Subscribe
Follow Us
Kevin Durant has enjoyed two of his most groundbreaking seasons with the Golden State Warriors — first shooting a career-high 53.7 percent last season and now becoming a much-improved defender with a career-best 1.9 blocks per game.
Yet all these improvements haven't satisfied Durant's voracious hunger for self-improvement, seemingly disappointed he won't crack the 50-40-90 club once again, as he once did during a torrid 2012-13 season.
Article Continues Below“I’m definitely disappointed in myself in the free throws this year. I’m already thinking about how to be better throughout the rest of the season,” Durant said, according to Mark Medina of the San Jose Mercury News. “But next year I can start off better, and that can get me some confidence going down the line. But I just want to feel good with my shot. My 3-pointers are feeling solid. I want to continue putting the work in. I want to be in a good rhythm.”
Durant is hitting his free throws at an uncanny 88.6 percent clip, a hair off 1 percent better than last season — yet that hasn't proved enough to put him in the very elite percentage of 90 and above, as his teammate Stephen Curry has with a glistening 92.1 percent (surprisingly not even the best of his NBA career).
Yet Curry himself will fall just shy of making into the famed club, having done so during his unanimous 2015-16 MVP season, but falling short, thanks to a 49.5 percent field goal percentage through only 51 games this season.
“Kevin is going to be Kevin no matter what. The thing with him he has much ability as anybody, pretty much anybody ever in the history of the game,” his coach Steve Kerr said. “This guy is so talented. You put him out there with Steph, great. You put him there without Steph, he’s still going to get any shot he wants and dominate a game.”
Durant picked up where he left off in the 2017 postseason, now shooting his 3-pointers at a career-best clip of 43 percent after making 3-of-6 in a near triple-double effort against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night.
