NBA Rumors: The Trouble With Kevin Durant

There’s no doubt that, when he finally retires, Houston Rockets star scorer Kevin Durant will go down as one of the great players in league history, a four-time scoring champ who has averaged less than 25 points only once in his career, and that was when he was a rookie in Seattle. He’ll also belong in the NBA Rumors Hall of Fame, of course.

Durant carries a career scoring average of 27.2 points, and does it with remarkable efficiency–he shoots 50.2% from the field, 39.0% from the 3-point line and 88.2% from the free-throw line. Durant is nearly a 50-40-90 player … over an 18-year career.

But he’s also on his fifth team, and now, in his first year in Houston, he is the subject of some bizarre accusations–that he is using a burner social-media account to trash his Rockets teammates. It’s not exactly clear that the burner (@gethigher77 on Twitter/X) belongs to Durant, but if so, it would not be the first time that Durant has used a burner to post his real, if controversial, feelings. Durant admitted, in 2019, that he used a burner account to respond to critics.

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Why Can’t the Rockets’ Kevin Durant ‘Just Be Happy’?

Whether the Durant account is real or not probably does not matter–he will likely deny it, but the Rockets teammates that were trashed (mostly Jabari Smith and Alperen Sengun) in the messages probably won’t be so sure they believe him.

It’s also part of a larger pattern with Durant, who has bounced through four teams in the last eight years.

Here’s what one assistant coach who has worked with Durant said on the topic: “The thing about Kevin is that he is very good at his job, he is a very smart guy, he can look at an opponent and know almost immediately where he can attack. But it’s like he is unhappy all the time. It does sort of bring the whole team down. I think you could see it at the end with (the Warriors in 2019) and it has spiraled with each team since then.

“The Nets, they were a miserable team when he was there. What happened with the Suns was not really his fault but you could see, that was a group that did not like playing together. And now, even the Rockets, it’s a problem. Sometimes you want to tell him, he is so talented, he works so hard, maybe just be happy.”

 

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NBA Rumors: What’s Wrong With Paolo Banchero?

From the weekend’s notes and chatter comes some concern in about Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic.The Magic pulled off a massive trade for Desmond Bane last offseason, and the thinking was that Bane would be the piece to put the team over the hump, especially in a watered-down East.

It hasn’t happened. Banchero indicated, in another Athletic article, that there were issues half-court offensive system. The Magic are just 28-25, No. 7 in the East. Asked about the Magic offense, Banchero said: “I think our record answers that question, honestly. I’m not going to sit here and harp on the problems with our offense or what I think is wrong with our offense. But I don’t think anyone would say that it’s where it should be or could be.”

But others see an issue with Banchero’s performance itself, as well as a change in how Banchero is deployed. He had a groin injury early in the season, and has not played well since there. His scoring is way down, at 21.3 points, down from 25.9 last year.

“He does not move all that well,” one Eastern Conference assistant coach said. “That’s the thing you notice. I think they wanted him to put on muscle and play closer to the rim and that’s maybe a good idea in theory but not in reality. What makes him unique is that he is 6-foot-10 and can attack you from the perimeter. If you take that away, he becomes a more average player.”

There remains a concern, then, that if Banchero is a 6-foot-10 perimeter big man, then he is just too repetitive with the team’s other 6-foot-10 perimeter big man, Franz Wagner. It has not come to this year, but there is a real chance the Magic could be forced to examine the trade market for either Wagner or Banchero.

 

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney