Kevin Durant made his 2014-15 season debut on Monday night against the New Orleans Pelicans, draining 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting. But aside from the box score, how did he look and what can we take away from his performance?
ESPN NBA Insiders Dr. Mark Adickes and Amin Elhassan offer an evaluation of Durant's return from injury from medical and scouting perspectives, respectively, while Kevin Pelton uses the numbers to outline the team's projected future with the defending MVP back in full swing.
Elhassan: Scouting KD
Offensively, Durant showed no signs of being hampered by his injury. He moved fluidly and swiftly, with great decisiveness and aggression. It didn't hurt that the Pelicans opened the game with Luke Babbitt matched up against Durant, but it was obvious one of the points of emphasis was to prevent Durant from beating them in half-court situations.
In the above example, Durant is coming off a wide pin-down screen from Serge Ibaka, and as soon as he catches the ball, he's almost immediately trapped aggressively between three Pelican defenders, with the two weakside defenders similarly lasered in on him. To his credit, Durant recognized this and completed the dump-off pass to Ibaka, highlighting one of the nice developments of the night: Despite playing in his first game and no doubt feeling anxious, he managed to play within himself and not force the issue.