Kevin Durant, Baker Mayfield primed for stellar seasons?

Kevin Durant stays. Baker Mayfield begins. 

What do Brooklyn Nets celebrity Kevin Durant and Carolina Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield have in widespread? Since information broke that Durant and the Nets is not going to half methods, and Baker would be the Week 1 starter for the Panthers over Sam Darnold, Skip Bayless drew a serious comparability between the 2 polarizing athletes.

On this week’s episode of “The Skip Bayless Present,” Bayless asserted that Durant and Mayfield have one massive commonality: They each simply obtained all-time humbled by their respective leagues.

“As a lot as I like me some KD and Baker as gamers, I discover each of them arduous to love off the courtroom and off the sphere. KD is the thinnest-skinned celebrity I’ve ever carefully noticed. Baker grew to become insufferably stuffed with himself earlier than he’d actually confirmed something.”

The Nets’ two-month deadlock with Durant ended this week with the celebrity folding his hand and withdrawing his commerce request, a transfer that Bayless thinks made Durant seem like much less of a celebrity than he actually is. 

“Nets proprietor Joe Tsai made Kevin Durant look silly,” Bayless mentioned. “He simply stood as much as 7-foot-tall Kevin Durant and instructed him, ‘No, sorry, you’re not going to ultimatum your method out of Brooklyn. I’m going to carry your ft to this fireplace. I’m not going to fireplace Sean Marks or Steve Nash. You, Kyrie [Irving] and Ben Simmons are going to win a championship for the Brooklyn Nets.'”

Equally, Bayless mentioned that Mayfield obtained his comeuppance by the use of Deshaun Watson hitting the open market.

“Reportedly, the Browns wished an ‘grownup’ at quarterback,” Bayless mentioned. “They didn’t suppose Baker Mayfield certified, so that they plunged on Deshaun and Baker’s satisfaction took a plunge into the depths of humility.”

But this newfound humility shared between the 2 athletes is the precise motive Durant and Mayfield are each primed to have their career-best seasons, Bayless asserted.  

After Durant failed to steer the Nets to a single playoff win this previous postseason — taking pictures simply 39.4% from the ground in a first-round collection sweep by the Celtics — doubt swirled about his capacity to hold a staff in his post-Golden State period. However Bayless believes the Nets’ refusal to concede to Durant will set him up for a serious comeback this season.

“Kevin Durant is changing into an grownup,” he mentioned. “He was subconsciously in search of anyone to face as much as him. Joe Tsai did that. I feel Kevin Durant is poised for a monster 12 months. This staff ought to be favored to win all of it.”

For Mayfield, after the previous No. 1 general decide ended Cleveland’s 26-year playoff victory drought, he struggled to an 8-9 report final season with 17 landing passes and 13 interceptions, all whereas nursing a torn labrum on his non-throwing shoulder.

Mayfield admitted he felt “disrespected” when his time in Cleveland got here to an finish after the Browns traded for Watson, and Bayless believes a contemporary begin in Carolina will put the chip again onto the shoulder of the previous Texas Tech walk-on.

“Baker is again to being a hopeless underdog in Carolina,” Bayless mentioned. “I like it. I like this staff’s probabilities. I imagine the Carolina Panthers are destined to make the playoffs this 12 months as a result of Baker Mayfield is again to doing what he does greatest: surprising the world. The Panthers have a humbled grownup at quarterback.”

Mayfield’s potential redemption season begins Week 1 in Carolina in opposition to his former Browns staff, a sport he admits has added personal meaning for him. In the meantime, Durant and the Nets avoiding a breakup means his title chase with out Steph Curry & Co. will proceed this fall in Brooklyn.

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