ESPN

An NBA player tweets his response to a blogger's suggestion, based on an increasingly popular statistical metric, that the player, likeable as he is, may have a few more holes in his game than conventional wisdom holds. Somewhere, Bill Fitch, Norm Nixon and Jeff Ruland are wondering what the heck just happened.

A short takeout from Henry Abbott's post:

• "Sometimes +/- can punish players simply for being on bad teams, but this is more than that. Mavericks' statistical expert Wayne Winston's in-depth lineup data shows that every one of Durant's key teammates -- Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic, Nick Collison -- gets better, in many cases far better, results playing with less heralded teammates Thabo Sefolosha or Kyle Weaver while Durant sits."

Earlier this year, SportsNation voters had Durant on their ideal Team USA roster through the 2012 Olympics. But are expectations getting out of hand for a would-have-been college senior?

• Your Rankings: Is Kevin Durant in your top 10 preseason MVP candidates?

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Oh, and while the plus minus stat does not directly prove that Kevin Durant is the problem, its important to know that Kobe, Dwayne, LeBron, CP3, Nash, Howard, and Pierce all have very positive ratings on that stat.. They wouldn't have that stat if it didn't mean anything.

” -- wemple_13

“

Not that Durant needed to respond to made up stats...but he clarified well. Wins and losses tell the story and without Durant, they would have even more losses than they had.

” -- kinglywarrior