Even the moderate basketball observer is impressed with the Draymond Green smorgasbord, an impressive collection of rebounds, assists, blocks and steals, as well as suffocating defense and unquantifiable intangibles.
The Warriors have four All-Stars and a case can be made, seven days a week, that Green is the most indispensible.
It’s on record, two consecutive seasons, that Warriors point guard Stephen Curry is the Most Valuable Player in the NBA.
As well as Green and Curry have played through 13 games, the Warriors player having the best season of all is Kevin Durant, who became a free agent last summer and signed with the Warriors on July 7.
“We knew exactly what we were getting when we got him,” Curry said last week. “He’s playing as advertised.”
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Maybe better. Though Durant’s defense comes and goes, unbelievable one minute and absent the next, his offense has been crazy good. The 6-foot-9 forward (he’s actually closer to 7 feet) has opened his Warriors career with a 13-game stretch of absurd shooting.
Durant’s 27.9 points per game leads the Warriors and ranks sixth among NBA scorers. Nice numbers. His 43.1 percent 3-point shooting leads the Warriors and ranks eighth in the league among those with at least five attempts per game. Nice, too, but unremarkable compared to those he is putting down in the fine print.
Such as: Durant, among the NBA top 50 scorers, leads in points per shot, averaging 1.59 points every time he pulls up and launches. No. 2 is New Orleans’ Anthony Davis at 1.44.
Durant leads all NBA starters in effective field-goal percentage, at 63.3. EFG percentage calculates points per attempt but adjusts upward for the fact that a 3-pointer is worth 1.5 times as much as a 2-pointer.
Curry’s record 402 3-pointers last season boosted his eFG to percentage 63.0 – a record for a perimeter player. Durant is threatening to break it.
Durant is first among all players in true shooting percentage at 67.8. TSP calculates the combined percentage of field goals and free throws. No premier scorer has ever surpassed 67 percent and only three – Charles Barkley, Adrian Dantley and Curry – have surpassed 66.
Among players averaging at least 15 shots per game, Durant’s 57.2-percent overall shooting ranks No. 1. Next on this specific list is Minnesota center Karl-Anthony Towns, who is shooting 50.7 percent.
As good as Curry’s offense was last season – and it was historically good – Durant so far this season has been better.
“It’s an incredible combination of size and skill,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr says. “It’s a luxury for him that if he doesn’t feel great with his outside shot, with his threes, he can get to the rim. He can get fouled. He can score at the basket. The game comes so easily for him because of that combination.”
Durant mostly glides, a gazelle in shorts and sneakers lofting feather 3-pointers and midrange jumpers. He has adopted the fadeaway jumper off one foot, popularized by Dirk Nowitzki, and made it a go-to move. Durant also can attack the rim and throw down nasty dunks.
Durant’s efficiency has been downright stunning, the latest example coming in the first half of a 124-121 victory at Milwaukee on Saturday. Durant in a little less than 17 minutes scored 25 points – on only 10 shots.
So perhaps it’s understandable that a wave of concern went through the Warriors when Durant went down, clutching his left knee, early in the third quarter against the Bucks.
“I was a little nervous,” Klay Thompson said.
“I was very scared,” Green said. “Anytime you see someone go down holding their knee, especially grabbing the outside of their knee, you get a little nervous. It was a relief [when he got back out there]. I saw him the first couple plays, and I was like ‘Oh, he’s moving a little gingerly.’ As the game went on, he picked it back up and there was kind of that sigh of relief then.”
The Warriors called a timeout, during which Durant was examined. He returned to the floor when play resumed.
“I’m cool,” Durant told reporters afterward, when asked about his knee.
He may be cool. But his numbers have been almost too hot to believe.
