{"id":878244,"date":"2026-11-07T10:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T10:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/878244\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T10:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T10:09:24","slug":"do-yall-know-stephen-a-smith-shares-the-wild-thing-hes-noticed-about-kevin-durant-lately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/878244\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Do y’all know?\u2019: Stephen A. Smith shares the \u2018wild thing\u2019 he\u2019s noticed about Kevin Durant lately"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Kevin Durant\u2019s role may have changed with the Houston Rockets this season.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old is one of the most efficient players in NBA history and has the ability to destroy teams by scoring 30 or 40 points in a game. <\/p>\n

However, this season, Durant has averaged around 20 points a game. Stephen A. Smith thinks he knows why. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant has named the 76ers as one of the favourites for the NBA title next season, however, who is your dark horse and why? <\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Stephen A. Smith hails Kevin Durant\u2019s new role with the Houston Rockets<\/p>\n

Smith has watched Durant for a long, long time now. <\/p>\n

The First Take host knows everything the Rockets star is capable of, which is perhaps why he isn\u2019t surprised by his points-per-game average this season. <\/p>\n

Smith believes Durant has taken a step back to allow those around him to shine, just so that he can save his energy and do what he does best in the latter stages of the season. <\/p>\n

He said on ESPN<\/a>: \u201cLet me say this about Kevin Durant while I\u2019m here. I looked at his numbers the other day. Do y\u2019all know that the 20 points that Kevin Durant is averaging, which is like his lowest in years, do y\u2019all know why? <\/p>\n

\u201cKevin Durant has taken like 12 shots a game. And so I\u2019m looking at it, and I\u2019m like, now he deserves a lot of credit for that. That\u2019s a wild thing because we all know what he can do. He shoots 53% from the field. He\u2019s shooting more than 40% from three-point range. <\/p>\n

MORE STEPHEN A. SMITH STORIES<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is Kevin Durant averaging 20? Because he\u2019s deferring to the other cats. Because he\u2019s playing the long game. He knows what he\u2019s going to need come what they\u2019re going to need from him come April, May, and possibly June.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith further hailed Durant\u2019s leadership and claimed that he could step up and score 30 or 40 points in a game whenever he feels like it.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m looking at Houston the way KD is flowing. You know, at any time he wants to, he could drop 30 or 40. He could do that. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m looking at that and I\u2019m saying testament to him, his greatness, his leadership, his willingness to step back and defer and help upgrade the cats around him. You\u2019re a career 27-point-per-game scorer who\u2019s one of the most efficient offensive superstars we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant has come under some criticism from fans and the media for not shooting enough this season, but if this is the reason why, he is right to do it. <\/p>\n

The Rockets are 7-2 so far this season and are among the favourites to go the distance. If Durant leads his team in the same way and then starts dominating games late on, Houston could well do it.<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

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\"\"\/ Add to Preferred Sources <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Kevin Durant\u2019s role may have changed with the Houston Rockets this season. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,938,6,211,2603],"class_list":["post-878244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-basketball","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-kevin-durant","tag-nba","tag-rockets","tag-stephen-a-smith"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117574615993488786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878244","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=878244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}