What does Andrew Bogut think of Kevin Durant?
Klay Thompson subscribes. You can too for just 11 cents a day for 11 months + receive a free Warriors Championship book. Sign me up!
OAKLAND – As expected, the Warriors have discovered it has not taken long for Andrew Bogut to pick up on things.
After previously playing for four years with the Warriors, Bogut returned to the Warriors two weeks ago and already has become familiar with the team’s defensive schemes. He has proven comfortable defending with Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. He has proven dependable in setting screens for Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Bogut has also noticed pretty quickly on what makes Kevin Durant so unique.
“He’s arguably the best player in the world,” Bogut said. “He’s one of those guys that can get 40 or 50 [points] on any given night.”
The Warriors (52-24) also enter Tuesday’s game against the Denver Nuggets (51-25) at Oracle Arena with Durant also being one of those guys that can get several assists on any given night.
Durant had 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in Sunday’s win over Charlotte, his fewest field goal attempts in 2 ½ seasons with the Warriors in games he fully played. But Durant also collected nine assists. Durant has averaged eight assists in the past four games, a stark increase from his season average (5.8).
“Balance is winning. Kevin knows that. Kevin has never been a guy since I’ve been around that is coming in after games saying he needs more shots,” Bogut said. “This team knows there is five All-Stars. You can’t go out there and score 30 [points]. I think Kevin has been more comfortable the last couple of games distributing a little bit more than he is used to. But there’s times where Steph will do that. Klay – not so much because he shoots it every time he touches it. But DeMarcus should get a fair bit as well. But I think it should be a good balance.”
It has become a good balance lately with Durant reducing his scoring workload for the sake of maximizing his teammates’. The Warriors suspect that will change soon. After all, Durant normally averages 26.6 points on 18.2 field-goal attempts per game.
“He’s one of the most talented scorers I’ve ever been around,” Bogut said of Durant. “The way Steph does is freaky. But Kevin makes it look so easy with his size and length. There’s not much you can do about when he gets hot.”
Want Warriors news delivered to your phone? Sign up for a free trial of Mark Medina’s Warriors text messaging service
* * *
WARRIORS HQ PODCAST: Be sure to visit our podcast page at mercurynews.com. You can also get notified of new episodes on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
* * *
Follow Bay Area News Group Warriors beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.