This is my new favorite Kevin Durant Twitter thing, even though there are so many Kevin Durant Twitter things to choose from.
It began with Matt Moore, the former editor of Hardwood Paroxysm and now a writer for The Action Network. There was debate on ESPN’s The Jump after Zach LaVine argued for the value of the mid-range jumper, a shot that has fallen out of favor in the NBA because taking threes and layups/dunks are more statistically efficient.
Moore tweeted the stats proving LaVine was better shooting threes:
Durant, who wasn’t tagged in the tweets, jumped in:
What followed was an insight into the brain of an NBA player (and an all-time great, which is doubly cool):
We’ll stop there for a sec. This is deeply fascinating (and Moore agrees). If it’s hammered into players’ heads to stop taking less efficient two-pointers, then those shots just become less effective because they aren’t practiced as much.
Moore switches gears and cites a graph that shows how mid-range shooting hasn’t improved with more attempts:
I died at Durant’s response:
Moore responded he was “trying to use evidence to state a case because I can’t rely on experience because I don’t know the game like you do.”
Onward!
I don’t know whether to put that or the “graphs” comment above on a t-shirt. So good.
And here’s the finale:
Right! In other words: combining numbers with “feel” is the solution. It’s not one over the other. Everyone wins. And now hopefully you have a better idea of how NBA players like Durant think about their craft.
