Even though the Phoenix Suns’ season hasn’t gone precisely as planned thus far, it is incomprehensible to consider how much worse off they would be without Kevin Durant. He has been in better health than Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, despite being 35 years old.
In addition, he’s continuing to score at an absurd rate—his 27.8 points per game are even more than they were on one of his four previous scoring champion performances. Durant has improved the Suns’ chances of winning the game in more ways than one, even if his 41.9 percent shooting from beyond the arc ranks among the best in the NBA.
In fact, head coach Frank Vogel recently made some audacious remarks about Durant in response to a question concerning the player’s defensive prowess.
Our own Will Eudy of Fansided posed the question to coach Vogel, who reacted in typical Vogel form. Measured, however after he started talking about Durant, he even went so far as to suggest that, given his play on that end of the court this season, he might receive an end-of-season award;
When it comes to on-ball and iso defense, he’s among the finest in the league. He doesn’t receive enough credit on that side of the ball because he is physically strong and somewhat long. This year, he ought to be recognized as a member of the All-Defensive team;
This season the Suns have the 13th best defensive rating in the league, at 114.6. Not that we have seen much of this recently, with the Milwaukee Bucks putting 82 points on them in one half in a road loss to them on Sunday. When Durant is on the court though, that number shrinks a small bit to 114.2.
Which not only indicates that Durant plays a lot and that the two stats are related, but also that he has contributed significantly to the Suns’ defensive success thus far this season. Coach Vogel is undoubtedly the one who can bring out the best in Durant in that regard.
