Hov's Kings - Retired

[kibaxx7]

I guess you have a chance against the Spurs, but against the Heat? Nah.

[Axel The Great]

Good games by Evans and West, but the team still needs some work. Sounds like a lucky shot that fake K-Mart made at the end of that first game with the fumbling and all.

[john26]

good luck in the next two home games

[rise]

That's my boy S-Jax! Too bad it came at the expense of another loss. Hopefully you can turn it around pretty soon.

[Houndy]

2 losses, but your team is young.

The Heat are blazing...

[Valor]

I reckon you will be 9-15 in no time.

That, go Sonics!!

[hova-]

Player Information

Position: SF (PG)
Age: 23
Height: 6-10
Weight: 230 lbs.
College: Texas
Years Pro: 4
PER: 29.7 (2nd in the league - last year: 31.4)



Offense

Kevin Durant has to be among the three best scorers in the NBA right now. He does not have the power of LeBron James and not the craftiness of Kobe Bryant or Dirk Nowitzki, but his uniqueness lies in his versatility and his great stroke. Durant is lightning quick despite being 6-10 and loves to go left while swinging the ball around the defender. Once past his defender, he can score even with contact and draws a lot of fouls. His free throw shooting is excellent at .922%, even better from last year (.903).

"Durantula" also has a very good three point shot (.348%) and thanks to his height he can shoot over almost every defender, making him a lights our mid range shooter. Despite increased playing time, his scoring fell from 31.8 points per game last season to 26.3 this year. This huge drop off of almost 5 points has different reasons.

First of all, the Thunder have added some huge support in Thad Young and Aaron Brooks, two players who are capable of shooting the ball. Secondly, Durant understands now how to draw double-teams and beat them. When you are the league's top scorer two years in a row, the defense will be all over you. "KD" punishes double-teams by dishing the ball better than last year (5.1apg -> 5.9apg).

Still you can notice that the new league-wide attention limits Durant in a way as defenders try to guard him well on his comfort zones. His shooting dropped from .504% to .476%.

A go-to-move has to be going left with a ball swing around the defender and then either taking it to the rim (Durant is among the top five forwards in the league in dunks per game) or going for that sweet leaning jumpshot which has a quick release and seems pretty much unblockable.

Leadership

When the Thunder lost the first game of the Conference Semis last year against Dallas, Kevin Durant had to take a lot of blame for not shooting the ball much (22 points). After that, the former Longhorn put up 31 & 38 points, showing that he could almost score at will. This year, it seems like the same thing all over again. Durant's scoring has gone down and he is facing a lot of critique about the fact that he does not demand the ball often enough.

On the other hand, it is important to involve everybody on offense to have success in the postseason. Durant still needs to find the right mixture of leading his team via scoring and not overdrive on offense.

From his character, Durant is of course not a real leader yet. Although he has proven killer instinct in his first three years in the league, Russell Westbrook seems like the vocal leader of the Thunder. "Durant does not like to talk a lot but let's his game talk", says Coach Scott Brooks but also adding "that we want him to become louder on the court". As a leader, Durant can still grow on the court.

Contract

One thing that stands out if you look at KD's character is loyalty. Durant often emphasizes how good of a fit Oklahoma City is for him. "As a child we were moving a lot, I went to many different schools and had to find new friends everytime", Durant says. "This is a reason why I just want to stay put at the moment".

His current contract will run for the next five years and is worth 82.30M$, but GM Sam Presti sees reasons to extend the deal before it expires. "When you have an MVP type player, you have go after him as ealry as possible." Right now there is no reason to imagine Kevin Durant ever playing in another jersey.

Defense

It's been the story of his career. Kevin Durant has no muscles. At least he looks like that. When you talk about his defense, you have to take that into account. The lack of weight is one reason for Durant to have problems in the low post. Last year, the Thunder could compensate that by bringing in Serge Ibaka and having a tough defensive frontcourt next to Durant in Ibaka and Marcus Camby. This year, the Thunder tend to play small and have Ibaka at center and Jeff Green at power forward, a defensive liability himself. So on the block, the team looks pretty weak and is really prone to points in the paint.

On the perimetre, Durant has developed in a pretty good defender. He's quick enough to catch up with smaller guys and his long legs and arms help him to stay in front of a player and get a hand in his face. 1.7 blocks and 1.5 steals per game are both career-highs for the thin small forward. The blocks per game also show that he has improved as a help defender, swatting some shots here and there from the helpside.

With 9.2 rebounds per game, Durant also is aiming for a career-high in that category. A reason could be the fact that Jeff Green is not a great rebounder at all and Marcus Camby retired before the season.

Injury

Kevin Durant has only missed 10 games in his four years in the NBA so far and has no greater injury history so far.

