Friday Bolts – 8.16.13
Fran Blinebury of NBA.com on MVP: “As long as LeBron is upright, healthy and not getting bored of steamrolling everything in his path, KD just might have to get accustomed to a career as a great second banana when it comes to the MVP. Well, it did work out OK for Robin, Dr. Watson, Paul Shaffer and Chewbacca. There isn’t a thing anybody can throw out there to knock Durant, the most prolific scoring machine of this age. No shot is out of his range and he makes every shot look oh-so-easy. He’ll either win his fourth scoring title in five years or finish a couple of tenths behind Carmelo Anthony again. Unless Durant really elevates his OKC teammates above an strong Western Conference class of contenders, he’ll simply have to deal with being born at the same time as LeBron. But remember, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were annually overlooked at MVP voting time, winning just one apiece. KD would likely be quite satisfied if he could get just a fraction of their nine combined championships.”
Chris Broussard of ESPN.com: “Even so, Durant is a safer bet than both. He has finished second to James in the MVP race three times, and last season his passing and defense were noticeably improved. Durant might also need to do more for Oklahoma City to finish with a high seed. With Kevin Martin having departed to Minnesota and Westbrook coming off a knee injury, it’s not impossible to think Durant might need to average 30-plus points while continuing to display the improvements in his all-around game. In fact, while Westbrook’s presence is clearly necessary for Oklahoma City to contend, at least one executive thinks less of Westbrook would help Durant’s chances of winning MVP.”
Here’s that executive’s quote, which is stupid: “Honestly, I think Kevin’s contention depends on Westbrook, because if Westbrook does what he’s done the last two years and takes shots from Kevin, Kevin can’t win it,” the executive said. “When one guy on your team is sabotaging your campaign — and it’s not on purpose, but that’s just who Westbrook is — it’s hard to win that award.”
ESPN.com’s Summer Forecast has KD as runner-up for MVP.
Berry Tramel says fear the Wolves: “The T-Wolves, who haven’t made the playoffs in nine years, acquired Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer and Ronny Turiaf. They re-signed Chase Budinger, which is a nice move, and center Nik Pekovic, which is a fantastic move. They also drafted UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad and Louisville’s Gorgui Dieng, and if only one turns into a ballplayer, Minnesota is ahead of the curve. And suddenly, Minnesota has a ballteam. Kevin Love is back from injury. Ricky Rubio is back from another season of rope-learning. Circle K is a scorer who will get the ball much more than he did sharing the court with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in OKC. And Pekovic is one of the NBA’s best offensive centers.”
