Kevin Durant's Reasoning For Choosing The Nets Is The Biggest Crock Of Shit You've Ever Heard
To provide some additional context to that tweet, here is Marks’ full quote
Marks told WFAN on Tuesday that in his first conversation with Durant after the announcement, the star said: “I love the system. I love how you guys play. I see how hard you guys play … you were never out of games. We could never take you guys lightly.
Now it’s true, the Nets do play extremely hard. It’s why they had their best season in years and why a lot of people were high on their potential even before their free agency splash. Ever since Sean Marks got there he’s done a great job at rebuilding that team and help make them an actual destination. This is not me saying that the Nets don’t have a good system or that they don’t play hard or any of that. I’m just calling bullshit that THOSE are the reasons Kevin Durant ended up in Brooklyn. If he really did say it was the system that sealed the deal, well what exactly is that system? I would describe BKN as a fast pace offense, one that revolved around spacing, motion and ball movement with some isolation mixed in. Remember, Kenny Atkinson has some ties to Mike D’Antoni and Coach Bud from his time spent with the Knicks and Hawks. You can see elements of their systems in what the Nets run, so my question to Durant would be what on earth do the Nets do in terms of system that the Warriors don’t? I was curious so I actually looked it up
Isolation:
GS – 6.4% frequency
BKN – 8.1% frequency
Maybe Durant likes how as a team BKN runs slightly more isolation? With Kyrie now on board you imagine he’s going to get the majority of that, but we do know Durant likes to go iso as well. Last season in the Warriors system he ran it with 15.6% frequency, essentially the same number as Giannis and Khris Middleton. That’s important because Coach Bud runs that team which is a style Atkinson borrows from. To be fair there were two Nets who had higher iso frequency than Durant, both Dinwiddie and LeVert were higher at at least 18%. So while it’s a part of BKN’s offense, it’s not a main focus of their system and really isn’t all that different from what Durant did in GS.
Pace:
GS – 101.73
BKN – 101.51
Maybe it was the fast paced offense that Durant is talking about? Well, as you can see they played pretty much at the exact same pace as the Warriors last season. So to me, that’s out as well.
Ball movement:
GS – 320 passes per game
BKN – 309 passes per game
If Durant was impressed with how Brooklyn moved the ball, well they didn’t do it as well as the team he just left. With Draymond/Steph/Boogie/Iggy etc Durant was surrounded with unselfish players. Now he’s going to a team that didn’t move the ball as well and is heavier in terms of isolation, so that’s confusing.
Off screens:
GS – 12.9% frequency
BKN – 7.0 frequency
If we’re talking about a free flowing offense with motion, coming off screens is pretty important. Well nobody in the NBA did this better and more often than GS. I will say BKN is right there though, with Joe Harris and Allen Crabbe coming in 2nd and 3rd in terms of player frequency only trailing Klay. If this was such an important thing for Durant, why leave the team that uses this as a main part of their offense?
This is where I simply have a hard time believing Durant here. It sounds like everything he loved about the Nets style of play was something he already had in GS with better talent, so I’m having trouble thinking he left because of how the Nets play. Then you factor in all the reports we heard that he was really considering the Knicks before he got hurt and it was Kyrie that convinced him to go to BKN. Hearing what Sean Marks gave as reasons for the move is exactly what a guy will say as a boiler plate cliche answer. In reality Durant wanted to go to NYC regardless, and join an already established star in Kyrie. If Kyrie decided to go to the Knicks, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t make a difference how hard the Nets play or what their system is, he probably goes to NYK too.
I think Durant saw a team that has a similar style to GS and that intrigued him, and then you factor in all the off the court stuff and the fact that Kyrie had already committed. To me, that’s why Durant ended up in BKN. It’s why we hear Marks talk about how they didn’t even talk to Durant before he made his decision and they had no idea it was coming. Because in the end, he was going to go wherever Kyrie went so they could be a dynamic duo. If you truly believe the main reason Durant went to BKN because they are a worse version of the GS system and because they try really hard, well then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.