Durant = ???

[Stevenson]

Lots of speculation as to what KD will become. Me? I say he is the next Dominique Wilkins or George Gervin - great scorer, but that's about it.

You?

 

[The_Lillard_King]

The face of the league in five years.

 

[Sex Panther]

Lots of speculation as to what KD will become. Me? I say he is the next Dominique Wilkins or George Gervin - great scorer, but that's about it.

You?

lol really?

He's pretty much become one of the best scorers in the league, a great rebounder, and a good defender, all at 22. He'll be better than those two, even though they were great players in their own right.

For many years, he'll become the hero from the West, battling it out with Lebron for the title of the best player in the league.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Kevin Durant = Larry Bird

The youngest player in NBA history to lead the League in scoring and his team is a real threat to boot. Just ask the Lakers how tough they were in the playoffs. And they're only going to get better. It's too bad they are doing it in the hell hole known as Oklahoma City and not Seattle.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Tracy McGrady

 

[Natebishop3]

I think he could be a HOFer if he doesn't have a major injury.

 

[Nikolokolus]

MVP this year, and depending on the fortunes of the Thunder and their pursuit of a championship a chance to get in that discussion as one of the greatest players to ever lace 'em up. People keep wanting to compare him to George Gervin or Alex English, but to the best of my recollection neither of those guys ever put much effort into defense and KD already does at 22.

 

[Luther]

KD will go down as one of the best players in the history of the league. If you've watched him play you know this. There isn't a shot on the court he can't hit and he gets to the line at will. The day he decides to make defense a priority is the day he gets mentioned as the best in the L...Until then...top 5-7 will do. All that being said. The Thunder are going to make a lot of writers look ridiculously dumb this year.

 

[Sex Panther]

If anyone actually believes he's going to be Dominique Wilkins (status), they need to reevaluate the kid.

He's going to be much, much better.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

In other news, Greg Oden has improved his grammar substantially, via Twitter, from his Yardbarker days!

Seriously, I think KD iss going to be Larry Bird-esque.

 

[Sex Panther]

by the way the choices are crap. it's either become the GOAT or become just another 'good player' lol. no real big difference amongst the other options.

 

[oldmangrouch]

How about Clyde Drexler or Karl Malone? Not in the conversation for GOAT, but comfortably on the next tier of consistent all stars/MVP candidates.

 

[Natebishop3]

Who voted him as Paul Pierce? lol

 

[Ed O]

I just don't see what the fuss is about. He's a good mid-range shooter and he gets to the line a lot, but he's not a good defender, he's still stick-thin and I'm not sure that he will continue to draw fouls at the rate that he has. Further, I'm not sure that he will remain 100% healthy... we'll see what happens when he has a bit of an injury to overcome.

Other than scoring he doesn't seem to do anything well, and while scoring is the single most important skill to possess, and while he's still quite young, I don't see him being a player that changes the face of the NBA.

Ed O.

 

[Natebishop3]

I just don't see what the fuss is about. He's a good mid-range shooter and he gets to the line a lot, but he's not a good defender, he's still stick-thin and I'm not sure that he will continue to draw fouls at the rate that he has. Further, I'm not sure that he will remain 100% healthy... we'll see what happens when he has a bit of an injury to overcome.

Other than scoring he doesn't seem to do anything well, and while scoring is the single most important skill to possess, and while he's still quite young, I don't see him being a player that changes the face of the NBA.

Ed O.

That's how I feel. I think the guy will have to endure some kind of major injury in the next few years, and it could considerably alter his abilities.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Durant scores, rebounds, passes and plays passable defense. There is a lot of homerism in this thread....as usual....when it comes to Durant. The guy is phenominal, and only the lack of a reliable sidekick will keep him from winning multiple titles. KP missed this one when he said he one would win NBA titles, and the other scoring titles. That is unless Greg develops an offensive game....I suppose he could win a scoring title.