Athleticism

For a guy being 6-10 tall, Kevin Durant has great athletic ability. An underrated leaper, Durant has brought many guys on posters in recent years. His lateral quickness is also very good and if there are any problems, he makes up for it with his long arms and legs. Durant actually can be very quick when it comes to coast to coast plays and he barely runs out of stamina (which might explain his body type).

[Cruzerr]

First off, great Player Check

Second off, great to see your team back in full. I wish you good luck against Heat and Spurs, with Chase and Tyreke, I hope you pull it through

Third off, S-Jax in Clippers ? :O Traded or free agency?

[hova-]

The Clippers had that draft day deal with the Cats: viewtopic.php?f=92&t=75803&p=1350644#p1350644

Great move by the Clipps so far, the Cats wanted to rebuild anyway. Thanks for your support

[Bucket]

Wow, I really like your player check
I like West trade, he is very good in 2k11.

[Axel The Great]

Wow, I really like that pic of KD, what kind of effect is that?

Seems like as KD's maturing his scoring is dropping. Adding passing and defense makes him unstoppable.

[Houndy]

Love the Player Check. Durant might need to demand the ball 2% more than he does now though.

[kibaxx7]

Again, lovin' it

[homicide1550]

Good concept with the player check! I like it!

[The X]

I like the Player Check feature, although part of me wishes that you're assigned ratings (maybe out of 10) for each attribute and given a (weighted) average for Durant. Kind of like some of those old NBA cards we collected as kids

[Valor]

I LOVE the player check feature, just not digging the "player" chosen this time

[Lamrock]

Awesome features, man. This story is super cool and I've enjoyed catching up to it. One suggestion though: while I, and everybody else want this story's babies, I might recommending picking up the pace a bit with progressing the season.

Keep it up.

[hova-]

Thanks for your replies, guys. Really appreciated.

Lamrock, you're right, my problem right now is just that I have not much time to update this. University is getting at me and lately I barely find time to play the games.

I will try to get the season going quickly.

[dare]

Good thing I only missed a couple of updates, cHeat are owning the league.

[debiler]

Nice feature on Durant, I like it!

Also, I think your addition of West is a big one. If you know how to use him, he's a beast in this game. He and Ginobili are the two guys who kill me on a regular basis in my Association. Nothing I can do about it, just contain their teammates. When West goes up for the midrange jumper, there's no point in trying to contest his shot. Just let it happen.

[Valor]

University is getting at me and lately I barely find time to play the games.

I know exactly how you feel hov, uni is a bitch lol...from all the assignments and shit, i could just squeeze a bit of time to play basketball and definitely rarely get the time to play the games/make updates

[hova-]

Donte Greene is averaging just over 18 points over the last three games - the Sonics couldn't win one though.

Current losing streak leaves Coach Hova perplexed
Sonicsfan88 for Sonics.com
Posted on December 16th 2011 1:36PM

It was pretty obvious that the third week in December would be pretty tough for the Sonics as they were facing the San Antonio Spurs (11-13), the Miami Heat (21-3) and the Boston Celtics (12-12), but especially the two veteran teams from Beantown and the Alamo were spreading some hope amongst Seattle fans.


Just didn't happen

"What shall I say? It just didn't happen", said Coach Hova after the first loss of the week against the San Antonio Spurs. As it had to be, the Sonics were taken apart by a 35-year old thirteen time All-Star, who seems to be experiencing the second spring of his career.

Tim Duncan, right now averaging 22.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game for the struggling Spurs, helped his team to overcome a fighting Sonics squad that fought back late in the third from a 10 point deficit but once again couldn't make the right play down the stretch.

Duncan had 26 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists, shooting 11-19 from the field and only committing one turnover. Despite having four fouls in the third, the veteran managed to stay in the game and helped closing out the Sonics.

For Seattle, Tyreke Evans showed leader qualities as he once again put up decent scoring numbers, 29 points on 11-18 from the field. The Sonics starting perimetre players pretty much outplayed the Spurs backcourt in the game, but the Spurs were able to decide the game on the boards outrebounding the Sonics 50-40.

Donte Greene came up big in the third and scored 21 in the ball game, hitting three of his four attempts from down town. Luis Chase had his fair share of problems guarding Tony Parker, who had 14 points and 12 assists, but was able to come up big on the offensive end scoring 18 points and dishing out 9 assists.

The San Antonio Spurs were even able to hold the lead when Manu Ginobili went down with an abdomen injury after getting blocked when driving to the basket.

Talking about blocks: Demarcus Cousins had his personal block party as he recorded six blocks to tie his career-high. He also added 13 points and 9 rebounds.

