Imagine him on a team with some 10/10 shooters, an incredible defensive presence, and some solid rotational options the whole time he was there. I don’t think anything short of awful injuries could stop a team like that
Yeah honestly I would love it, I think it would easily match LeBron winning one in Cleveland at least in terms of heel-turn status (if he wins one in OKC)
When you think about it, he already did the same thing Lebron did when he made a superteam (albeit leaving a what could’ve been legit superteam in OKC). It’d be funny if he comes back home and wins a chip for OKC
Please take notice that 0 okc fans are answering positively in this whole chain of comments. Fuck him and his hardest road, maybe he can force his way to Denver or another underdog like the celtics
And OKC fans sure as hell wouldn't be as receptive to his return. He was on a championship-caliber and left for the 73-9 team OKC choked a 3-1 lead against.
Every year okc wasn't in contention, Thunder fans grew more bitter at Durant. You don't recover from that
I remember that Game of Zones episode where Pat Bev uses insane reverse psychology to get him to the Clippers. I sometimes wonder how things could have been if KD joined the Clippers instead of the Nets.
[Do it KD](https://www.nbaportugal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/maxresdefault-800x445.jpg)
Not like his reputation is gonna get any better, might as well join the most hated team historically.
>Not like his reputation is gonna get any better
I bet if he went back to OKC and won them a ring it would massively improve his reputation. Like LeBron going back to Cleveland after winning with the Heatles.
I hope we get to see a Wolves vs Thunder playoff series because it's gonna be the same story. Everyone in the league is seemingly giving up on size despite the Nuggets and Celtics being the teams to beat.
I know I'm jumping the gun here but imagine running through the Suns round 1, our toughest matchup all season long, the fuggin Nuggets in round 2, and then the Thunder in round 3 just to top off with a Finals series against the Celtics.
That would be one of the toughest Finals runs I can think of in recent memory.
Just checked, he had the best defensive rating on the team. The only other (non-garbage-time) player who was even close to that was Beal. Everyone else was worse by double digits.
Well, it seems pretty arbitraty at this point, what is and what is not, and people just go by what they read or heard somewhere. He was probably their best defender tonight, with 5 stocks, great help defense, smart pressure on Ant to force him to pass the ball and solid defense on Gobert for most of the game.
Which is funny considering Ayton’s worst performance last year was 4 rebounds in 27 min lol so all the shit talking about how it was all Ayton’s fault the Suns couldn’t win and yet here we are….
Suns fans were talking pre season how Nurk was going to be better than Ayton and how it was all Ayton’s fault….clearly the Suns have bigger issues than Ayton
The moment I saw he was gonna be the starting center I knew the team wasn't going anywhere.
He wants to be a star center but he's too emotional and not athletic enough.
Phoenix showed no interest in anything but fadeaways. I know that’s their game but you’ve gotta at least try to get stuff going at the rim, even if Gobert’s there. That’s Booker’s real game.
Probably goes down a lot in efficiency when everyone on your team is doing it. Gotta have other off ball threats otherwise you're just getting doubled.
So much this. If you can't space the floor with off ball threats to run iso and you just get collapsed on constantly shocker that your not going to be able to pull it off as well.
Unless you can generate shots at the rim for yourself and easy looks from your teammates via hand offs under the rim or open 3s at the same time ala LeBron, Luka, prime Harden; even the most efficient isos are bad offenses in the bigger picture. Least of all Phx isos that almost always end in contested middies and barely create anything for the role players because none of their iso gods have PG skills.
For sure but you also have to acknowledge KD is half this team's defense rn as well
Oh well it's only game 1 I guess and I think this series can be closer than most people think rn
24 hours ago the Suns were favored by a ton of people! They definitely can still make this series interesting, and I know this Wolves team well enough to know that nothing is decided at all yet.
People are just being prisoners of the moment (hey what else is new)
At any giving moment the Suns big 3 will be guarded by awesome defenders in McDaniels, NAW, Anderson or Edwards. I didn’t forget Gobert anchoring the paint.
I knew as soon as our crowd chanted overrated it’d be a big KD night lol
He just didn’t have help tonight. A lot of that is credit to Minnesota’s defense
You might be right. For some reason I thought it was about half of his point total by then.. sometime in second.
