Kevin Durant to return Tuesday against the Pelicans

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NEW ORLEANS — And now, KD is back.

Kevin Durant will make his season debut Tuesday against the Pelicans, returning from a Jones fracture in his right foot that’s kept him out the last six weeks.

He’ll play around 30 minutes, Scott Brooks said.

Durant of course returns just one game after the Thunder got back Russell Westbrook, who lit the Knicks for 32 points in 23 minutes on Wednesday.

“It was a little different though, man,” Durant said of Westbrook. “He was up moving and running right after he got out of surgery. He was a little bit ahead of the curve, I guess, than I am. So that’s my excuse for that. But nah, I don’t think I could do that tonight.”

Durant hasn’t ever missed any extended time in his career, only sitting 14 games total in his seven-year career. Asked what the time off has done for him, he responded simply.

“It’s just made me more anxious,” Durant said. “Pissed me off a little bit more.”

He also said this:

“It was definitely hard watching the games and not being able to help the team, but as far as just learning it was the easiest thing because you could see everything the coaches wanted to do as players,” he said. “I just saw the game slow down for me while I was watching. Seeing what I could do, what moves I could make, what plays I could make. Hopefully it’s that slow when I’m in the game, but I learned a lot.”

While the Thunder have obviously struggled to finish and win games, Durant was left impressed by what he saw from his team the last month.

“Just the heart, just the courage and the fight we have as an organization,” he said. “We didn’t feel sorry for ourselves. We were losing basketball games at the end and we just tried to figure out how we could get better and learn from them. Nobody held their heads, nobody said we’re going to just wait until Russell and KD comes back. We wanted to win all those games and that showed how much they care and how much they love to play the game. They didn’t make any excuses. So tonight I’ve got to come out there and play as hard as they’ve been playing the last month or so.”

Something to watch tonight, though it will probably take some time to sort through, is that the Thunder can now open up their playbook. They worked on a restructured offense throughout the summer and training camp, but a lot of that was designed to feature space for attack-minded players like Durant and Westbrook to use. Now they can start using some of that stuff, which in turn, should create more movement and better shots. At least that’s the idea.

“Kevin and Russell make all the players so much better because they demand so much attention,” Brooks said. “So the shots are going to be easier to set up. That’s something we’ve struggled with offensively.”