Kevin Durant Rumors

NBA Communications: Houston forward Kevin Durant enters tonight’s game against Miami needing 26 points to pass Michael Jordan for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The Rockets host the Heat at 8 PM ET on NBA League Pass.

Twitter

The Rockets were having fun. Durant was hyping up the crowd, and players were celebrating with each other. Team chemistry seemed to be restored, if it ever did fade away. And KD, obviously, kept his receipts. As soon as he walked into the press conference, Durant took a slight dig at Perkins and the media. “How was the body language tonight? Was it good? How were the vibes? Good vibes?” Kevin Durant asked reporters before they could get any questions off. The room erupted in laughter once the Slim Reaper smirked. They knew what the underlying intention was behind the statement.

essentiallysports.com

The Rockets host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, then the Miami Heat on Saturday. Houston then travels to Chicago for a game Monday against the Bulls. The 16-time All-Star and 2014 NBA MVP accomplishing a milestone so revered at the United Center — “The House That Jordan Built” — would make for a new core memory. “Michael Jordan has always been my inspiration. There’s a reason why I wanted to be able to knock down those shots,” Durant said in a one-on-one interview with The Athletic. “He was always unstoppable, but when he became a midrange maestro, you never knew how he would attack you. You never knew what MJ was going to do. “He scared defenders every night, and I wanted to put that same kind of fear in the defender who’s guarding me.”

New York Times

Durant credits the long hours he’s spent in the gym and the attention to detail put into his craft for the confidence he’s developed in the most crucial part of his game. “It’s a tedious process to master your touch. I’m not saying I’ve mastered shooting in general, but (the shots) that work for me, I feel like I’ve mastered,” Durant said. “I learned how to be more patient, to be more decisive with my movements and with my decisions. Just having confidence that, if I don’t have anything, I can rise up and shoot the middy. I can shoot over my guy. I can shoot over two or three guys. When you’re confident in getting to those shots, you can try different things.”

New York Times

Law Murray 📘‬: Kevin Durant tells reporters in Houston (I am NOT one of them) that he believes that LeBron James could play until he's 45 "I don't know if he wants to be around that long. But I think he could play for another 4-5 more years, to be honest… it's not a surprise anymore"

bsky.app

‪Law Murray 📘‬: Kevin Durant on Lakers defense: "This is the best version of their defense that they're gonna bring out against us… if we do play them again, we got film to watch and learn from. But this pretty much the only option they can present to us to slow us down."

bsky.app

Will Guillory: Kevin Durant on being held to two field goal attempts in the 4th quarter: "It's a team game. Me getting two shots, it shouldn't matter. We've got six guys with double-digit shot attempts. And guys were pretty efficient tonight too. I don't think that's a talking point."

x.com

Houston Rockets are 8-7 since the KD files leaked, 4-6 in their last 10, and 2-7 against teams above .500 KD’s burner account “getoffmydickerson” was exposed February 15th (same day as the ASG). Since then they are 8-7 including 4-6 in their last 10. In fact they’d be 7-8 if Pelicans didn’t choke that 4pt lead with 30 seconds left. Against teams above .500 (at the time of the game), they are 2-7. Against teams below .500, they are 6-0 which makes them look better than they really are. Next they will face a Hawks team coming off 11 straight wins.

reddit

kixstats.com: Kevin Durant debuts a new colorway of Nike KD 19 against the Lakers! 👀

x.com

Michael Shapiro: Just asked Ime Udoka about Kevin Durant’s preference to NOT be the lead ball-handler (and “get out of the way”) when opponents go to KD trap. Does Udoka agree with that? Not quite. “A lot of times he's gonna be initiating. … The double teams outside of turning it over have been very good for us this year. It bit us in the behind a few times, but overall the numbers show it [goes] really well when we don't turn it over and get it to scorers in the pocket and make the right play. But, obviously, the turnovers, way too high.” Adds: “We do want some other actions when [Durant] is being denied the way he is and trapped at the half court.”

x.com

Channing Frye: “Can I ask this question? Do you think the young stars in Houston think that KD came in there to elevate them, or to be like, ‘Y’all need me, and then you’re not as good without me’? Do you think they think that? Because if I were a young guy there—and this is just what I’m going to say—they were second in the West last year. KD comes to that team and says, ‘Yo, run your offense through me. I’ll take you to the promised land,’ whatever.” And they’re like, ‘Do we really need you like that?’” And then now KD goes, ‘Well, you know what? Maybe I just need to sit in a corner.’ I don’t know if this ever happened, but the burner account thing happened.” That seems very passive-aggressive. You know what I’m saying? Maybe I just need to let them dribble the ball more. If I’m a player in Houston, a young guy, I’m going, ‘Dog, I was second in the West. We were second in the West without you, and you came here.' None of that is uplifting. And I’m not saying that KD is saying that on purpose, but you can see that when things get tough, they’re like, ‘Man, you go do it. You go do it.’ And that’s a bad chemistry sign that I see.”

YouTube

“Guys, who are your connectors?” Kendrick Perkins “Yeah, they’re definitely not having team dinners, I can tell you that.” Channing Frye: “Hell no.” Kendrick Perkins “You can tell that after the games, after practices, everybody goes their separate ways. There’s no camaraderie, no hangouts. Nobody’s pulling them together to do [__]. Again, I’m just looking at it overall. When I go back to the trade deadline, it’s like the Rockets put out publicly that Amen Thompson and Sengun were untouchable when you had Giannis on the table. Was that really the right message to be putting out there? They’re untouchable when you’ve got Giannis? Giannis with the Rockets—now all of a sudden he becomes Batman, and KD could be the Robin. That’s a dangerous Robin. I would say more like 1A and 1B, right? Because Giannis, the way that he applies pressure, would open up so much for KD.”

YouTube

While appearing on the Mind the Game podcast last July with LeBron and Steve Nash, Durant spoke about the difficulty of staying the course as an elite scorer and attaining longevity. “You got to recommit and sign that contract with yourself. … Some people say, ‘I want to go play baseball. Yeah, and then I wanna come back.’ Or some people say ‘I’m gonna go 22 straight.’” Durant got considerable backlash at the time, but said he still stands by those words. “It’s true,” Durant said. “MJ took time off. It’s times where he was like, ‘I’m sick of the game. I want to take time off and regroup and come back into the game.’ And that’s what he did. Bron, he played straight through. I’m sure it was times when he was sick of the game and didn’t want to play. Sick of all the b.s. that come with the game. It was a different time. He probably had more of a shield around him than MJ had at the time. It’s different eras but guys choose their paths how they want to choose them.”

The Ringer

“He could’ve played past 40, too,” Durant said. “I would say MJ took off four to five years combined. You give him 300 more games of 30 points a night. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s what he averaged—30! I don’t want to take that away from him when I pass him. I think that’s key for any historian to know that about MJ. It’s cool to still be in that same realm as him but he’s more than a 32,000-point scorer to me.”

The Ringer