7 Identity Changers

Kevin Durant, Mike Brown, Al Horford, and four more people who could remake a team in their image

Wes Goldberg of RealGM Radio was kind enough to ask me onto his show to discuss people who will reshape their team’s identity. That felt like a clever launching point for an article, so here we are!

Watching us go through our respective lists is a great way to catch up on a lot of the major changes we’ve seen this offseason, so I highly encourage you to make me look like a value-add guest check it out and subscribe to RealGM Radio:

If you prefer podcasts, here are the Spotify and Apple Podcasts links.

We’ve talked about some of these guys before, but I like the framing of how, exactly, they’ll change their respective teams. Let’s start with the biggest name.

Kevin Durant, Houston Rockets

The Rockets as a team were in the 29^th percentile in effective field goal percentage last season. They were even worse than that from deep.

Here are the eFG% percentile ranks for Kevin Durant lineups over the last 10 years:

2024-25: 96^th percentile
2023-24: 90^th percentile
2022-23: 98^th percentile
2021-22: 95^th percentile
2020-21: 99^th percentile
2019-20: N/A (Injured)
2018-19” 98^th percentile
2017-18: 99^th percentile
2016-17: 99^th percentile
2015-16: 94^th percentile

In other words, having Durant on the floor guarantees that you become one of the best shotmaking teams in the league.

Durant’s jumper will have a transformative effect on a Rockets team that scored points last season solely through offensive rebounds and transition. Turns out, putting the ball in the basket on the first attempt is helpful! He can functionally play the two on offense, if necessary — and it’s very necessary with this Houston roster.

The Rockets could end up playing some of the largest lineups in NBA history with Amen Thompson at point guard, Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. as shooters on the wing, and some combination of Alperen Sengun, Steven Adams, and Clint Capela as the two bigs.

I wonder how creative Udoka will get despite Houston’s glut of centers. Will we see any glimpses of smallball (either Durant or Smith at the five), given how much size the Rockets can put out at other positions? The possibilities are limitless.

Regardless, Durant’s outsized presence and defined skillset will completely remake the team.

Mike Brown, New York Knicks

So far, at least, it looks like the Knicks are getting what they wanted.

The team fired Tom Thibodeau after the most successful season in recent history because team leadership felt there was a need for a new, more dynamic offensive system (a move I agreed with, for what it’s worth).

While it is the preseason, Brown has delivered on promises of change. All coaches talk about wanting more speed, but Dan Favale dug up a fun stat proving the Knicks aren’t just walking the walk, they’re running the run: 20% of the Knicks’ points in two preseason games have come in transition compared to just 12% in last year’s regular season. Jalen Brunson has noticeably more juice off the ball, and the team has leaned almost as hard on Mitchell Robinson as a hub in the middle with hand-offs and delay actions as Towns, which I wasn’t really expecting.

We finally saw the five-out lineup with Deuce McBride taking Robinson’s place for a few minutes, something every NBA fan has been begging for. Guerschon Yabusele should run some at backup center, too (and could even play next to Towns or Robinson in a pinch), so five-out looks could become common for the starters and the backups under Brown.

The Knicks won’t even recognize themselves when they look in a mirror.

Kristaps Porzingis, Atlanta Hawks

Trae Young has never played with a pick-and-pop threat like Kristaps Porzingis, and coach Quin Snyder – used to the Rudy Goberts and Clint Capelas of the world – hasn’t really coached one, either. So it’s hard to know exactly how KP will be used, particularly given that the team will likely be concerned about keeping him healthy for the playoffs.

But in his 25-ish minutes per game, he should add a new level of dynamism to the Hawks’ halfcourt offense as well as late-shot-clock emergency shotmaking with his classic midpost fadeaways.

Porzingis is relatively unique even among shooting centers because he’s not just a Brook Lopez or Al Horford (more on him later), spending all his time behind the three-point line. He can still rim-run for a Young lob without any issue:

The Hawks’ offense became more egalitarian last season, as Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels took on larger offensive roles than before. Young’s usage rate of 34.5%, while still quite high, was the lowest since his rookie season. Relatedly, Clint Capela’s usage rate has hovered around 13-15% during his Atlanta tenure; Kristaps Porzingis’ career-low is 22%. Expect a further democratization of the Hawks’ offense.

KP’s ability to space the floor opens up room for a lot more creative stuff than just pick-and-pops, and we’re already seeing some of Snyder’s early machinations. Twice in the first five minutes of the Hawks’ first preseason game, Dyson Daniels got layups off alley-oops from Young, thanks in part to Porzingis’ gravity. Having a center who isn’t just capable of shooting, but is an actual weapon, opens things up for the shakier or unproven shooters on the roster, like Daniels, Jalen Johnson, and second-year player Zaccharie Risacher, to play into their strengths more.

