OAKLAND – He’s a seven-time NBA All-Star and a four-time scoring champ. He has been Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. He an efficient passer that last season led all small forwards in rebounding.
Kevin Durant came to the Warriors with more NBA trophies, plaques and certificates than he has room to store them.
There is one, however, that he never collected with the Sonics/Thunder, and his new club believes he’s capable of earning it in his first season with them.
Durant has never been named to an NBA All-Defensive team, first team or second.
Only two players with as many as four scoring titles have also been named to the All-Defensive team, and Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan are on everybody’s list of the top five players of all time.
Does Durant have what it takes to join them?
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“That’s hard to do, but for sure he has the potential,” coach Steve Kerr said Sunday. “He’s got the length and the quickness and the intelligence. He’s been playing in the league a long time. He’s seen every action, every concept. So feels stuff before it happens.
“Yeah, I think he has absolutely has that potential.”
Should Durant defend at that level, scoring on the Warriors will be exceedingly difficult, and their Death Lineup, with Durant and Draymond Green patrolling the paint, will be able to bury opponents even deeper than it did last season.
Though three preseason games, Durant is making as much of an impression on defense as on offense. He has at various times defended at least four positions and he leads the Warriors in blocked shots with five.
He’s making an impression on his new teammates and he’s trying to make an impression assistant coach Ron Adams, the team’s defensive coordinator. Their relationship goes back to 2008, when Adams was an assistant in Oklahoma City and Durant was a second-year player.
Upon making a defensive play, Durant often sneaks a peek at Adams, who remains stoic.
“I just keep playing and keep moving along,” Durant said. “He expects so much out of me, when I block a shot and look over to him he just doesn’t even care.
“I guess I’ve got to keep doing it.”
The Warriors learned during the Western Conference Finals last May that Durant is able to make a major impact on defense. He had 12 blocks and 12 steals in the seven-game series eventually won by the Warriors.
“I’ve always said he could be a great defender if he focused on it, which he did in the playoffs last year,” Adams said.
“He was a force,” Kerr recalled. “Draymond generally has an advantage over everybody he plays with his speed and his quickness and he didn’t have that advantage over KD. It’s one of the reasons we had such trouble in that series and barely survived.
“We found out in the playoffs last year how devastating Kevin can be defensively.”
Durant indicates a strong desire to be a factor on that end. He’s done plenty of scoring and will continue to do more. Becoming an All-Defensive team player is one of the few individual honors remaining on his career bucket list.
Adams sees the possibilities as potential remaining to be tapped, which is partly why he’s lavish with support but spare with praise.
“Coach Adams is on me every second of the day defensively, wanting to see me helping with rebounding, using my length on the defensive end,” Durant said.
“I like his progress right now,” Adams said. “He’s been steady. He’s focused.”
When a goal lurks in the heart of an elite player, focus comes a bit easier. Durant, 29, should be at his physical peak. If he’s ever to add defense to his reputation as a spectacular offensive player, now is the time.
