Monty Williams Names Kevin Durant As The Most Merciful Player

MDP Live - Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams will never forget Kevin Durant's great service in his career. He was able to develop into what he is today thanks to Durant's great help.

As is known, Monty Williams is one of the coaches who has shone in the past year. He was able to polish the Phoenix Suns to become one of the superior teams in the NBA west conference. Currently, Devin Booker and his friends are able to top the standings with a record of 41 wins and only 9 defeats. Responding to his extraordinary career journey, Williams called Kevin Durant the player who had the most merit in his development.

He had a team with Durant when he was still an associate head coach at the Oklahoma City Thunder and assistant to the US national team in 2013-2016. He could learn a lot from Durant as a star player in Uncle Sam's country.

"He (Kevin Durant) is one of the most diligent players I have ever had. He's a player that when I coached him he encouraged me to see how hard he trained to get all of this. He was the first player to support me as a coach in the league. Williams said in an interview.

"He once told me to leave a meeting, and we started a training program. In my opinion, Durant is a very extraordinary person. Because at that time, he dared to ask me to accompany training, and did not care about other coaches," he added.

Escaped from Severe Injury, Kevin Durant "Only" Out 4-6 Weeks

MDP Live - The Brooklyn Nets and NBA aficionados can heave a sigh of relief. After undergoing the MRI process, Kevin Durant was declared to have suffered a Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) injury which can be said to be not too severe. The ESPN report says the player who is familiarly called KD will be out for 4-6 weeks.

Despite having to lose KD, this is much better news than it might have been. Yes, KD suffered an injury when the Nets faced the New Orleans Pelicans, Saturday, January 15, 2022, local time. He was hit by his teammate, Bruce Brown, who fell while guarding an opponent.

The collision that occurred did not make KD fall. However, with the right momentum, an impact like this can lead to ligament rupture, especially in the knee area which can lead to a season ending injury.

Nets may be relieved, but they also have to think hard about KD's absence. By calculation, KD may be absent for up to 24 games. This number is actually still safe, but considering the season has entered the second half, this situation could be crucial.

KD is the Nets' top scorer with an average of 29.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game. KD is one of the most effective scorers this season with a record 56 percent. The stats above should be spread to the remaining players for the Nets.

Not just losing KD, the Nets as we all know can't play Kyrie Irving in full. He can only appear in away games because he has not been vaccinated. It didn't stop there, the Nets also still lost their sniper Joe Harris, due to injury.

The Nets are now in second place in the Eastern Conference standings. However, their position was far from safe. The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers are closely trailing and could turn the Nets' fortunes for the playoffs.

Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant Lead 2022 NBA All-Star Voting

MDP Live - The NBA All Star 2022 will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on February 20. Voting by fans has begun on December 25, 2021 and will end on January 27, 2022. In the process, fans can vote using Twitter, the official website, and also the NBA application.

As with previous events, the NBA will announce the preliminary results of the voting in the middle of their allotted time. This year, there are three announcement time windows and the first one comes as of today, Thursday, January 6, 2022, local time. The other two windows in a row will be announced every Thursday for the next two weeks.

For this first window, in the Eastern Conference, you could say there were two surprise names on the announced list. This name is included in the surprise category if we look in the mirror with its performance. It is Kyrie Irving who sits at number six on the Eastern Conference guard voting list with 267,292 votes. Kyrie has only played one game so far this season.

Just below Kyrie, another surprise was Derrick Rose who got 232,501 votes. Rose's performance is not special, it even tends to decrease from previous seasons. Rose was also injured until he had only played 26 games. However, Rose is known to have a large line of rabid fans. His name always appears when a new vote involves only fans.

These two players are ahead of two hot Eastern Conference guards, Darius Garland and Fred VanVleet. In fact, the number of votes collected by Garland and VanVleet when combined is still less than the votes collected by Rose.

For the Eastern Conference, the highest number of votes went to Kevin Durant with 2,360,435 votes. He is more than 200,000 votes ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Both of them occupy the frontcourt position. For the guard line, DeMar DeRozan, who is currently in full swing, is far ahead of James Harden.

Shifting to the Western Conference, the newly established Stephen Curry as the best marksman in NBA history leads the list. Curry even got the most votes in this first window with 2,584,623 votes, more than 500 thousand votes ahead of LeBron James in second place in the Western Conference.

Similar to the Eastern Region, the Western Region also gave rise to two surprise names. In the frontcourt, in fourth place, there is the name Andrew Wiggins. In terms of performance, Wiggins has been very solid this season. However, the appearance of a Canadian player in fourth place, only lost to LeBron, Nikola Jokic, and Paul George, was unexpected by many.

In the guard line, at the same rank as Wiggins, was his team-mate, Klay Thompson. Klay has yet to appear this season. Let alone this season, Klay has not appeared in the NBA in two calendar years. Apparently, this is what actually prompted fans to see Klay appear on All Star.

The NBA All Star voting itself won't just take away fan votes. Later, journalists from selected media and all NBA players. The two players with the highest votes from each region will be crowned captains and will be entitled to choose their team. Systemically, this election is still using the last season's system.