 

[espn_hall_of_famer]

Of the major four fundamental disciplines within the sport (scoring, passing, defense and killer instinct), guys like Kobe and MJ and some of the other greats like Shaq, Magic, Isiah, Bird, Kareem, etc. either have them all or were top 5 in the league in nearly all of those four disciplines.

The problem with Durant is we really only look at one (scoring) to begin these conversations. His defense was horrible up until last year. It is passable as many of his fans will say, but it certainly isn't good or even close to great. That's one reason why you can obviously see in him that you'd never just be able to plug him on Cleveland and have them be a title contender like the Cavs were once LeBron got there with a solid core of the four disciplines.

Even if we want to say Durant's defense is good, his passing is horrific. I like to use assist/TO ratio for backcourt players to see who turns the ball over more than they can pass it into another teammates hands. Durant is dead-last in the league of guys that play enough to qualify. So he's miles away in that area, which will always hinder him from getting close to a championship (link: http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/assists/sort/assistTurnoverRatio/count/81).

And killer instinct is tough to say when you're on a team that doesn't win much. But OKC did start to win this year and what we saw more and more of the KD from his one year of Texas, he was fine beating the teams they clearly overmatched, but once a good team came up against him, his passive nature caused him to tuck his head into his shell and give in and caused Texas to fold in the tourney early. We saw this same Durant against LA, while other guys were making strides and pressing the Lakers, Durant was folding under the pressure and his True Shooting % went from .607 to .499, his regular season PER of 26.2 went down to 16.6, his offensive rating went from 118 to a drab 98, his win share went from 16.1 to 0.3. That is completely disappearing in the playoffs. You can also see it if you just see how he did against good regular season teams last year like the Lakers, Cleveland, Boston, etc. or how good OKC did against playoff teams in tight games like OT games last year. Durant lacks the aggressive nature to have that MJ/Kobe killer instinct and will always more more like the McGrady/AI level of star vs. the future HOF type.

 

[mook]

I see him as a better, smaller, lankier version of Dirk Nowitzki. Like Dirk, he's got the skills of a shooting guard in a taller package, which makes for a huge asset on the offensive end. On defense it's always going to be a problem, though, because he's not quick enough to guard SG's and not strong enough/determined enough to guard guys his own height.

 

[Natebishop3]

I see him as a better, smaller, lankier version of Dirk Nowitzki. Like Dirk, he's got the skills of a shooting guard in a taller package, which makes for a huge asset on the offensive end. On defense it's always going to be a problem, though, because he's not quick enough to guard SG's and not strong enough/determined enough to guard guys his own height.

I think that's a good comparison, but Dirk was never as athletic as Durant is. They're definitely comparable shooters though. I just don't know if Dirk had the drive that Durant does.

 

[e_blazer]

Where's the choice for, "Second best player from the 2007 draft"?

 

[huevonkiller]

Kevin Durant = Larry Bird

The youngest player in NBA history to lead the League in scoring and his team is a real threat to boot. Just ask the Lakers how tough they were in the playoffs. And they're only going to get better. It's too bad they are doing it in the hell hole known as Oklahoma City and not Seattle.

Ask the Lakers?

He was awful in that series.

Durant scores, rebounds, passes and plays passable defense. There is a lot of homerism in this thread....as usual,,,,when it comes to Durant. The guy is phenomibal, and only a reliable sidekick will keep him from winning multiple titles. KP missed this one when he said he one would win NBA titles, and the other scoring titles. That is unless Greg develops an offensive game....I suppose he could win a scoring title.

Could you please clarify? I am having trouble understanding this.

I do not think Westbrook is quite enough to win a title with, if that's what you meant. Durant had some serious problems against elite defenses this season so he has to sort that out.

 

[Minstrel]

I see Carmelo Anthony as the best comparison for Kevin Durant. Not in style of play (as Melo is obviously 100 times stronger [barely an exaggeration] and plays more of a power game) but in terms of talent and what aspects of the game they're strong at. Both can be counted for a ton of points even as the defense's main focus, both rebound and both play passable defense.