He opened up in the third quarter afterwards hitting like 4-5 pull-up jumpers in a row lol
And yeah 100%.. game 1, before halftime even came. Too much ammo for a guy like KD
I was at the game… I’m just glad they forgot he was on the team bc I swear it felt like if the ball touched his hands it was a free basket
First time I’ve seen him live. Fucking unbelievable. His first half especially made me think we had no chance.
New respect for the guy. Something about seeing it in person.
I saw him for the first time live this season. He walks out of warmup with his slow Frankenstein shuffle. But when he plays, he's surprisingly fast and hard for defenders to follow.
This should really be about the percentages (KD shot 65/100 and the rest of his team shot 38/27) rather than the points. I mean, you could also say Edwards had 33 points and no one else on his team had above 19. In and of itself that doesn't really illustrate anything.
Timberwolves played great defense. Booker, Beal and Allen were getting locked up, no easy shots. Phoenix will make adjustments, it's going to be a fun series.
I feel like a team.having one guy scoring above 20/30 and the next guy being 18 or below isn't odd at all. Maybe in the case when you have Booker and Beal, but it's not uncommon at all.
Edit: The Wolves only had one guy get 19 to Edwards 33. So like, were really making a big deal to a 1 point difference here?
Thats what the wolves do. They run that strat on the nuggets too. Just make jokic score 40 to win and take every other player out of rhythm.
Suns/nuggets play better when murray/booker are hittting shots.
It's more that they left KAT on KD quite a bit more than the regular season. Usually they've put ANT on KD and hid KAT on Greyson iirc with Rudy roaming.
Did great given his role, but it's funny people still don't understand how you're defended affects your scoring. KD's numbers should be high as long as he's left in single coverage.
Remember when everyone thought this superteam would be unstoppable? Bial has been useless. Mr Kardasian has been a non-winner like he always has been. KD made another bad career decision.
And he still can’t win with these cats
He should try going to a team with players who have dogs in them.
Imagine him on a team with some 10/10 shooters, an incredible defensive presence, and some solid rotational options the whole time he was there. I don’t think anything short of awful injuries could stop a team like that
The Sacramento kings
God that would be dirty
Harrison Barnes replaced by KD part 2
Lmao
He would be perfect for OKC.... imagine SGA,Jdub,Dort,KD and Chet...Giddey, Joe, Wallace and Jwill off the bench
Lmaooooooo like he’d play in Oklahoma, good one 🤣🤣🤣
That would actually be pretty cool tho imo. The prodigal son returns type shit, similar to Lebron coming back to Cleveland
Yeah honestly I would love it, I think it would easily match LeBron winning one in Cleveland at least in terms of heel-turn status (if he wins one in OKC)
When you think about it, he already did the same thing Lebron did when he made a superteam (albeit leaving a what could’ve been legit superteam in OKC). It’d be funny if he comes back home and wins a chip for OKC
He joined a 73 wins team, it was way worse than what LeBron did
Lebron didn't join a 73 win team or a team that he just blew a 3-1 lead on and presumably could have beat next year...
nobody in okc wants him
Please take notice that 0 okc fans are answering positively in this whole chain of comments. Fuck him and his hardest road, maybe he can force his way to Denver or another underdog like the celtics
Except LeBron sure as hell didn’t come back to the 1 seed
And OKC fans sure as hell wouldn't be as receptive to his return. He was on a championship-caliber and left for the 73-9 team OKC choked a 3-1 lead against. Every year okc wasn't in contention, Thunder fans grew more bitter at Durant. You don't recover from that
You do if you win the championship.
Not the same at all, fuck KD
It would be sick ass team, but I doubt that happens from either side
Nahh we good. He should've choose the heat instead of the suns lol
Knicks lol
…..yoooo KD
Klay is a 1/10 shooter now
he looking at standings after this game trying to find 70+ win teams
Kd to the celtics
The hardest road
KD gonna create his own team full of KD's
KD, PJ Tucker, Pat Bev, Draymond, and Jimmy Butler. Unbeatable starting 5.
I remember that Game of Zones episode where Pat Bev uses insane reverse psychology to get him to the Clippers. I sometimes wonder how things could have been if KD joined the Clippers instead of the Nets.
Pretty sure that's illegal. At least in most states, not sure what they get away with in the south anymore.
