Yay Kevin Durant!

I saw that over at GMTR, they were giving out their mash notes for various NBA'ers. I figured I would give my splash of guy love to the dude who's making this season real fun for me, Kevin Wayne Durant (tall guy, plays in city where they usually host 1st and 2nd round NCAA tournament games, wears a blue jersey like a Knicks jersey you'd find at Marshall's).

KD was a target of mine this past fall. I know last December and January, he was dropped and picked up more times than a copy of USA Today that someone left at McDonalds. ROTY, sure, but there were plenty of horrible shots (leading to a FG% near 40) and TO's. He was getting a block and a steal a game, so if your team could handle the other things, he was still giving you 20 a night and really helping your FT%. Also, post All-Star Game last year, his FG% shot up as he was taking better shots, getting on the right side of 45%. This year, I was looking for the 20 point a night guys who were lights out from the line. Now this wasn't the best strategy this year (thanks a pantload, Martin and Dunleavy), but Durant is the perfect guy for that strategy, as he would get that steal and block per night and his 3pt shooting was bound to improve as he had a year under his belt at NBA distance.

Another thing I liked about Durant, fantasy-wise, was that he was SG eligible. At 6' 9" with some rebounding skills, that's especially useful, in an old Josh-Smith-on-Yahoo-of-the-last-few-years type of way. I always thought that PJ Carlesimo was a moronic coach for doing that. Now, LeBron and Kenny Smith last night were suggesting he is more of a 2 guard type. Maybe they're right, I'm sure they know more hoops than I could ever know, but if Durant is your 2, your 4 and 5 have to be pretty good - not be Chris Wilcox and Johan Petro. With Durant at 3, Jeff Green at 4, and Nick Collison at the 5, you can get away with Desmond Mason/Kyle Weaver at the 2. Hence, a better team. Anyway, PJ was around long enough where KD should be SG eligible next year. Thanks Coach!

Okay, so now I targeted Durant pre-draft. Where to pick him? His best case scenario would be at the low end of the top 50. I'm sure many people were going to stay away from him because they overdrafted him the previous year. I thought middle of round 6 would be a good spot for him, which is where I took him in the GMTR Mock Draft, pick #67. Where is he now? Clearly, there are not 66 players you'd take ahead of him. You might be able to take 6. He's going to be a first round pick next year - if he's not, you are getting a steal in round 2 or he's had a catastrophic Al Jefferson-ish injury.

Here are Basketball Monster Rankings for Durant in 9 categories, 8 cat non-TO leagues in parentheses:

Season - 10 (6)
last 60 days - 4 (3)
last month - 1 (1)
last 2 weeks - 6 (3)
last week - 2 (2)

Go check out his numbers for the year and some of his game logs in calendar 2009 - phenomenal. Getting first round value out of someone you drafted in round six - that's fantasy football stuff, not basketball. And next year, he'll be giving first round value in the first round.

One of the best things this year has been following Thunder games on Stattracker (because you sure aren't watching them on TV). Sure, the TO's add up, but his name is constantly in bold because he's always in the game (2nd in mpg behind Stephen Jackson). He's always scoring, and he gets to the line a ton. You'll rarely see zeroes in hustle categories. One Sunday this year, I was trailing in FG% by a decent margin. I would have had to have someone go complete nova, like 15/16 to win the category. Well KD started the game 9 for 9 and it got to the point where I was looking up the NBA record for most FG's in a game without a miss. (It's Wilt, at 18 for 18.) But when you get to the point where you're looking up NBA records while you're tracking someone's game, that's special. So thanks, Kevin, for being the shining diamond in my middle of the road season.