While OKC did not call upon Kevin Durant to operate much in the interior near the basket, GSoMers may be wondering what will happen if he is called upon during the coming season. During the 2015-16 season, when Kevin Durant did play in the interior how well did he do? Below, I have compiled the evidence, and you may be surprised.

HIS POST GAME

Post Touches

Of his 4699 touches, only 113 were post touches where he received a pass within 12 feet of basket. However, as a result he took 76 shots and made 62 of them (81.6%). He had the second highest FG% among players who had 100 post touches, behind DeAndre Jordan. In addition, he took 22 free throws and made 18 (81.8%). Some of his made baskets were and-ones. In total, he scored 142 points off the 113 post touches for an outstanding 1.26 points per touch.

As these shooting numbers indicate, he did not pass the ball much from post touches, 17 times (15%), and made 2 assists. His post touches ended with a personal foul 15 times (13.3%) and a turnover 6 times (5.6%).

Overall, he shot 67.3% of the time, passed 15%, fouled 13.3%, and turned the ball over 5.6%. He scored an outstanding 1.26 points per touch, the highest among players with at least 100 post touches.

Post Ups

Post-Up: When an offensive player receives the ball with their back to the basket and is less than 15' from the rim when the possession-ending event occurs. Kevin Durant’s results for such plays are in the table below

Totals for Durant’s Post Up Plays

Post Up Player Num. Plays % of Durant’s plays Pts Per Play PTS FGM FGA FG% eFG% FT

Freq TO

Freq SF

Freq And One

Freq Score

Freq Percentile Kevin Durant 149 8.1% 1.23 184 70 115 60.9 60.9 17.4% 8.1% 12.8% 2.7% 61.7% 99.6

HIS INTERIOR SHOOTING

Durant’s FG% was 64.5% within 5’ of basket, 48.6% between 5’ and 9’, and 50.9% between 10’ and 14’. He was 56.5% on drives (.83 points/drive).

Looking at his shot chart, he shot 49.7% of his shots in the interior – the inner circle or the next ring outwards. He shot 27.5% of his shots in the inner circle 252/380 or 66.3% (NBA League Average 55.5%). In the next ring outward, he shot 6.0% of his shots on the left 47/83 or 56.6% FG% (LA 39.9%), middle 8.1% of his shots 63/112 or 56.3% (LA 42.5%), and on the right of the first ring 7.5% of shots 49/104 or 47.1% (LA 39.8%).

Unsurprisingly, his interior shooting is excellent although some might hope for a higher percentage around the basket. Of note, his interior shooting was significantly better than Curry on the interior.

HIS REBOUNDING

Rebounding is another interior activity. OKC was the leading rebounding team during the 2015-16 regular season both in absolute numbers and percentage. In comparison to GSW, OKC’s advantage was on the offensive boards. But, to return to Durant, OKC’s superiority in offensive rebounding had nothing to do with Durant.

The second table shows the percentage of potentially available rebounds that occurred while each player was on the floor that the player rebounded. Durant rebounded only 2.1% of the offensive rebound opportunities that OKC had while he was on the court.

Players MIN/G OREB% DREB% REB% Kevin Durant 35.8 2.1 20.9 12.3

Durant did well rebounding defensively – rebounding over a fifth of the available defensive rebounds (20.9%). The OKC team rate divided by 5 was 6.2% so Durant’s percentage was a third of the average across OKC players (5 on the court at once). At something close to 6’10", this is surprising. However, the extreme nature of this statistic is possibly mitigated by Durant’s usual parameter position on the floor when offensive rebound opportunities occurred and to the extent that his role was transition defensive and not offensive rebounding, an area that was handled well by others (See ANNEX.). Nevertheless, this is not a promising number in that GSW has considerably less rebounding capability available from others than was true for Durant in OKC.

So what happened when Durant was not out of position; when the rebound came within 3.5 feet of him? The next table addresses this. 812 times rebounds came within 3.5’ of him, and he acquired 72.5% of them. However, his percentage of contested rebounds when an opponent was within 3.5’ was only 19.5%. This is consistent with the low percentage seen above for the team’s available offensive rebounds, 2.1%, as offensive rebounds are more often contested than defensive ones.

I have included several players for comparison. Harrison Barnes who Durant is replacing in the starting lineup played fewer minutes, had fewer chances within 3.5’, and overall rebounded 22.2% less of these chances. However, he rebounded 31.4% of his contested chances. Durant’s 19.5% was comparable to Stephen Curry’s 18.4% despite the large difference in their heights.