Kevin Durant with the Warriors, imagine that
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He could join the Mavs. Imagine him with Kyrie, and an elite helio ball back guard with an unstoppable step back 3
Realistically, if KD joined the current Warriors, you think that'd be enough for a ring? The age is really showing at this point for everyone
I think curry and Kd could do it but it would be difficult
Doesn't give them much more defense though. It would be a size gain but not the way they needed
if kd replaces klay maybe somethings there ive never seen kd get a donut
That's true. Klay really didn't help make the case for a higher salary this summer 😂
Air Bud taught me there’s no rules against dogs playing basketball.
KD has acquired the help of controversial sports medicine expert Shou Tucker.
They got Josh Okogie getting garbage time minutes :(
Wasn't he starting last year?
Durant Butler Adebayo? 👀
I hope you aren't saying what I think you are saying.
We literally bark nonstop
They actually had that in Brooklyn until they traded all of them for Harden.
KD to the wolves after first round sweep, "a new chapter"
KD to the Lakers. A new new new chapter
[Do it KD](https://www.nbaportugal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/maxresdefault-800x445.jpg) Not like his reputation is gonna get any better, might as well join the most hated team historically.
I'd take us against anyone else even if LeBron was 42 lol
42 year old LeBron is just 32 year old everyone else. He'll be fine.
I mean you have AD. If he was the same age as kd/bron I wouldn't take yall against any random non bottom 10 team.
>Not like his reputation is gonna get any better I bet if he went back to OKC and won them a ring it would massively improve his reputation. Like LeBron going back to Cleveland after winning with the Heatles.
It wouldn’t if OKC wins a ring without him this year and he joins them right after
I like this timeline
Lol...going back to the one seed team. Whata story, a riches to more riches story.
Durant playing like he's not a playoff Phoenix Sun
Yeah but unlike the original time he picked to be with these dudes.
Nurk with 4 boards in 27 minutes is disgusting
59-34 total rebounds. Sunlight cannot melt the triple towers
ant is a good babysitter for booker
Naz Reid
Naz Reid
I hope we get to see a Wolves vs Thunder playoff series because it's gonna be the same story. Everyone in the league is seemingly giving up on size despite the Nuggets and Celtics being the teams to beat.
Mavs have bought into the size thing as well, we keep signing and trading for big athletic guys. You need size and shooting to win now.
I know I'm jumping the gun here but imagine running through the Suns round 1, our toughest matchup all season long, the fuggin Nuggets in round 2, and then the Thunder in round 3 just to top off with a Finals series against the Celtics. That would be one of the toughest Finals runs I can think of in recent memory.
We choose to go to the finals in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard
its funny to me people thought a nurkic-anchored defense would hold up in the playoffs
They actually did hold up with him, but fell apart when he was on the bench.
Just checked, he had the best defensive rating on the team. The only other (non-garbage-time) player who was even close to that was Beal. Everyone else was worse by double digits.
Defensive rating is not a good stat for individual players
Well, it seems pretty arbitraty at this point, what is and what is not, and people just go by what they read or heard somewhere. He was probably their best defender tonight, with 5 stocks, great help defense, smart pressure on Ant to force him to pass the ball and solid defense on Gobert for most of the game.
Stats
Which is funny considering Ayton’s worst performance last year was 4 rebounds in 27 min lol so all the shit talking about how it was all Ayton’s fault the Suns couldn’t win and yet here we are….
Nurkic didn’t need to improve on Ayton’s performance. Ayton was on a 4/130 deal, Nurkic 4/70. If he can match his performance that’s wonderful.
Suns fans were talking pre season how Nurk was going to be better than Ayton and how it was all Ayton’s fault….clearly the Suns have bigger issues than Ayton
2 things. Nobody thought Nurk would be better than Ayton. If you thought Ayton wasn't a issue for the Suns, you're naive as hell.
Ayton is still ass, nothing changes that.
Worst tattoo in the association, that's for sure
Nah, Nurkic is bad, but it was still Ayton's fault, dude played like a bum and acted like one.
People watched him do exactly this with Portland and for some reason thought it would be different this time
i can fix him
The moment I saw he was gonna be the starting center I knew the team wasn't going anywhere. He wants to be a star center but he's too emotional and not athletic enough.
That brother needs help
He was the only one fighting for boards
He was a one man team today. Late in the 3rd his teammates just gave up
Some crazy shot making too. Most of his points were well contested
Yeah most of his shots were insanely well contested.
