Kevin Durant spoke after shootaround in Washington D.C. and clarified his comments about Wizards fans being “disrespectful” in their recruitment of the forward. “I was just happy I got to play in front of them (friends and family), and seeing my brother courtside and all my family, it was cool to get a win in front of them”, Durant said. The Wizards have won 10 of their last 13 regular season home games. Beal is a game-time decision due to a bruised left shoulder, but went through shootaround today and will likely play.
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But Durant has never shied away from proudly displaying his Washington roots. Me, I feel, is you should focus on who you have on your team. Durant’s connections to the D.C. area have exacerbated rumors of him joining the Wizards.
“Any good thing takes time”, Durant said last week.
This summer, I’m sure Durant will consider how much he loves playing in Washington.
The Wizards are not the only team that plan on chasing Durant.
Most important for now is that Durant appears to be healthy and unaffected by the three foot surgeries he endured over the course of six months last season. The Wizards are led by their backcourt duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal.
In the Thunder’s seven games this season, Durant has demonstrated that he’s ready to reenter the MVP conversation and lead the team to another trip to the finals. There was even an in-game promotion on the jumbotron that involved Durant and the Wizards.
The 2015-16 National Basketball Association regular season has been full of ups-and-downs for the Wizards despite the fact the team has shown progress in offense and pace, but the defense and turnovers continue to unveil serious problems.
The Wizards are on the cusp of contending for an Eastern Conference title, but adding Durant immediately pencils the team in as championship contenders. Those lineups have been outscored by 0.3 points per 100 possessions, via lineup data from NBA.com/Stats, as compared with minus-6.3 per 100 possessions for lineups with two bigs on the court.
Because there are few post-up 4 men in the East, Washington could slide Durant into that spot in place of Humphries, its weakest starter.
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NY Knicks’ fans were walking around wearing LeBron James jerseys years before James hit free agency. With his free agency upcoming, he may very well make it extremely hard for the Wizards to not extend him. The Nuggets would only be able to chip into the lead slightly, as the Thunder took a 58-50 lead to the locker room at halftime.
