After sitting out Game 2 of the Warriors’ first-round series against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday, Kevin Durant is once again listed as questionable for Saturday’s Game 3 with a calf strain.
Head coach Steve Kerr has said that the Warriors are being extra careful with Durant, but that the injury is not serious, and that if it were Game 7 of the Finals, he would play. ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz agrees with the cautious approach, and went so far as to say that the team should keep him out for the entire first round when he joined The Audible on Friday morning.
“Maybe I’m too conservative about these things, but I would put him in bubble wrap until they face Utah or the Clippers,” Arnovitz joked. “I think they’re obviously a strong favorite. What are you trying to accomplish is the question. The answer is you have to beat the Portland Trail Blazers over whom you are up 2-0. Yes you are going into their home court, but there’s no indication that this series…it actually has the dynamics even more favorable than last year when Curry was hurt against Portland. Portland was better and I just think the risk/reward of playing Durant is tilted so wildly in favor of risk, that why would you do it?”
Arnovitz was also asked about JaVale McGee and his unexpected impact with the Warriors this season. Arnovitz said that he believes McGee’s success is largely a product of playing for an organization that knows how to get the most out of players.
“Honestly I vaguely remember (them signing him). They were constrained for cap space. Obviously they have a lot of talent on the roster — money talent on the roster. And they had to have some insurance. (Zaza) Pachulia’s not a conventional rim protector, and he is himself a bit of an unknown quantity, how he would integrate into the Warriors schematically. So you need to have another guy like this on the roster and reclamation projects I think are in some ways — when you think about the Spurs and the Warriors — they’re very much emblematic of a good organization at a moment in time.
“It’s can you work on the margins of the league? You’ve got your superstars, you max them out, there’s really no decisions to be made there. What makes the Spurs the Spurs — and for that matter what makes the Warriors the Warriors — is ‘oh hey here’s some D-League guys who all of the sudden become productive rotation players, or here’s a second round draft pick in Draymond Green who can become arguably one of the 15 best players in basketball.’ It’s the ability to nibble around the edges, find things that are undervalued in the league. Guys who have been cut or who bounce around, or maybe they get them on a 10-day contract, or no one thinks much of them or they supposedly have an attitude problem. And say ‘okay, fine.’ Risk/reward. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, but we think our culture and our staff and our scheme and our locker room can accommodate them, and bring out the best in them. McGee has done incredible work. I think it’s also symptomatic of an organization that knows what it’s doing.”
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