Still, down the stretch, the Sonics did not work hard enough on the glass and only forced 7 turnovers by the Spurs. David West, who went into the game injured, had a tough shooting night going 4-14 from the field for 8 points.

The Spurs won it in the end, 107-102.





"They still regreat leaving me wide open", LeBron James dropped 38 on the Sonics.

The Heat is on

Hosting the best team in the league is always special and the Sonics hung into the game vs the Heat until late in the fourth when LeBron James just decided to take over.

The "King" had 38 points and 5 assists, scoring 30 of his total in the 2nd half after going 1-6 from down town in the first half.

"Well, I thought I had some wide open misses I usually make with my eyes tied. They gave me those shots over and over again and I simply couldn't hit [expletive]. So I went mad at halftime and swore my team mates that I'm going to attack them now for being respectless. That's what I did. I think they still regret provocating me", a pumped up James said after the game.

It wasn't like he had no support at all though. Dwyane Wade recorded 25 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists and Chris Bosh added 16 and 14 boards.

The Sonics did a good job in the first quarter limiting the Heat to sub par .39% from the field and hit their own shots. But after halftime, Miami began to tighten up on defense and forced many turnovers leading to easy baskets.

Luis Chase had 5 of the team's 16 turnovers and only dished out 1 assists in the game facing Dwyane Wade on defense a lot.

"He's a good kid. I think he can be right where we are right now in a few years", Wade praised Chase, who was totally disappointed by his own performance.

Said Chase: "They were trapping me from all sides and I just could never find the right reaction".

Tyreke Evans had a double-double with 27 points and 11 rebounds and Donte Greene added at least 20 for the second time in a row. Demarcus Cousins and David West had 10 points and 7 rebounds each, but especially West looked still hampered by his back spasms he suffered three games ago. The power forward only hit 5-13 from the field.

In the end, the Heat outscored the Sonics by 11 in the fourth, winning the game 115-96.


Beantown Ballin'

After two days of pause, the Sonics head over to the East coast to their first contest of a three game road trip. The Boston Celtics, just like the Spurs surprisingly struggling this season were hosting the Sonics. Last year at Boston, the Sonics were able to grab a great comeback win, limiting Boston to only 8 points in the fourth quarter. Things went different this time.

The Celtics, a team that took great pride in their defense, were able to outscore the Sonics on offense grabbing a 105-113 home win.

"On defense, I really think they have regressed by a lot", Coach Hova said later. "But our own defense just wasn't good enough. We allowed them to shoot over .500 from the field and only had 2 blocked shots.

Hova is definitely right. The Celtics have lost a step or two on defense this year with each starter getting one year older. Shaq will never defend the pick & roll well and Kevin Garnett despite having three steals in the game, can't do it alone any longer at the age of 35.

But the Celtics instead did a good job making their best of every possession on offense. Paul Pierce had 32 points and Nate Robinson added 22 off the bench (4-6 from down town) to counter a superb game by Luis Chase.

The rookie out of Indiana State, the college where Celtics legend Larry Bird played, scored 26 points on 9-12 shooting and added 10 assists. Chase also gave Rajon Rondo fits, who could not hit a shot from the field (0-6) and only scored 5 points but dished out 10 assists.

Rondo, despite playing a good season statistically, is also a reason for the Celtics' struggles as he simply is still not a threat from the outside, allowing other guards to back off from him.

Tyreke Evans had 22 points and 9 rebounds, but only hit 7 of his 21 shot attempts and could not deliver down the stretch, where the Sonics needed him the most. Demarcus Cousins had another double-double with 11 points and 13 boards and David West added 12 points despite limited playing time.

In the end, the Celtics proved to be too cold in the clutch where Paul Pierce just could not be stopped in the fourth, but this Celitcs squad is not really a candidate for going back to the finals.



Check Sonics stats and League Standings here ...

[hova-]

What shall I say ... I just can't win. I like the team, I think we play pretty well for most of the first half and just can't win it down the stretch. West's injury hurts his shooting a bit. I hope that we can finally build a stretch against the easier teams coming now, the Pistons, Cavs and Wolves. We will also face Phoenix and Utah this month. I hope it turns out well.


So - I thought I just should use the last minutes of the day recapping this stuff because my birthday will be in like 12 minutes and thus I won't have much time tomorrow. Greetings to y'all.

[Axel The Great]

Happy B'day hov. Here's to a Mavs victory tomorrow.

Sucks about the losing though. I thought that adding a veteran in West would help the team execute down the stretch, but I guess the C's, Spurs, and Heat just have more veteranship. Good to see Evans being consistent though, kinda like K-Mart from my D.

[kibaxx7]

Happy B-day Hov Looks like the Sonics are having a tough time. Just checked the standings... at least, there's always the Pistons.