Steve Nash says Kevin Durant is ’90-99%’ back to his old self
Nets head coach Steve Nash said his star forward Kevin Durant is close to being 100% back to his old self. Durant only recently returned to action after a ruptured Achilles sidelined him for 18 months.
“I mean, whether (he’s) 90 or 99 (percent back), I don’t know,” Nash told reporters in a conference call on Sunday. “But I keep trying to tell him that he’s got to give himself 15, 20 games before he starts judging himself. Sometimes they say the amount of time you have off takes you that much time once you’re back to kind of feel like yourself.
“He’s done absolutely everything we could ask, but I think there’s no way to finalize what he is, who he is post-injury without playing NBA games.”
Durant, to date, has participated in arduous offseason workouts in Los Angeles, Nets training camp and two preseason games. Against the Boston Celtics, he scored 25 points with relative ease in a blowout Nets victory. Durant, though, didn’t feel like he was 100% back, either.
“I feel like that’s gonna come over time,” Durant told the Daily News Friday. “I was out for 18 months not playing an NBA game, not playing against that physicality, the speed of the game. So it’s gonna take me some time to get my feet up under me, get my legs right. But having a team like we have, those guys support me every time I step on the floor, try to put me in great positions to be successful, and we’re just playing off of each other. So if we continue to do that, this will be a smooth ride for me as I get back into the swing of things.”
Nash had no doubt Durant in time will return to the form of the player who won back-to-back NBA Finals MVP honors in Golden State and won the league’s 2013 Most Valuable Player of the Year award.
“You can’t really recreate it. You can’t simulate it, and you can’t replace it,” Nash said. “So he’s going to go through this process, play some games and I think before long — if we’re fortunate enough with his health and all the things that he’s put into this — he’s going to, be I think, 100% Kevin Durant, no question.”
