MIAMI (AP) — Kevin Durant has been in the NBA for 18 seasons, 19 counting the one he missed while recovering from an Achilles tear. And in many of those seasons, there were clear favorites in the race to make the NBA Finals when the calendar flipped to March.
It doesn't feel that way this season.
Things seem wide open, with a slew of very realistic title contenders in both conferences. And Durant — part of a Houston Rockets team that appears to be one
of those contending clubs — isn't complaining about it, either.
“Thank God for second aprons and the first aprons,” Durant said.
Hard to imagine those words being said a few years ago, but here we are. And with the current collective bargaining agreement and aprons — payroll levels that, if exceeded, seriously limit a team's options on player movement and acquisition — Durant's stance is tough to argue against.
Detroit (probably unexpectedly) and defending champion Oklahoma City (as expected) have separated themselves a bit atop the Eastern and Western conferences. The second-place teams right now — Boston in the East, San Antonio in the West — have to be considered surprises on some level, given how the Celtics haven't had Jayson Tatum and how the Spurs haven't won a playoff series since Victor Wembanyama was 13.
Would it surprise anyone if the Pistons, the Celtics, or New York or Cleveland emerged from the East? Probably not. Would it surprise anyone if the Thunder, the Spurs, Houston, Minnesota or Denver survived the playoff gauntlet in the West? Again, probably not. And feel free to add a few other teams to those lists as well.
Durant was asked about the wide-open feel to this title race over the weekend. His eyes lit up.
“We wanted some parity and I think the last few years we’ve gotten exactly that," he said. “I mean, it’s fun for everybody watching the game, not knowing exactly who’s going to be around at the end of the season. And as a team, it gives you confidence to know that even though you don’t play your best ball around this time, nobody really is. ... Teams are trying to figure out which lineups they want to use, (after) trades, all of that stuff, so it’s a fun time to be in the league.”
Fun. That's an interesting choice of words right now.
The West is brutally tough, as almost always seems to be the case. Houston started Monday in third, just two losses ahead of the sixth-place Los Angeles Lakers, just 3 1/2 games ahead of seventh-place Phoenix. On that side of the league, as has been the case in each of the last two seasons, a .600 winning percentage in the regular season probably won't even be good enough to guarantee home-court advantage in Round 1 of the playoffs.
Fun?
“I don’t know if fun’s the word," Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “You try to handle your own business and take care of yourself and be playing the right way and try to get healthy, healthier, as healthy as you can be going into the playoffs. You can’t afford to have off nights in our conference. You can go from 3 to 7 pretty quickly.”
The Thunder are still heavy favorites to win the title, almost even-money (+150) according to Bet MGM Sportsbook, with the Nuggets (+700) and Spurs (+750). Cleveland is a slight favorite to win the East, followed by Boston and Detroit.
But this is the NBA’s parity era — seven franchises have won titles in the last seven years, a run never before seen in league history. It's not inconceivable to think an eighth different champion is on the way. Durant obviously hopes the Rockets will be the next name on that list, and there's no shortage of teams that think they can make title runs as well.
Believe it or not, the playoffs start next month. The final 20 games are about positioning for some teams, building momentum for others, and all with the goal of figuring out what works best when the games mean the most.
“You never know who can make a run in the playoffs," Durant said. "We're looking forward to using these games to continue to get better and keep growing and we’ll see what happens.”
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