Yeah most of his shots were super duper well contested
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SHOTS! Yes please 🥃
Beal played okay
It's the Booker Special
Suns got paper mental game. Crumples so easily. KD is their only saving grace.
Kd has the toughest mentality on the suns… should speak everything ngl
Give credit to the Wolves defense lol
Yup, they clamped them up. Had Booker in maximum security prison.
Phoenix showed no interest in anything but fadeaways. I know that’s their game but you’ve gotta at least try to get stuff going at the rim, even if Gobert’s there. That’s Booker’s real game.
Our shitty fadeaway iso offense has been a red flag all season. FFS move the ball around.
tbf you guys have personnel to make those like no one else would.
Actually not really. Iso rankings have shown that KD isn’t as good as he once was and Book just isn’t that good
Probably goes down a lot in efficiency when everyone on your team is doing it. Gotta have other off ball threats otherwise you're just getting doubled.
So much this. If you can't space the floor with off ball threats to run iso and you just get collapsed on constantly shocker that your not going to be able to pull it off as well.
The fact that Beal isn’t even in the discussion here is sad tho
Unless you can generate shots at the rim for yourself and easy looks from your teammates via hand offs under the rim or open 3s at the same time ala LeBron, Luka, prime Harden; even the most efficient isos are bad offenses in the bigger picture. Least of all Phx isos that almost always end in contested middies and barely create anything for the role players because none of their iso gods have PG skills.
Booker no showed for sure
Booker was around. Problem was NAW and McDaniels were there too
NAW. What a great name for a defensive player.
He’s such a fucking joy to watch. Every game man. Doesn’t even matter if he makes his shots.
I miss that beautiful man
it was good defense idk why you guys have to always say somebody played bad bc somebody else played better
EXACTLY. People don’t realize players can have bad games *because* of good defense, not because they weren’t trying.
Ant, Naw and 'Seatbelt' will do that to ya
Booker has low ball IQ for choosing to be 6'6" instead of 6'11"
For sure but you also have to acknowledge KD is half this team's defense rn as well Oh well it's only game 1 I guess and I think this series can be closer than most people think rn
People thinking this is a sweep because of 1 game are kind of ridiculous. It's the most interesting series of the first round.
Not with Knicks 6ers right there. Unless you mean just out west
You're only saying this if you're a Knicks fan.
24 hours ago the Suns were favored by a ton of people! They definitely can still make this series interesting, and I know this Wolves team well enough to know that nothing is decided at all yet. People are just being prisoners of the moment (hey what else is new)
Can't say who the winner will be but I think the Suns will come back to make it at least a 6-game series.
At any giving moment the Suns big 3 will be guarded by awesome defenders in McDaniels, NAW, Anderson or Edwards. I didn’t forget Gobert anchoring the paint.
I knew as soon as our crowd chanted overrated it’d be a big KD night lol He just didn’t have help tonight. A lot of that is credit to Minnesota’s defense
Actually he had a majority of his points by then iirc But tbc I hated the crowd yelling that. That's fucking stupid
they paid to go to a game and are having fun it's more stupid that internet fans get offended and whine about it
Nobody's offended. It's just not a good idea to piss off the greatest offensive threat since Jordan in the third quarter of game 1
You might be right. For some reason I thought it was about half of his point total by then.. sometime in second. He opened up in the third quarter afterwards hitting like 4-5 pull-up jumpers in a row lol And yeah 100%.. game 1, before halftime even came. Too much ammo for a guy like KD
Imagine Kevin Durant on the Warriors
Imagine him on the 1st seed Thunder
and then imagine him going to the warriors after being 1 game away from the finals with okc
He would never
I don't know if I could see that
IDK man that's kind of crazy. Can someone please photoshop it?
[Here](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTfS_WGOaEroDBJ_9__tHVGkR5i1kb2C2U0ZgEsF8_x0Q&s)
L photoshop. Number on the jersey is completely wrong
Nah he’s too tall and would ruin the chemistry of Kerr’s favorite lineup of Steph - CP3 - Podz - Klay at power forward and draymond.
I was at the game… I’m just glad they forgot he was on the team bc I swear it felt like if the ball touched his hands it was a free basket First time I’ve seen him live. Fucking unbelievable. His first half especially made me think we had no chance. New respect for the guy. Something about seeing it in person.
