{"id":609728,"date":"2026-02-18T13:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/609728\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:11:15","slug":"rockets-kevin-durant-is-more-effortless-scorer-than-reigning-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/609728\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets&#8217; Kevin Durant is More Effortless Scorer than Reigning MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">This season, Kevin Durant has made a lot of out nothing, as it pertains to finding his fit and playing at a high level on this Houston Rockets team.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">It\u2019s not like he\u2019s been surrounded with snipers. Or spacers. In fact, the Rockets don\u2019t even have a facilitating guard.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">And for all of the talk about putting all faith and hope into a non-superstar like Fred VanVleet, it just goes to show how desperately the Rockets need a point guard.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">Fred VanVleet would ascend this team to greater heights. Especially from an offensive standpoint.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson are good at certain things, but neither can get Durant the ball in his spots.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">Sometimes, the Rockets struggle to get Durant the ball altogether, save for him working relentlessly to even touch the basketball.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">Yet and still, Durant is averaging 25.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 50.6 percent from the field, 40.3 percent from three, 88 percent from the foul line, 62.7 percent true shooting and 57 percent effective shooting.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">And a surefire All-NBA lock (assuming full health).<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">VanVleet has even been in awe, himself, telling the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@club520podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Club 520 crew <\/a>that Durant has changed his entire outlook and philosophy of hoops this season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">\u201cKD changed the way I view everything this year. Because it\u2019s like it\u2019s so easy for him. And he really be chilling. Like, he don\u2019t do too much. He just waits.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">He can go a couple of minutes without touching the ball. He don\u2019t say nothing. He\u2019ll go stand in the corner.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">And he just don\u2019t miss. He don\u2019t miss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">VanVleet was asked for his opinion of the better natural shooter between Durant and Oklahoma City Thunder superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander \u2013 last year\u2019s MVP and Finals MVP and made an unsurprising choice.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">\u201cKD. For sure, it\u2019s not even close.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">Not close? VanVleet explained.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">\u201cI\u2019m only saying from the standpoint of KD is seven-feet tall. So like watching him shoot a middie over Wemby and he don\u2019t see Wemby. He don\u2019t see bodies. He don\u2019t see the help. He don\u2019t see the third guy. He don\u2019t touch the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">VanVleet made sure to give the Oklahoma City star his flowers too, however.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7p\">\u201cShai is special though.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7v\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-20\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7y\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This season, Kevin Durant has made a lot of out nothing, as it pertains to finding his fit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211],"class_list":["post-609728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-basketball","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-nba","tag-rockets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116091806600215410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}