This Has to Be Kevin Durant’s Year

Oct 23, 2013

Last season when the Oklahoma City Thunder were eliminated from the playoffs there were a lot of questions that needed answers. When will Westbrook come back? Was trading James Harden the wrong move? Will Kevin Martin come back? Can Kevin Durant carry the team alone?

Unfortunately most of those answers had bad responses. If OKC had of held onto Harden there probably would of been a different team playing in the NBA Finals. We can go on for months on James Harden still in OKC scenarios but a lot of us were surprised when Kevin Martin decided to sign with the Minnesota Timberwolves this summer. Martin filled the scoring off the bench void of James Harden but besides that he was pretty disappointing. The thunder let Martin walk with only taking a trade exception and didn’t even bother to replace him. Now Russell Westbrook is expected to be out until for the first month of the season. So the OKC Big 3 will be simply Kevin Durant this season.

The pressure should be on for Kevin Durant this year as his greatness reputation could essentially be on the line here. Durant is highly praised as the 2nd best player in the NBA. Durant says he’s tired of being number 2 but to me that sounds like a nice insult. At the same time though, without his superstar teammates will Kevin Durant still be the number two player in the league? I think he can but he has to really work for it this year.

Durant is a pretty well liked player, he’s highly praised for his work on the court as well. He seemed poised for another run at a title last season but Westbrooks injury changed  everything. Durant was spectacular but his teammates were not. As good as Durant is though, I don’t think that should be a problem. Durant affects the game in every aspect and is hands down the best scorer in the league (better than Melo), so this season I don’t expect to see the Thunder to strike. People are counting out the Thunder with Westbrook out in the same light as people counted the Bulls out with Derrick Rose injured. This shouldn’t even be a question, Durant should be leading this team to title contention even without his superstar teammate for a while.

I expect to see a different more aggressive Durant this year. He has a problem with deferring to his teammates a lot but with Westbrook out there is nobody to defer to. Reggie Jackson is a mini Westbrook but there should be a big emphasis on the “mini” aspect. We really have no idea how project 6th man Jeremy Lamb will do so that’s not an option until proven different. Oh and don’t even get me started on Serge Ibaka. This is Kevin Durant’s time to shine. This should truly be his MVP season.

I want to see Durant come out and single handily be the reason the Thunder win games. He can score, rebound, defend, and even facilitate so this shouldn’t be much a problem for him. I understand basketball is a team sport and you want to involve your teammates but dammit I want to see Durant channel his inner Kobe Bryant and just take over. On a good day this guy is a mixture of Carmelo Anthony and Paul George, in other words this dude can flat out ball.

This has to be Kevin Durant’s year. He has to prove why he’s the number two best player in the NBA and make a push at being called the number one player. I don’t want any excuses the number two player should fight through the tough Western Conference and face the number one ranked player in the Finals. Oh and if anybody else besides the Heat are in the Finals versus the Thunder I expect to win with Durant on that team. He has to be that good this year. He just has to be.