Kevin Durant held out of practice, panic ensues

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It was a bad day for Kevin Durant.

Standing in some untied running shoes, he lost a free throw contest to Nick Collison. And then he was ruled out for tomorrow’s game against the Hawks by Scott Brooks, already.

Durant did not practice today, held out with what Brooks called “some soreness,” which is a word I’m quite sick of seeing, personally.

“Experiencing a little bit of soreness,” Brooks said. “That’s expected. We have some peaks and valleys, and we always have a cautious approach, so today he didn’t do anything.”

Eight days ago, Brooks updated Durant’s timetable to return to play in a “week or two.” That followed two one week re-evaluations. So since Durant underwent a second surgery on Feb. 23, he’s missed almost four weeks.

Asked if he’d classify Durant’s soreness as a setback, or how he’d classify it, Brooks worked around the edges of answering that.

“Just he experienced some soreness,” Brooks said. “I think when you go through rehab, we all know through the rehab process you’re going to have some peaks and valleys, and you just have to adjust accordingly. That’s why he was off today, and he’s definitely not playing tomorrow. That’s all part of the process with his rehab.”

That’s Brooks-speak to try and deflect away the fact that new soreness shouldn’t really be “expected,” right? Durant returned to go through parts of practice last Saturday, and seemed to be getting closer to returning, and now he’s got soreness that’s holding him out of practice. The whole idea with this new screw was to try and eliminate the soreness that was limiting him. Apparently that’s not happening.

“It’s just all part of it, it’s all part of it right now,” Brooks said. “We’ll know more each day. I think it’s all part of the process of getting back on to the court. It’s all it is right now.”

Asked directly if Durant’s timetable has changed, Brooks gave maybe the most revealing answer of all.

“I don’t know that yet,” he said. “But we’ll definitely take, with all our players, with injuries we’ll always take the best interest of the player and always take a cautious approach.”

That’s worrisome. Again, Durant was given a timetable of “a week or two” eight days ago, which suggested he would be back soon. Him not practicing today is certainly a step in the wrong direction of returning, and it certainly appears he’s not on track.

Obviously, with all of this Durant stuff, there’s a lot of worry and concern. But I’ll say this: I have every reason to believe Durant will return in the regular season. I have been told repeatedly by those who would know that Durant’s Jones fracture isn’t at risk. It’s about the pain he’s experiencing as a result of the screw head rubbing against a bone for weeks.

At the same time, I didn’t anticipate it being this arduous of a process to get back, and I don’t think the Thunder did either. But obviously Durant’s health is the most important part, and just demanding he plays 40 hobbled minutes of basketball is unfair to even think of asking.

What happens in these situations is impatience clouds good judgment. Fans want their guy back NOW, and when he’s not, there’s an assumption that something more is going on, that there’s a problem that’s being brushed under the rug. Even when there are still six days to go within the timetable given.

I think this situation is a pretty straightforward thing: Durant had a pretty intense surgery in October, and there have been a few lingering complications from it, none of which are extremely serious. And he’s trying to get back on the floor, while not compromising his own well-being and having to play through pain to do it.

And as for Enes Kanter, he also didn’t practice today and Brooks said if the Thunder played tonight, he’d be out.

“We’ll just see how he feels tomorrow,” Brooks said.