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Kendrick Perkins urges Rockets’ Kevin Durant to mentor Jabari Smith, Alperen Sengun appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Houston Rockets disappointed last season, as they were once again a first-round exit team even though they came up against a shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers squad that was without its best player in Luka Doncic. It’s important to note that the Rockets were without Kevin Durant for most of that series as well, but the front office has to be disappointed that their blockbuster trade for Durant didn’t end up moving the needle much.
Durant also brought some attention towards himself after footage of his offseason workout with Paolo Banchero made the rounds on social media. For Kendrick Perkins, he believes that Durant should bring that same energy with his Rockets teammates, urging him to take on more of a mentorship role for the team’s young talents, namely Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr.
“I’ve been seeing a video that’s been circulating of KD working out with Paolo Banchero and I appreciate the mentorship. But that’s mentorship needs to be going at the guys he’s actually going to be on the floor with this upcoming season. I wanna see videos of KD in the lab with Jabari Smith, I wanna see videos of Sengun and Kevin Durant working out,” Perkins said on ESPN.
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Of course, there was that issue regarding Durant and his alleged leaked burner account on X. This was where he was allegedly part of some group chats in which he was disparaging his Rockets teammates, with Sengun and Smith coming up on those screenshots.
The user of the burner account wrote that Sengun “can’t shoot or defend” while he called Smith the r-slur. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been proven that Durant owns that account, but that certainly adds some drama to this matter.
Whatever the case may be, Durant is going to be spending a ton of time with Sengun and Smith anyway once training camp begins, so perhaps he’s not feeling too much of an urgency to train with those two before he has to.
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