Rebound Chances (3.5’) Totals 1

Within 3.5’ Player Team MIN REB

Chances REB REB

Chance% Uncontested

REB Contested

REB Contested

REB% Kevin Durant OKC 2578 812 589 72.5 474 115 19.5 Harrison Barnes GSW 2042 646 325 50.3 223 102 31.4 Klay Thompson GSW 2666 605 306 50.6 230 76 24.8 Andre Iguodala GSW 1732 408 263 64.5 196 67 25.5 Draymond Green GSW 2808 1223 769 62.9 484 281 36.5 Stephen Curry GSW 2700 728 430 59.1 351 79 18.4 Kawhi Leonard SAS 2380 773 493 63.8 359 135 27.4 LeBron James CLE 2709 764 565 74.0 404 161 28.5

Durant did well gripping and holding when he was close to rebounds. He was third at 84.3% among players with at least 100 rebound chances (essentially all regular players) in rebounds within 3.5 feet that were not deferred to a teammate.

Rebound Chances (3.5’) Totals 2

What about defensive versus offense rebound chances within 3.5’? Looking first at defensive rebounds Durant’s overall percentage rebounded was comparable to LeBron James and 19.9% higher than Barnes, but his contested rebound percentage was comparable to Curry’s and -4% lower than Barnes.

Defensive Rebound Totals within 3.5’ of Player

DREB within 3.5’ Player DREB Contested

DREB Uncontested

DREB Contested

DREB% DREB

Chances DREB

Chance% Deferred

DREB

Chances Adjusted

DREB

Chance% AVG

DREB

Distance Kevin Durant 544 84 459 15.4 732 74.3 98 85.8 5.9 Harrison Barnes 248 48 200 19.4 473 52.4 118 69.9 6.6 Stephen Curry 362 55 307 15.2 595 60.8 134 78.5 8.5 LeBron James 454 88 366 19.4 600 75.7 95 89.9 6.6

Offensive rebounds stats within 3.5’ feet indicate that he was seldom within that distance. Per minute, he was this close 63% as much as Curry. Interestingly, his average distance from the basket for offensive rebounds was 12.8’ similar to Curry’s 12.4’. Regarding offensive rebounds, he was more like a 6’3" guard with a standing reach of 8’1" than a 6’10" forward with a standing reach of 9’2". [NBA Pre-Draft Combine]

Offensive Rebound Totals within 3.5’ of Player

Player OREB Contested

OREB Uncontested

OREB Contested

OREB% OREB

Chances OREB

Chance% Deferred

OREB

Chances Adjusted

OREB

Chance% AVG

OREB

Distance Kevin Durant 45 31 15 68.9 80 56.3 15 69.2 12.6 Harrison Barnes 77 54 23 70.1 173 44.5 18 49.7 7.7 Stephen Curry 68 24 44 35.3 133 51.1 12 56.2 12.4 LeBron James 111 73 38 65.8 164 67.7 13 73.5 6.3

HIS INTERIOR DEFENSE

We have already covered defensive rebounding, but let us look at more regarding interior defense. Durant defended 219 opponent attempts at the rim. They made 111 for 50.7%. His percentage was 162nd out of the 247 players who defended at least 100 attempts at the rim. He was 112th of the 187 among players 6’7" or more that defended at least 100 attempts at rim. This was not appear particularly impressive.

However, when viewing the amount Durant being in their proximity reduced opponents shooting percentages, he appears better. For shots launched from less than 6’ his proximity reduced the shooters’ FG% -2.6 points below their average, and for less than 10 feet he reduced it -3.1%. (Note :less than 5’ is included in less than 10’.) The data was not readily available at NBA.com to calculate his reduction in opponents’ field goal percentage for shots of less than 15 feet. However, for all 2-point shots he reduced it by -4.2%.

Defense Category G DFGM DFGA DFG% FREQ FG% Diff% Less Than 6 Ft 69 133 230 57.8 27.8% 60.4 -2.6 Less Than 10 Ft 71 160 308 51.9 37.2% 55.1 -3.1 Less than 15 Ft 71 185 368 50.3 44.4% 2 Pointers 71 239 531 45.0 64.1% 49.2 -4.2 Overall 72 319 828 38.5 100% 44.8 -6.3

To compare, opponents shot over their averages within both 6’ and 10’ in the proximity of Harrison Banes (+1.1% within 6’ and +2.1% within 10’). This was also true of two players considered GSW defensive stalwarts – Klay Thompson (+3.4 within 6’ and +2.1 within 10’), and Andre Iguodala (+7.6% within 6’ and +0.8% within 10’).

By the way, 36% of the shots KD defended were 3-pointers, and he reduced shooters 3P% by -7.9%.

CONCLUSION

Durant is a better interior player than many pundits have proclaimed. Perhaps, his height and athleticism skewed their expectations. The issue in my looking at last year was not whether he played up to his body’s potential, but how well did he play on the interior. The answer is he played quite well with statistics that appear excellent except for contested or offensive rebounds.

ANNEX

OKC Players Playing 20 Minutes or More per Game: Rebounding