KP is a better rim protector than Capela at this point, too. With Daniels, Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu, and fellow newbie Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the Hawks have a bunch of length and quality defenders at nearly every position. Atlanta hasn’t been above-average defensively once in the Trae Young era. That has to change for the team to be the best version of itself.

Norman Powell, Miami Heat

I’ve said for the last few years that the Heat’s biggest problem was that they didn’t have any players who could dribble. For a professional basketball team, that’s bad! Specifically, they didn’t have guys who could penetrate the defense.

The Heat’s top five players by minutes played last year were Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, and Terry Rozier. Bam’s share of field goal attempts at the rim was the highest of that group, just 27% (which is its own conversation). 32-year-old Norman Powell was at 28%, and that was while playing next to a non-stretch big like Ivica Zubac.

For most teams, this would be a normal play. For the Heat, it would be a miracle:

We saw what Powell could do as the primary scorer last year when he played without Leonard: 25 points on 48% from the field and 44% from deep. He’ll be asked to shoulder a similar burden this season with Herro on the mend. When Herro comes back, Powell will need to prove he can share the load and be the thunder to Herro’s lightning.

Miami’s offense is supposedly evolving, with an emphasis on pace and generating more efficient shots. Powell can get to the rim and fire away from deep; he’ll be an important catalyst for any change.

Al Horford, Golden State Warriors

Who is the best stretch-five Steph Curry has ever played with? Quentin Post, last year’s rookie? A washed-up DeMarcus Cousins?

A lot of the things I said about Porzingis’ impact on the Hawks are true here, too. Centers who can shoot enable other players to play to their strengths. That is doubly important for a team with three critical players (Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Jonathan Kuminga) who possess three-pointers ranging from shaky to grotesque.

Horford won’t change the Warriors’ defensive identity so much as he’ll augment it. The Warriors are switch-heavy and focus on never giving up a shot at the rim because they have no shotblocking; Horford fits right in. He and Draymond and Jimmy in the frontline together, even with all of them a step slower than they used to be, will be impenetrable.

But Horford was brought in to transform the Warriors’ offense with his long-range bombing (5.2 attempts per game last year in 28 minutes per game is legitimate volume!). The team thrived offensively with Post raining threes last season, but he compromised their identity on defense and the boards. Horford isn’t quite that level of shooter, but he also doesn’t give up all the other stuff.

My only question is how much the Warriors will be willing to play him. At 39, there’s always the risk that he just, like, wakes up one day and can no longer bend his knees. Horford has played between 60 and 69 games each of the last four seasons on pretty big minutes. The Warriors aren’t quite good enough that they can afford to coast too hard in the regular season, and without Kevon Looney to eat up tick-tock, they might need to lean on Horford more than is ideal. But you could say the same thing about any of their aging stars; this team is all in on wisdom, not youth.

One final thought: For a decade now, a trademark of the Warriors has been their Green-at-center lineups, typically used to close tight games. If Horford can maintain his level of play from last season, those lineups might be all but dead; there’s no reason not to have a two-way player like Horford on the floor. For a certain breed of NBA fan, that will be as jarring a change as any we’ll see.

Tyus Jones/Desmond Bane, Orlando Magic

I’m assuming people are broadly familiar with Desmond Bane’s game and how he’ll impact a Magic team that has had a below-average offense every year since the 2011-12 season (and only been above 21^st once, when they were 17th in 2015-16). We’ve already seen in the preseason that the Magic have Bane zooming around, using his shooting gravity to open up driving lanes. Bane traditionally hasn’t been quite as prolific a shooter as people think, and he was looking for the drive and the pass in his preseason debut, but he’s certainly feared behind the line. He’s a known quantity.

Tyus Jones isn’t as big a name, but he might be almost as important for the Magic this season. Orlando faced major injuries to both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner last year, but they may have missed oft-injured point guard Jalen Suggs more than anyone. The Magic’s PG depth was so bad that they were starting Cory Joseph in the playoffs. Cory Joseph!

Bane will run the offense at times. Rookie Jase Richardson has impressed the team with his play in Summer League and preseason, so he’ll get some run in the backcourt, too. But Jones’ steady hand and reliable three-point bombing (41% from deep in each of the last two seasons) could be hugely impactful if Suggs struggles yet again to stay healthy.

Jones is a better passer than Suggs, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him on the court together with Suggs at times. He can set up the superstars while spacing the floor in a way the Magic haven’t seen from their point guard in many years. While people call both Wagner and Banchero point-forwards, the truth is that almost every superstar wants a point guard to handle the second-to-second drudgery of bringing the ball across halfcourt and setting up the offense. Having a game-manager like Jones means that Banchero and Wagner can work to get into advantageous positions before receiving the ball, a luxury they were rarely afforded last season.

Bane is the splashy name, and Richardson is the fun new rookie. But Jones could reshape the Magic in quiet, effective ways.