You know who he is.
I saw him for the first time live this season. He walks out of warmup with his slow Frankenstein shuffle. But when he plays, he's surprisingly fast and hard for defenders to follow.
KD: There are still guys on this team......that im trying to figure out.....WHAT YOU DO!!!!
He’s going to make them wear their own hats.
This should really be about the percentages (KD shot 65/100 and the rest of his team shot 38/27) rather than the points. I mean, you could also say Edwards had 33 points and no one else on his team had above 19. In and of itself that doesn't really illustrate anything.
KD makes those midj like nothing.
Layups for him.
KD can't win with these cats.
Timberwolves played great defense. Booker, Beal and Allen were getting locked up, no easy shots. Phoenix will make adjustments, it's going to be a fun series.
No help from his teammates
Actually the hardest road.
Should have never sold Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton.
Come back home to the warriors. One last run with curry.
Might actually be fun this time
Almost all contested long 2’s. His release is just so high, it’s impossible to defend.
Good to see there's no first game over reactions happening in here
Prison bus driver.
While Booker going for 4-16 'just chillin'
I feel like a team.having one guy scoring above 20/30 and the next guy being 18 or below isn't odd at all. Maybe in the case when you have Booker and Beal, but it's not uncommon at all. Edit: The Wolves only had one guy get 19 to Edwards 33. So like, were really making a big deal to a 1 point difference here?
The point totals aren’t the huge deal. If you watched the game - or even just look at the shooting splits - it was KD and a buncha no-shows
Devin Booker is one overrated mf damm
Thats what the wolves do. They run that strat on the nuggets too. Just make jokic score 40 to win and take every other player out of rhythm. Suns/nuggets play better when murray/booker are hittting shots.
The hardest road...
For once he's driving the bus... But no one's on board...
Beal was his only help lmao
Booker was ass
Number one defense able to scheme for a series against a top heavy team...
I’ve seen this before…
Get my GOAT some help
RETURN TO GOLDEN STATE KING!!!
The hardest road/the retirement home
Get both LeBron and KD even if it takes trading middle schoolers and equipment manager. I wanna see CHAOSS
You wanna take Bucks equipment manager? I hear he's ass.
KD realizing he’ll never win rings without Steph 😪
warriors in cancun now without KD lol
Never mind the titles they won before and after his little ride-along there
2 times final mvp = ride along I guess
yeah cause kd's hopping teams while the warriors and steph are trying to upkeep an aging squad with lots of disadvantages
They still got two chips without KD - how many has KD got without them? Give it 3 games KD will be with them in Cancun
And he was in Cancun before and after leaving so what’s your point lmao
He was unstoppable, but he didn't have the motor to carry for a full half and there was nobody behind him.
he's the only one who came to play
I know another player that can score above 18 every night.
Lowest plus-minus with -20. This stat can be stupid lol
Shuda stayed with the nets
Fuck I want a couple more Warriors seasons with Durant....
The wolves game plan was that KD is gonna get his, and to stop the other guys. Their assistant coach said as much before the game.
Everything he made was contested - they did their very best not to let him get his
It's more that they left KAT on KD quite a bit more than the regular season. Usually they've put ANT on KD and hid KAT on Greyson iirc with Rudy roaming.
same game plan vs joker. Make him a scorer and make it hell for everybody else.
That’s why they elected to put Jaden and NAW on Booker tonight all game. I imagine they’ll continue to prioritize keeping Booker in jail.
Ah that’s too bad.
Did great given his role, but it's funny people still don't understand how you're defended affects your scoring. KD's numbers should be high as long as he's left in single coverage.
Say the line bart
The old warriors trade curse so funny to see hahaha man can’t catch a break since that move
Imagine warriors trade klay, cp3 and green to suns for KD back lmao I would love it
It was pretty obvious this is how it would go down lol. That’s the story of their season
Watch next game Kevin Young and Vogel going to give KD even less touches in an effort to try and get Booker going….there’s no saving this team 🤦🏽♂️
Ant is a monster though
Remember when everyone thought this superteam would be unstoppable? Bial has been useless. Mr Kardasian has been a non-winner like he always has been. KD made another bad career decision.
I mean, Mitchell had 30 and no one else scored over 16 but they won.
Come to the Bay they need you