For those of you wondering about the Sonics and Durant, the following brief report:
There's a bunch of good news and a little bad news with Durant, all of it fairly predictable. The kid is skinny, even among his young peers. A couple of times he was guarded in the post on the switch by Maurice Ager (6'5" and 202 lbs). He got bodied around. (He can't move anybody out of the post on defense either.) He does have some incredibly smooth finesse moves in the post though. Like all young players he started the game rushing things and missed his shots. Once he settled down though...whooo! He looks unstoppable already. He's just so quick to spin and leap. The key to guarding him will probably be banging him out of position before he ever touches the ball.
Durant looks most comfortable when the ball is in his hands. He covers an incredible amount of ground with or without the ball. He switches directions quickly. As soon as the refs let him carry the ball a little he's going to be deadly. He's already drawing fouls off of his moves. He's 6'10" with 6'4" quickness.
Durant's most sterling asset is also his most obvious. He is a quick and effortless leaper. Man oh man.
Also of note for Seattle: Jeff Green looks pretty smooth and poised. He had a nice short jumper and take off the dribble. He appears to have a ton of confidence.
Seattle's going to need somebody to hit shots when Durant gets doubled. I wonder if this could be a good year for Wally Szczerbiak?
Jose Juan Barea looking good for Dallas. His passes are smooth as silk and he has a nice shot too. It's too bad he's not three inches taller. Maurice Ager is taking up right where he left off in last year's summer league, which is basically as a leaping scoring machine.
A lot of this reinforces that quickness is a real asset in summer league. Those who have it prosper because not everybody does. This is what kills a lot of summer league superstars...they get into regular season play and face people who can stay in front of them and can't produce.
One game is way too soon to make judgments about anybody, but I'm impressed with Durant already. We'll see Oden tonight. More to come...
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)