Kevin Durant

So I'm not an expert on basketball and just occasionally catch a game. I'm more of a college basketball fan then NBA.

I've been following the Thunder this year because of James Harden.

But when people debate best player in the game, seems like its Kobe v. Lebron. But how about Kevin Durant? Whenever I catch him playing, he impresses the hell out of me.

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
So I'm not an expert on basketball and just occasionally catch a game. I'm more of a college basketball fan then NBA.

I've been following the Thunder this year because of James Harden.

But when people debate best player in the game, seems like its Kobe v. Lebron. But how about Kevin Durant? Whenever I catch him playing, he impresses the hell out of me.

gotta be on a 50 win team to be MVP most of the time.. maybe in a year or 2 if he keeps progressing, but this year its kobe, lebron, or possibly melo for MVP

Great scorer and good rebounder .. but he is not the playmaker that Kobe, Lebron, or even Wade are.

Still very young but not at that level yet ... compares more with Carmelo.

Im loving him and his development. If he adds some strength to his frame and continues to add to his game he could be up their.

I'm glad he's doing good in the pro's

Him and D.J. Augustin were such studs while playing for Texas.

i could see him being the 2nd best player in the NBA if he can gain a little more weight like lebron did and pack the muscle because if he goes into the lane, you can do nothing but foul.

Lebron will be number 1 because of his speed but durant has a better shot and lebron plays amazing defense when he wants to.

I'd say in 4-5 years he could be getting some hype about one of the top players in the game. He's still very young.

offensively he reminds me of a 7 foot Scottie Pippen

he made it look effortless against the dubs.. but then again everyone scores big on the warriors =/

Great scorer and shot-maker. He's up there with Kobe & Carmelo Anthony in that respect. But in terms of being the best player in the game, as dman pointed out, he isn't in LeBron, Kobe, Chris Paul, or Dwyane Wade's class in terms of creating opportunities for other players. And he's only a so-so defender.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:
Great scorer and shot-maker. He's up there with Kobe & Carmelo Anthony in that respect. But in terms of being the best player in the game, as dman pointed out, he isn't in LeBron, Kobe, Chris Paul, or Dwyane Wade's class in terms of creating opportunities for other players. And he's only a so-so defender.

Yeah but how much of creating opportunities is on the team around him and not the player?

The Thunder are such a young team. IMO as the supporting cast develops, the Thunder offense will adjust with Durant creating opportunities.

I don't think Durant is better then Kobe/Lebron this year. But I think he can seriously challenge them sooner rather then latter. He is already added muscle and its made a big impact on his game. And with that length he has with his arms, his D game will come around.

Durant is one of my favorite players outside the Orlando Magic.

With that said, he's a great scorer nearly on the level of LeBron/Kobe. His big downfall is his defense. When he was drafted, his size was the issue and to me, that is still the problem. I can tell he's put some muscle on and it shows in his game. Over time I would not be surprised if he develops to the level of play equal to Kobe/LeBron.

Kevin Durant finally moved into the top 10 this season, in terms of best players in the NBA.

But he has a long ways to go, including several successful playoff appearances, before he can move any higher than that.

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:

Originally posted by LA9erFan:
Great scorer and shot-maker. He's up there with Kobe & Carmelo Anthony in that respect. But in terms of being the best player in the game, as dman pointed out, he isn't in LeBron, Kobe, Chris Paul, or Dwyane Wade's class in terms of creating opportunities for other players. And he's only a so-so defender.

Yeah but how much of creating opportunities is on the team around him and not the player?

The Thunder are such a young team. IMO as the supporting cast develops, the Thunder offense will adjust with Durant creating opportunities.

I don't think Durant is better then Kobe/Lebron this year. But I think he can seriously challenge them sooner rather then latter. He is already added muscle and its made a big impact on his game. And with that length he has with his arms, his D game will come around.

Very little. If you're creating opportunities for guys and they're missing shots, that's one thing, but that's not what Durant does. He's almost exclusively a finisher. So while he's amazing at that, he does very little facilitating for the rest of the players on the team, which is why OKC is the 18th most efficient offense in the league. By comparison, even when Kobe had Odom, Smush Parker, Luke Walton, & Kwame Brown starting alongside him...the Lakers were 8th. (which is their lowest ranking since Shaq left)

To put it in perspective, there has only been one other player in NBA history to average as many points per game as Durant is while averaging 3 assists per game or less. (George Gervin) I'm not a big stat guy, but that's a staggeringly low number considering how much he has the ball in his hands.

Tyreke Evans FTW