Kendrick Perkins Says Kevin Durant Needs To Get Stronger

Kevin Durant was a near unanimous selection as the 2014 NBA MVP, and he helped lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to within two games of a return trip to the NBA Finals before getting eliminated by the eventual champion Spurs. Despite the accolades, teammate Kendrick Perkins thinks he needs to hit the weights more this summer and get stronger.

KD gave the same canned answer most players use during his exit interview when he asked what improvements he’ll make to his game this off-season:

“It’s something I’m going to figure out,” KD said a day after the Thunder were eliminated in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. “Some different type of move that I’m going to figure out and try to master. But I’m just going to overall just try to get better, work on every single part of my game and bring it back to the team.”

So, um, he’s working on all components of his game. Got it. Teammate Kendrick Perkins was a little more forthright when asked what the 2014 MVP needs to work on over the summer. By way of Pro Basketball Talk, Perkins’ gave a more detailed assessment of Durant’s room for improvement to the Oklahoman‘s Darnell Mayberry:

“I feel like he could get stronger, in my opinion,” Perkins said. “I think that would help him a lot. I told him all the good and great players that played the game, from Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, they all put size on them, and it helped them.

[…]

“Seems like there was possessions he was tired,” Perkins said of Durant. “But, like I said, I think that’s (when) getting in the weight room plays a factor. Cause then you could let your body take over.”

Durant has famously put on a bunch of weight after coming of the University of Texas as a rail-thin 19-year-old in the summer of 2007. Still, he does have a tendency to shirk contact, especially when he’s trying to establish some positioning in the post. He can get muscled out of better spots near the low-block, especially under the heightened defensive strain of the playoffs. Danny Green and other smaller Spurs defenders were able to prevent KD from scoring in the Conference Finals.

While it’s probably a tad annoying Perkins — of all players to challenge Durant to improve, the offensively inept Perk probably isn’t the best choice — is mentioning this to Mayberry for public consumption, he’s not exactly wrong, either.

Durantula — for all his MVP exploits this season during Russell Westbrook‘s prolonged absence — has trouble when people are banging him out of his positioning. He’s good enough to shoot with efficiency from beyond the arc, but he needs to develop his post game if he’s going to continue to improve. Perkins, meanwhile, needs to learn basic offensive skills — like catching the ball and throwing a bounce pass — before he addresses what the league’s MVP needs to upgrade.

(Oklahoman; H/T PBT)

Is Perkins right?

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