The B Team Revisited- The Youngsters

Part Two of the critically acclaimed series..."The B Team Revisited." If I knew it was going to be so popular, I would have thought of a better title. Jokes. Onto breaking down the younger generation of last summer's USA World Championship team.

GOOD

Kevin Durant- Not exactly the season many were expecting. He has been part of a mediocre Thunder defense, is registering more turnovers than assists for the fourth consecutive year and is either struggling (relatively) with his shot or his shot selection (34% from deep). Of course, he will finish the season as a two-time scoring champion at the tender age of 22 (he is only six months older than Blake Griffin) and has an excellent chance at winning his first playoff series as a professional. He has shown more of a spark of late and will likely wind up matching his numbers from last season's breakthrough campaign. He has not improved this year but if he performs better in the playoffs (and the Thunder win a series), this season should still be considered a success for Durant. It's not his fault expectations were more out of line than the movie executive who decided Nicolas Cage could be an action star.

Stephen Curry- At first glance, Curry seems to have improved dramatically this season. He has been more efficient even while using more offensive possessions. But Curry finished last year by posting averages of 22/5/8 after the All-Star break and has not come close to touching those numbers. He has seen a decrease in minutes (Keith Smart does not play him enough if in "foul trouble"), been plagued by ankle sprains and has taken a bit of a backseat to the Monta Ellis scoring show and fireworks extravaganza. Curry only looks like an asset defensively when paired with Ellis (who is a defensive sieve without all of that intersecting metal in the middle that does all the sieving) but continues to work hard and may eventually be considered a pesky defender at the point. As with Durant, there has been no real improvement from Curry but no reason to view his year as anything but positive (other than the whole Warriors are terrible thing) considering his age, experience and future potential.

Rudy Gay- It seems like Rudy has really stepped up his game this year but I'm not sure if that's entirely true. It may be simply that he was dealing with very low expectations for improvement following his (ill-advised) max contract extension over the summer. He is playing a ton of minutes, has a couple game-winners and the Grizzlies are threatening to make the Western Conference playoffs. So there's that. And Gay has improved his three point shooting and passing (both career highs). But he is still a volume scorer who only averages one free throw attempt every nine minutes despite excellent athleticism. His greatest strides have actually been on defense as he has helped hold opposing small forwards to a 10.7 PER rating (sensational mark) and already has established a career-high in Defensive Win Shares and defensive rating. That might be the most surprising improvement (and perhaps, the most indicative of Team USA being a positive learning experience).