Durant is a scoring assassin, with unbelievable efficiency, but he is a natural off the ball player, lacking any real play making ability. Just being so absolutely amazing at the one thing he does, pushes his effectiveness as a player to great heights. He is sort of boring and one dimensional, but that does not make him any less of player. Harden falls in between Westbrook and Durant, in terms of roles, he is quite the efficient scorer, as well as setup man, making him one of the best all around players in the game offensively, neck and neck with Lebron. He probably won't ever reach Durant's efficiency, simply because he relies on his craftiness, while Durant has the benefit of being 7 feet tall, with superhuman wingspan. His defense suffers, simply because he is not the athletic phenom that Westbrook and Lebron are, and is physically unable to sustain that level of physical out every game / every position. He is prone to resting on defense, however it is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. Westbrook is clearly the worst of the three, with the worst scoring efficiency, by far, and the most turnover prone. This is mostly due to his lower BBIQ, where he is known for consistently making poor choices with the basketball. What he lacks in substance, he makes up for in aesthetics and volume. He will blow you away with thunderous dunks and ridiculous stat line, but at the cost of the team. Average to above average defensively, his speed and quickness can make him a demon on the court, but also hurt him, when he can't channel that ferocity effectively.
Durant used to be the clearcut best player among the three. However, after the last playoffs and offseason, he has lost a lot of respect and the inevitable underrated-ness will come because of that. I would still take Durant over anybody not named LeBron and Curry. Harden is still unproven imo. Now that he is the unquestioned alpha dog, it's time for him to prove the naysayers wrong... or God forbid... right. I agree with those who say that Westbrook has the lowest IQ among the three and his athleticism is going to fade soon. However, Westbrook has something Durant and Harden have not yet shown: unquenchable competitiveness. That in itself makes him almost as worthy as Durant and Harden to be a franchise player.
Durant is all around the best, but his legacy will be tarnished if he does not win a championship with the Warriors.
I lie harden and I actually think his game is better suited as a number 1 on a championship team over Durant and Westbrook in a vacuum. But you also have to factor other things in like leadership/ athletism/defense among other things. Durant at this point has to be the clear cut choice, harden is number two and Russ number 3. Bottom line is we've seen Durant win 56 games without Russ weve seen harden win 56 games without Howard for most of the season but Russ when he was without KD was actually just a 500. Player putting up fantasy stat lines. We're going to learn a lot about Russ this season. Nobody expects them to be a contender but he has to get them to the playoffs and win at least 45+ games. It's a big year for harden too but he's proven he can be the best player on a 50 win team. And tbh harden unlike Russ and Durant has never played with a guy as good as either of them since joining the rockets. For all harden/KD/Russ playoff blunders they've had good games too. It's also a big year for kawi Leonard he's been terrible in the playoffs two years in a row. And for being the Spurs way so they seem to get a pass they haven't been on the 2nd round either since he became the best player.
durant>westbrook>harden... harden's game will probably age better than westbrook's though... curry is very good and clutch, but he got exposed this playoffs against the thunder and cavs. i still dont think curry can carry a team during the regular season by himself like harden can. 1.lebron 2.durant 3.curry 4.westbrook 5.harden
Maybe not the best place for this comment, but I miss the "old" days when you just liked and respected good players, without all the extra scrutiny and character analysis of if they're "beta" and "not clutch" and "douche" and all that. George Gervin was just "The ICE MAN", because finger rolls. Not that there wasnt questions of his game then, but today he'd be called nothing but a career LOSER with NO legitimacy to his game. Same with Alex English, Dominique Wilkins, etc I'd go Durant Harden Westbrook Durant is just a better talent and a 1 time well earned MVP. Harden over Westbrook because Harden has been the lead player more than Westbrook who has to prove himself that he can carry a team
Westbrook on Tour to be the most popular of those 3 among other athletes, movie and entertainment stars
And if he does win, nobody cares much because he's expected to. He needs to do it like Lebron. Win a quick one to satisfy whoever (himself, doubters) and not be included in the malones, barkleys, etc. After that, join another team and win again as the clear leader of the team.
Gotta agree with this, but the gap between harden and curry is small, imo. Could probably argue that curry is down a notch or harden is up a notch. Westbrook is wild but he's also an athletic freak and all-around talent. Still a little reckless. If he can stay healthy this season, I think he'll have more turnovers than harden this year and harden will have almost the same amount of assists.
A 4/5 or 3/6 matchup with OKC would be fun. Harden and Westbrook both leading their teams without a sidekick for a chance to get smacked by KD and the Warriors in round 2. Round 1 would be fun though, but chances are neither team gets home court.
That season Durant, WestBrook and Ibaka were hurt. They started the season 4-12 because both durant and goatbrooks were hurt. After he came back they were like 41-25~ about a 50 win pace. Ibaka missed a large chunk of time near the end of the season too. I don't think westbrook is better than durant, but even when he isn't shooting well he is playing hard getting rebounds, steals, loose balls, assists etc.
