Why is Kevin Durant ever standing in the corner? Kevin Durant should, frankly, never be standing in the corner. On account of being Kevin Durant, that is.
In Durant's debut with the Rockets, he kind of did a lot of standing in the corner. He wasn't bad, by any means — 9 for 16 from the field, 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists is a good game. Plus, the Thunder had a clear objective to take KD out of the game by denying him the ball for 48 straight minutes and immediately bringing extra help whenever he did receive the ball.
But still... Durant never took over the game, and the Rockets lost by one in a thriller. Blaming him for the loss is probably not fair; asking him to do a little more when the game is on the line is fair, and he didn't come through.
Good, but ultimately not dominant enough, is a familiar sight for Suns fans who watched Durant be so good, so often when he was in Phoenix — but just not produce the satisfying, dominant ending to games as much as they would have liked. I know it sounds greedy, but that was the truth of KD's tenure in the valley, and it's the first thing that Rockets fans experienced, as well.
Kevin Durant is still elite, but looked passive in Rockets debut
I'm about as big of an Amen Thompson fan as you will find. But he should never take more shots in a game than Kevin Durant. On Tuesday, he did. I also think Jabari Smith Jr. is a solid NBA player... but he took almost as many shots (15) as Durant did, too. Hell, even Reed Sheppard took 11 shots off the bench, and he should probably be taking about 10 percent as many shots as Durant each night.
These are not the problems of the Phoenix Suns anymore, but fans can surely empathize (whether or not they want to) with Rockets fans who are asking why Durant didn't do just... a... little... bit... more... in a close loss. I'm sure some folks in Phoenix had flashbacks to the past few years tonight.
About 99 percent of the time, it rocks having Kevin Durant on your favorite team. That other 1 percent of the time, though, is spent screaming, "Where is Kevin Durant?! Get him the ball! Please!" Actually, that was about 25 percent of tonight's game for the Rockets. Suns fans know the feeling a little too well.