Sonics' Struggles Have Created Durant Doubters

Frank Hughes of TNT looks at the Sonics record and thinks--if Kevin Durant is so good, how could his team be so bad?

Writes Hughes: "Never has a superstar-in-the-making suffered losing at such an alarming rate, and never has a player of Durant’s caliber seen his team regress in the fashion that the Sonics have. This season flies in the face of conventional thinking that adding superstar talent makes a team better."

Hughes points out that Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Jason Kidd and LeBron James all improved their teams by ten wins or more. The Sonics have gotten worse.

I'm not sure it's a fair comparison, only because Durant came into such an odd situation. The Sonics lost two all-stars from last year's team, and compiled players for this year more for their expiring contracts (Thomas, Szczerbiak) than for their playing ability. I'm not sure when a lottery pick has ever been put on a team that was so obviously not trying to win.

If you think Durant isn't going to be a superstar, pin it on his poor shooting percentage--this Sonics team isn't his fault.