 

[huevonkiller]

Yeah I just want to add, to all those people thinking he's just a "McGrady", don't be too nonchalant about that.

McGrady still has the higher peak, and has been a superior post-season player. Same goes for Dirk.

 

[andalusian]

Durant is going to be a very good player. I think the Dr. J thing is where I think he will go - the face of the league for a little while - very good player, and a championship or two in his resume. Sure fire hall-of-fame player (if not injured) - better than T-Mac when all is said and done - but not going to be as good as LeBron or Kobe are going to be when all is said and done. Great player, overall, just not one of the very best top-5/10 all-times imho.

 

[huevonkiller]

Durant is going to be a very good player. I think the Dr. J thing is where I think he will go - the face of the league for a little while - very good player, and a championship or two in his resume. Sure fire hall-of-fame player (if not injured) - better than T-Mac when all is said and done - but not going to be as good as LeBron or Kobe are going to be when all is said and done. Great player, overall, just not one of the very best top-5/10 all-times imho.

I think Kobe is better than T-Mac, due to longevity. I wouldn't say he had the higher peak though. I'm not sure what Durant's prime will be but he probably doesn't have the same back problems T-Mac did.

 

[Minstrel]

Until McGrady declined due to injuries, I'd say he and Kobe were virtual clones. Offensively and defensively. Kobe had a superior defensive rep because of two reasons, in my opinion:

1. He had Shaq behind him. Shaq was not a great individual defender in his Lakers days, but he was still an intimidating presence in the middle that forced slashers to change their routes and shots. Having such a presence in the middle allowed Kobe to play much tighter man defense, defend the jump shot and gamble for steals, because being beaten by a first step mattered less. McGrady had no such advantage.

2. Shaq carried the offensive load the majority of the time. Kobe was allowed to conserve more energy for the defensive end. Jordan is still the only player I've seen who had the endurance to be able to go full speed at both ends of the court for full games, for full seasons. McGrady was always the guy carrying the entire offensive load for his teams until he reached Houston (which is when he began breaking down physically).

So yes, I'd place Kobe way ahead of McGrady in historical context due to the longer great career. But for the first seven years of his career, I'd rate him very much on par with Kobe (and McGrady's peak seasons were at least as good as Kobe's peak seasons post-Shaq). If Durant reaches McGrady's (and thus Kobe's) prime level, that will be highly impressive.

As I said, I think he's more of a Carmelo Anthony talent, which is still big-time.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Where's the choice for, "Second best player from the 2007 draft"?

In the thread about Al Horford.

 

[espn_hall_of_famer]

In the thread about Al Horford.

Doubt you'll find many intelligent analysts that will place Horford above Durant as the second best pick.

Yes, Durant is one-dimensional. Yes, he can't pass well. Yell, he'll never be a top 50% of the league defender. Yes, he'll likely never win a title since he's too one-dimensional to make others around him good enough to get to that level.

But you're not going to find many that will say Horford is better than Durant. Try again.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Doubt you'll find many intelligent analysts that will place Horford above Durant as the second best pick.

Yes, Durant is one-dimensional. Yes, he can't pass well. Yell, he'll never be a top 50% of the league defender. Yes, he'll likely never win a title since he's too one-dimensional to make others around him good enough to get to that level.

But you're not going to find many that will say Horford is better than Durant. Try again.

Funny, but sad at the same time.

 

[Masbee]

Lots of speculation as to what KD will become. Me? I say he is the next Dominique Wilkins or George Gervin - great scorer, but that's about it.

You?

Until last season you could say that. In fact, I critisized his poor rebounding and poor defense. But then, he improved his rebounding. Started playing defense. Really steped up his overall game and is now a very impressive ballplayer.

He won't be Jordan good. Jodan was an All-NBA defender, as well as a relentless and unstoppable offensive force.

I think Dr. J is Durant's future. Without an legit All-Star big, Durant can't win titles plural.