I'll I can say is step back 3. Have you seen that fall-away jumper that Durant has? Swwwwweeeeet! Especially if the sonics play him at the 2 and he has a smaller defender. I'm sure that he will have his struggles but playing in summer league and team USA had to have opened up his mind on what to expect every day at the NBA level.

There will be a transition as always - I would put him somewhere around the superstar level of lebron and kobe coming in as a youngster - but as lebron had little support in Cleveland early on, Durant will have to be the man.

um...lebron had...and has no support

Umm right - odd point to contest but thank you, correction had no and has no support

Krolik makes a bunch of good points (especially for a kid who's only 18 yo), but I think he's wrong about Kevin. I think that he will do much better than Krolik thinks, although he surely will be no Superstar or Franchise saver in his first year. His lack of strength does bother me, and when his jumper is off, he's really bad. If KD has trouble making the transition to the pros, Jeff Green might even have a better rookie year. Jeff is clearly stronger and more NBA-ready at this point. He may start out as the Sonics' small forward (if KD is going to be used at the 2) unless Wally Szczerbiak (what a fun name) beats him out for the starting job, which could definitely happen. So KD and Jeff could end up being our Ray and Rashard this year, although no one expects them to play at that level. It's more likely that Wally will replace one of their numbers (or close to it), if he can stay healthy.

It's going to be real tough finding minutes for all 13 Sonics (minus Sene who needs to go to the NBDL), since they really don't have any bad players who would be expected not to play, although, at this point, they don't have any great players, either. It's hard to imagine that anyone is going to play over 30 minutes a game. They might have 10 players playing 24 minutes each. What are they going to do with their 3 point guards - let them play 16 minutes each? Or maybe let them play 20 minutes each and take away 12 minutes from the 2 guard or trade one of them before the season starts. Comments?

I think it is a little premature to evaluate Durant after one year in college and none in the NBA and call him a disappointment. It's not clear what kind of player he will be as he gets bigger and with better training so it is almost impossible to compare him to anyone.

ZenDoc: I think Delonte West will see time at both point guard and shooting guard, while Ridnour and Watson will split duties at the point. Seattle also played Rid and Watson together at times last year, so there are ways that the minutes can be split up, but someone always ends up unhappy.

Iqbal70: That was my main concern with the article on Durant. I think it's premature to make an assessment that Durant will struggle this season. You can't really base it on how he played in college or during summer league because the talent level around him will be different and he'll have to adjust to the rigors of playing in the NBA on a nightly basis. We'll see how he does the first couple months of the season.

I like the fact the line up is extremely flexible and we got a deep bench. I think people are underrating a lot of guys on the team. Like Delonte, no way he remains on the bench. 12 more days till training camp blogs, then maybe we'll start to figure out what's gonna happen. =) Eric, do you get to go to the Furtado center for that?

ttownport: I'll have regular updates on how things are going at practice on the blog once training camp starts.

Sweet, thanks Eric.

Eric, do you feel the new trend in trying to predict performance using statistics works for the NBA? The article you linked to based almost its entire argument on the fact that Durant wasn't going to be able to get to the basket because he took a lot of mid-range jumpers in college. Unlike baseball, I just don't think basketball is as easily broken down this way.

iqbal70: I think statistics are a good starting point in an analysis of a player or team, but there are too many intangibles involved in basketball —or any other sport for that matter — that are not measured by statistics to fully base an argument just on statistical data.

That's why I thought the analysis of Durant, while interesting, comes up short. There's not enough statistical data to really evaluate how Durant will perform as an NBA player. We need at least a full season to measure how we think he might perform over a long period of time.