Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and the NBA's Quickest Fill-Ups

With Allen Iverson aging and indefinitely out of the picture, the natural progression of the NBA's greatest scorer is transitioning nicely from Kobe Bryant to Kevin Durant, KB to KD.

But in last Sunday's highlight-happy All-Star game, the Black Mamba showed his scoring prowess is still at his full disposal, though Durant—the NBA's present scoring leader at 29 ppg—can quickly and I mean quickly, fill it up.

Both Bryant and Durant have that uncanny ability to turn it on in the second half of games. How many times have we seen Kobe with five or six points heading into halftime and end up with 25-30 at game's end? Likewise with Durant, having only 20 heading into the fourth on Sunday and ending up with 34.  

Players like Monta Ellis, Dwyane Wade and King James can all pour in buckets in a hurry, but the best right now? It's still a two-way tie between Durant and Bryant, who stand at first and seventh on the scoring list respectively, but garner points in bunches because of a simple combo: They have insane range and a solid, quick release.

As much as Wade, James, Stoudemire and Anthony are insatiable scorers, they are more iso-active players with slower tactics. When not on the break, they don't quite magnetize toward scoring bunches like KD and KB. That's not to say these guys aren't consistent though, as they have better shot-to-turnover ratios than the latter two and better FG percentages.

The only reason Ellis isn't higher on the list is because Stephen Curry and he will probably balance out over the years, if they stay together, and Curry actually has a quicker release with a higher scoring upside than Monta. Still, we'll see in years to come.

But for now No. 24 and the Durantula are in my book the holding the torch for the NBA's scoring junkies.