“We have a pretty good team. Just got hurt.”
David Kahn, ex-GM of the Minnesota Timberwolves
The above statement has nothing to do with either the Thunder or the Grizzlies. Rather, it concerns the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team that David Kahn oversaw for four seasons until he was ousted a week ago. In his exit interview, he summed up his performance as the primary team-builder of the Wolves with the quote that leads off our discussion today. By his estimation, he had assembled a worthy team, just one that couldn’t stay healthy. And while one might question Kahn’s thought process in signing players that had lengthy injury histories (Darko Milicic, Josh Howard, Brandon Roy, Martell Webster, to name but a few), there wasn’t a lot to argue. Indeed, his good team had gotten hurt. Moreover, his presumptive star, Kevin Love, was injured as well. Given that Love is the Timberwolves’ offering as “potential superstar”, the fact that he was not able to help lift the team through a tough injury stretch (and perhaps by extension, save Kahn’s job), it isn’t surprising that Kahn, as Jerry Zgoda put it, won’t be “kept up at night.” His team was good. It just got hurt.
Kahn’s somewhat reductionist quote got me thinking, though. I have spent a lot of time this season discussing what, exactly, makes a superstar, and how they are created and celebrated, not just by their teammates, but by their fans across the globe. Addtionally, I have thought a fair amount about the power and meaning of injury in the NBA, and what playing through injury, and in some cases, succeeding through injury, means for both individuals and groups in the NBA. Throughout the season, I looked at teams that managed to succeed in the face of staggering injury, as well as teams that struggled to overcome a particular ailment or ailments. I came to no consensus on either subject. I cannot point to any essential definition of what, exactly, a super star is, nor could I definitively say what makes a good team that gets injured remain good, or crumble under the weight of their own bodies and job duties.
Now, I can say with certainty that Kevin Durant is a superstar. This is a point that has been well-established and does not require further discussion. There is little original information I can add to a player who is universally regarded as one of the top players on the planet, and whose worth has been measured many times over. Kevin Durant, to me, is enjoyable to to watch on the court, seems pleasant enough off of it, and I am unmoved by his many commercials. The next ten years with Kevin Durant will be exciting, and before too long, we’ll fully appreciate what he represents.
But his team? The Thunder? Now, because they were a good team that got hurt, we have questions. The Thunder, of course, are deeply missing Russell Westbrook, lost to a torn meniscus in the postseason’s opening round. And while a team with Kevin Martin, Serge Ibaka, Reggie Jackson, Nick Collison and Kendrick Perkins can stay competitive, they do not appear to have quite enough to defend their conference championship. This was put on display last night. In the third game of the series, the Thunder gave away a 17 point lead over the course of the second half, eventually losing to the Grizzlies 103-97 in overtime. Kevin Durant delivered his typical stuffed stat line – 27, 7 and 7 in 48 gritty minutes — but the Grizzlies’ full team effort eventually overwhelmed the Thunder, for a third time in a row. A three game losing streak is almost always a sign of concern, but especially so when it comes during a playoff series. The Thunder trail in the series 1-3, and must win three in a row in order to advance to the conference finals. Historically, the 3-1 team wins 96% of the time, thus stacking the odds against Durant and the Thunder.
It seems fairly assured that, regardless of the final outcome of the series, Kevin Durant will get something of a free pass for the 2012-2013 season. Indeed, going by the meteoric expectations that were set for him at the beginning of the season, Durant may have fallen just a few notches short. Though he got his typical All Star berth, and seems likely to be an All NBA First Teamer for the third season in a row, he got zero first place votes for MVP. Nevertheless, Durant won widespread adoration for his labor this season, and deservedly so. The truth was that LeBron had a season unparalleled, and Kevin Durant clearly was the second best player in the league. That is more than enough for most, at this moment. For a superstar who chose early to extend with his team rather than “experience” (the verb most players seem to prefer) free agency, potentially creating a Decision-like atmosphere around his small-town team that has known nothing but winning and wise-beyond-their-years professionalism since arriving in Oklahoma City, he is already following a much different path than his peers. Indeed, there will be neither Kevinsanity nor a Not Nice free agency tour for KD. His future seems tied to Oklahoma City, as long as they stay competitive, and continue to guide the franchise in the right direction.
But now, perhaps, that has come into question. Kevin Durant’s brilliant year does not hide the fact that, once a good team got hurt, it could not survive against a defensively minded team like the Grizzlies.. The Thunder are poised to fall in the semifinal round, their earliest exit from the postseason since they lost to the Lakers as the eighth seed in the first round of the 2010 playoffs. Doubters who decried Sam Presti’s trade of James Harden to Houston have found their voices again, as Kevin Martin produces numbers similar to Harden’s (never a problem in his career) but seems to lack the stage presence and transcendent skill-set of the current Rockets star. Serge Ibaka came out of his shooting struggles in last night’s losing effort, but in many ways, the damage done by his offensive truancy had already been done. Kendrick Perkins’ has been more of a burden than a boon in this series. Derek Fisher seems about done. And though Nick Collison and Reggie Williams have done what they can do, they are not Russell Westbrook.
The final few minutes and overtime period of Game 4 emphasized the highs and lows of superstardom, especially on a team like the Thunder. In the final minute of the game, with the Thunder tasked with scoring a bucket to force overtime, Durant got the ball stolen by Z-Bo, and then was beat to a defensive rebound on the other end by Mike Conley. With the game seemingly over, the cameras lingered on Durant, whose slight shoulders remained high, and whose face remained focus. It was hardly a surprise that when Durant got the ball back — who else was going to take the shot? — he went right to the hole with a patented finger roll, and tied the game at 94-94. Like a superstar should, he got his team into the position to win, through his transcendent talents. But in overtime, when he needed help, the Thunder could not rise to the challenge. In many ways, it served as a microcosm of for the whole series. Indeed, had Durant not hit a go-ahead basket with about 10 seconds left in Game 1 of this series, the Thunder would’ve been swept last night in Memphis.
With that in mind, there be no more compelling time to watch Kevin Durant than right now. As David Kahn said on the way out the door, even the good teams get hurt. This cannot be avoided. But there is a chance — albeit a small one — that Durant can embrace the fact that, at this point, he has little to lose. Games five and seven are in Oklahoma City, where KD is his most dangerous. Though history is against KD and his team, there is a chance that Durant is just that good.
But he has to win tomorrow. Or else, we’ll have to sum up the Thunder season with a cop-out excuse from a former GM: a pretty good team that just got hurt.
