NBA Fact and Fiction: Does Kevin Durant Have the Mentality and Game of an MVP?
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant is a strong candidate for the NBA's MVP award in the eyes of many people, but through the Thunder's first four games, it would be hard to say he deserved that honor.
On Thursday night, the Thunder won a hard fought game against the Portland Trail Blazers in impressive fashion, by coming back from a 13 point deficit on the road and clinching a 107-106 victory in overtime.
Durant scored 28 points and 11 rebounds and, for the first time this season, he truly looked like an MVP.
Durant turned heads last season by becoming the youngest player to ever lead the NBA in scoring and his image was enhanced by his stellar performance this summer in the FIBA World Championships.
The United States won the gold medal for the first time in 16 years and Durant was clearly the best player in Turkey, as he averaged a team high 23 points, which earned him the tournament's most outstanding player award.
However, to this point in Durant's young career, his performance in Istanbul is the only instance that can be used as an example of his ability to truly stand apart from other elite players and it's not hard to look good when you are playing with guys like Derrick Rose and Lamar Odom.
This season, Durant is averaging 26.4 points per game 7.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists, but he's only shooting 37 percent from the field and a horrid 28.6 percent from three point range.
Those are not very MVP-ish numbers.
At 22 years of age, Durant is one of the NBA's brightest young stars and one of the league's most prolific scorers, but I'm not sure his game has progressed enough to merit the MVP talk, until he leads the Thunder deep into the postseason.
No knock on Durant because he is young and his game will definitely evolve, but his scoring ability is really the only thing you can point to when making an argument in his favor.
Some observers use the Thunder's 50 win season last year as evidence of Durant's growth, but all that earned him was an 8th seed in the Western Conference and a first round matchup with the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.
The Thunder gave a spirited performance against the Lakers before bowing out in six games, but an argument can be made that Durant was not even his team's best player during that series.
Durant averaged 25 points but he only shot 35 percent from the field and 28 percent from the three point line, while grabbing 7.7 rebounds per game game.
On the other hand, point guard Russell Westbrook averaged 20 points, 6.6 assists and 6 rebounds, while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 41 percent from the three point line.
In fact, an argument can be made that Westbrook has been the Thunder's best player so far this season, as he only averages four less points, the same number of rebounds and more assists than Durant. Westbrook also has a higher field goal percentage.
LeBron James has won the NBA's MVP award the past two seasons and, to be honest, Durant didn't really deserve to be in the same conversation with James last year.
Durant did lead the league in scoring, but James was only percentage points behind and he averaged more rebounds, more assists and shot a much higher percentage from the field.
James is once again the front-runner for the award and with his new supporting cast the Miami Heat should remain near the top of the NBA standings.
But can the same be said of Durant and the Thunder?
Oklahoma City may have improved from last season, but so did other teams in the West, so there is no guarantee that the Thunder will match last season's 50 win total.
Durant may average 35 points per game this season, but does that matter if he fails to impact the game in other ways besides his scoring?
I don't mean to sound critical of Durant, but other areas of his game such as defense, rebounding and playmaking must improve before he can really be considered for the league's MVP award. A few more games like last night's win in Portland wouldn't hurt.
