Phoenix Suns fans may not agree on much, but it was obvious to just about everyone that Kevin Durant was doing too much before his injury.
Playing more than 38 minutes per game, handling the most touches per game of any Suns player, controlling the entire clutch time offense, and locking down on defense inside and out — Durant was doing it all.
And while you can’t pin the left calf strain he’s nursing now directly to that intensified role, the Suns need to find ways to tone it down when he returns, which could be as soon as next Tuesday at home against the Lakers.
That’s not in question. The question is how.
Durant’s usage rate is never going to be all that high, and his time of possession is low. He does the most with the least of almost any player in NBA history. You may want him in among the trees less, but Durant’s drives per game are almost identical to last season, when he had a mostly clean bill of health all year long. Asking him to do less on defense is a shortcut to having a worse defense.
So what gives?
On today’s episodes, we debate all the options.
Could the Suns play Durant almost entirely off-ball until crunch time so save his body? Might they keep playing bigger, as they have with him out, to limit what he has to do defensively and as a rebounder? Or could they even ask him to rest throughout the season, particularly in back-to-backs?
All of that sounds crazy to anyone who has heard Durant preach the gospel of hoop over his entire career. This is the man who routinely played 38, 39 minutes a night early in his career in OKC. Willingly sitting out games? Come on.
Perhaps the best solution is that Devin Booker is out of his early-season slump, Grayson Allen is fully back, and the Suns’ depth is real. Durant may be able to do less simply because he won’t have to do so much.
