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While every Warriors fan is salivating at the offensive onslaught that awaits other teams with Kevin Durant joining the starting lineup, assistant coach Ron Adams has other things in mind.
Adams, who is virtually the defensive coordinator in head coach Steve Kerr‘s staff, spent two years in Oklahoma City during Durant's early years with the Thunder.
With a more mature Durant on this team, Adams will hope to seamlessly integrate him to an already formidable defensive unit.
“(Durant's) versatility is outstanding,” Adams told Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area. “He's a terrific defender, who played with great defensive consistency in our playoff series. We will expect a lot out of him in that regard.”
The 6-foot-9 Texas product is a defensive coach's dream — long, lanky and with good footwork, he should be able to defend positions one through four and occasionally defend the center position if teams choose to match the quicker Warriors lineup.
“He's a really good rim protector, in a non-traditional way,” said Kerr. “When he played the four against us in the playoffs, he was brilliant. He blocked some shots and he scored a bunch of times. So he'll play a lot of four for us, for sure.”
Durant is one of those multi-positional hybrids that is versatile and coachable — aside from his innate scoring ability, he also averaged 8.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and one steal per game last season.
The Warriors switch-heavy defensive scheme should play right into his hands and become a match-up nightmare because of his length and his ability to turn defense into offense at the blink of an eye.
