For Kevin Durant, a Rush to Return Had No Upside

Irving, remember, had season-ending shoulder surgery in early March. And Durant, who also tested positive for the coronavirus in March, hasn’t played for 12 months because of his Achilles’ tendon tear in Toronto — an injury that has prevented virtually every previous N.B.A. victim, with the notable exception of Dominique Wilkins in the early 1990s, from returning to their past form.

The fastest recovery from a torn Achilles’ tendon over the past 15 seasons, according to data maintained by Jeff Stotts at InStreetClothes.com, was by Wesley Matthews, who debuted for the Dallas Mavericks in October 2015, 231 days after he tore the tendon while playing with the Portland Trail Blazers. Kobe Bryant, at age 34, was sidelined for 241 days after sustaining an Achilles tear in the Los Angeles Lakers’ third-to-last game of the 2012-13 regular season.

So the timetable, for some, suggests Durant should pack for Disney World without hesitation.

But Durant, 31, isn’t trying to win a rehab race. He wants to not only be the first Achilles’ patient since Wilkins, then 32, to reclaim his All-Star status but also to re-establish himself as the game’s most lethal scorer.

The wisest path is to stay methodical and try to be uber-prepared to start next season in high gear — when LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and the rest of Durant’s top-shelf contemporaries will be emerging from the shortest off-season ever.

In his interview with Spears, Durant spoke of “putting pressure on myself” during past injury absences “to hurry up and come back.” Much of Durant’s current recovery work has taken place in Southern California, in part to give him some distance from the Nets and from that type of thinking.

“I had to reset and totally focus on just me and what I wanted out of this thing,” Durant told Spears. “For the first time, I felt like I was in my own space rehabbing.

“I could really take my time and focus on myself each and every day.”

With two more guaranteed years on his Nets contract, that is precisely where Durant’s focus should be. Taking a long-term view is best for the Nets, too, no matter where you stand on the merits of an N.B.A. postseason that will be played at a centralized site with no fans, no travel and increased injury risk for many players after an abrupt three-month break. They simply aren’t ready to challenge the elite now.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/sports/basketball/marc-stein-newsletter.html