Is Kevin Durant Taking Kobe Bryant's Place at the Top of the NBA?
There were talks that Kobe Bryant was the closest thing to Michael Jordan that we may ever see. The way he imitated Jordan’s style of scoring, celebration and even determination until the last nanosecond of a game, although it was over in the third quarter, was fascinating to say the least.
As a matter of fact, Bryant has not exactly faltered in his ways of replication, but there seems to be another man ready and more than willing to take the weight of the throne off of his hands.
Although he is not as proven as Bryant is at ANY level of the game, Kevin Durant is quickly rising in everyone’s eyes, even his peers as the summer draws to a close.
The first thing that came to my attention was Durant’s 66-point drop at Harlem’s Rucker Park. This is no feat to shrug your shoulders at. He was the game’s leading man and even a longtime friend of his made it known that "Durantula" is a basketball personality that must shine solo.
"DC Power point guard Randy "White Chocolate" Gill has known Durant since the scoring whiz was 15 years old. Gill said he took a step back and let Durant do his thing.
"It's an honor and pleasure playing with the greatest player in the world, Kevin Durant. He's young and hungry and it makes your job real easy playing with a guy like that," Gill said after the game.
"Most of the time, just give him the ball and get out of the way. Go spot up and then when they're doubling, triple-teaming him, you know he's even scoring on that. He's an explosive scorer, a great shooter and the greatest player in the world."
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Durant has Gill’s support and endorsement as the greatest player in the world, but is his opinion bias? Can we all just step back and calculate the turn of events this year’s offseason has provided and propel him to the top of the ranks immediately?
As much as fans are avid prisoners of the moment, there has to be something said about prematurely crowning the young man atop players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and even Dwight Howard.
Scoring is something every great player must be particularly fond of. Defense is a requirement to win games, however, the things people remember most lie in how effective a scorer a young man/woman is throughout the game.
JaVale McGee’s blocks may have been entertaining, but how many people remember Wade’s lob to James more vividly. Maybe that lies in the fact that McGee played for one of the more forgettable teams in the league and James and Wade lie on a roster nicknamed “Hollywood as hell.”
In any event, Durant has you covered on all ends when it comes to putting the ball in the basket. He has been the league’s leading scorer for two straight seasons with an average of 30.1 points for 2010 (just toppling LeBron’s average by .4 points) and an average of 27.7 points for 2011 (once again trumping James but by a single point).
However, when it comes to three-point field goal averages, Durant is not exactly sitting on top of the league as everyone is prepared to resolve. OKC’s leading man averaged 35 percent in three-point field goals this past season, but when comparing him to other players in the league, his percentage is nothing to be wowed by.
Chauncey Billups, the side deal cut in Carmelo Anthony’s honor in the Denver and New York trade, averages at least five three-point attempts per and still manages to shoot an honorable 40.2 percent. This should give a little bit more insight as to why fans tend to refer to the aging point guard as underrated when in fact he should at least be mentioned in a top 10 debate.
Anthony himself averaged 37.9 percent this past season. Of course, his willingness to take the big shot grew tremendously in light of the trade, but who’s counting? Even James’ percent sits only two percent lower than Durant’s at 33 percent, but are we going to call him a perimeter guru when through streaks of the season he was an adamant visitor of Brick City?
Durant is an excellent shooter under pressure, but maybe we pay more attention to what he is able to do because of his age and the small market franchise he is representing.
Then the aspect of defense comes into play when words like “the greatest player in the world” are tossed around. The term "greatest active player" probably would not have even sufficed. When it comes to defense, I am pretty sure we all saw how LeBron, post-Finals slip-up, handled any defensive assignment, especially in light of Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls.
Not sure how many people thought the regular season MVP would run all over James, but those hopes and dreams have yet to come to fruition.
Too bad, Chicago. Maybe next time.
What I am using these easily detected statistics to prove is although Kevin Durant is shaking spots during the summer in these exhibition games, it is entirely too early in his career to declare him the second coming.
Isn’t that the mistake we all made with LeBron in 2003, 2004, 2005 and every year after until he retired his Cleveland Cavaliers jersey? Kobe Bryant should not have been worried about his throne being conquered then and it will take a little more than a few summer league games for his kingdom to be overtaken now.
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