you slice it, for every point Durant scores, he gives up a little more. It’s what drove me crazy this summer when people were writing articles comparing KD to Lebron. Great, they are comparable offensively only, but after the talk of offense the comparisons must stop. KD isn’t in that league.
When Durant was on the floor the team was ever so slightly (.7 points/100 possessions) worse offensively, and a full 8.2 points worse defensively. Add it up and the team is 8.9 points worse per game (roughly) when he plays…That’s not superstar stuff there. Basketball is a team game and he has to learn the nuance. The “trusting the teammates”, the passing the ball, the team and man defense and shot selection.
Green is no revelation offensively either. He settles for too many jumpers. The team is 2.3 points better when he is in on offense, yet it’s 5.4 points worse on defense when he is in. That’s a -3.1. Brooks has to find a way to fix this. With those two in the game at the same time most of the time, it will be difficult to win. That is why I suggested the idea of starting Collison and bringing Green off the bench.
Westbrook on the other hand is +4.1 when he is in the game. It’s really just about as simple as that. Winston and Abbott are correct.
But I don’t think it’s un-fixable. Durant has drive and I believe he wants to be very good. I think he’s coachable and he will figure it out. But I hope I never read another story comparing KD and Lebron again because it’s ridiculous.
Just FYI: the Cavaliers are 21 points better when LBJ is on the court.

excellent point Joe – Simmons is my favorite basketball writer, and even he is gushing over Lebron . . .

I remember last year when we had this conversation – Someone here noted that KD barely moves without the ball, he just stands and watches – subsequently, the rest of the team doesnt move and we get stagnant . . . when KD was out , we HAD to move to get good shots. Even though the Thunder played a weak schedule when KD was injured, they did SOMETHING right to go 5-2 (if I remember correctly).

Abbott’s points are valid, but he needs to talk to someone that’s actually WATCHED all the games for statistical support.

Bang4ur$ :
Wow, too much info for me to sort through completely. But in all of this, is anyone looking at adjusted +/- #s? As far as I could tell, this was all unadjusted, raw data. I mean, wouldn’t stat guys want to look at numbers that account for the other players on the floor?

You are absolutely correct. Adjusted +/- is the obvious tool here. In the link on the Truehoop article it goes to Durant’s adjusted plus/minus at BAsketballvalue.com.

I think if we had a chance to get Cole Aldrich from Kansas he would be worth taking.

Back to the post…I’m skeptical, but I can’t logically explain my opposition to the article. I do think KD’s high PER proves that reliance on a single statistic isn’t quite the answer here. I’m sure his defensive liabilities have something to do with his +/-, but I would also imagine that things like his teammates and even sample size would have a bit to do with it. One theory I haven’t heard is that the Thunder’s bench is not as overmatched as the Thunder’s starters (which would make KD’s numbers seem worse in comparison) but I haven’t run those numbers (somebody get Crow!).

As far as the guy saying he wouldn’t sign Durant for free…he’s a dope. Look at the post below the last post about Iguodala — he says it’s “amazing” that teams do better running the ball out of the shotgun than passing or running out of non-shotgun formations. Well, obviously, since a lot of runs from the shotgun are on third-and-long when the defense is content to give up 8-10 yards on the ground. There’s huge sample bias there, which anyone would actually watched a football game. What’s truly “amazing” is that this guy is a professor.

Yes it would. Biedrins would be great.