There are probably 3 maybe 2 . Lebron , harden , curry . Paul and durant and a couple others are in the next tier . With CP3 and KD they have the ability to carry a team , but not the health to do it all season. People bring up KD's playoffs as evidence , but forget he rested a lot leading up to the postseason and even during the playoffs themselves . Lebron and James are far and away the best two players in the NBA , and James with shedding some weight and getting help in CP3 has found another level.
I'm not fooling myself at all. First of all while KD is a mismatch at the sf spot Harden is also a mismatch at the pg spot. Sure KD is better 1v1, he is probably the league's best 1v1 player but bball is 5v5. A guy like Harden has more impact offensively because he playmakes for the 4 other guys on the court whereas KD is a lone contributor, sure he gets assists but thats mainly because of their system, KD's usage rate and his godly team. And no KD isnt a mismatch nightmare for every player in the league, why don't you ask Kawhi or Lebron or Davis or Giannis if KD is a mismatch nightmare compared to them? You yourself admitted KD is 2nd best behind Lebron now he is a mismatch nightmare against the whole league? Wtf And while KD was an alpha in OKC, he is no longer an alpha now. Didnt he say he didnt want to be a leader? http://basketballsocietyonline.com/kevin-durant-leadership-style-gq-interview Just on that alone the Rox would be dumb to trade Harden for KD. Trade your franchise player for a beta b**** who will jump ship the moment the team isn't strong? Pass. Harden has all the intangibles which make him a lot better than Durant. First of all he accepted the leadership role on the Rox. Secondly he has loyalty, signed a 6 year deal with Houston despite the team imploding. Third he doesn't make fake twitter accounts to pump himself up and throw shade at everyone else. Fourth he is younger than KD. And fifth he is a lot more durable than KD. How do you even know KD isn't breaking down already? He's been suffering from major injuries the last couple of years. Your post season comments have nothing to do with this thread that is talking about the regular season MVP. If you want to talk post season then Lebron blows Kd out of the water and even Curry owned KD after all they kicked his ass.
There are five players that can lead a team to a title as the best player: LeBron, Harden, Durant, Curry and Kawhi Cp3 hasn't made it out of the 2nd round and Westbrook can't lead his team out of the first
Except Durant didn't bandwagon. He won finals MVP and therefore drove the team to the championship (with obviously his teammates all contributing as well.) Durant's stats of 35.2/8.4/5.4 was one of the greatest modern NBA Finals performances of all time. And in the clutch he nailed the 3ptr in that pivotal Game 3. When you drive the team to the championship, you automatically can't be considered someone riding inside the bandwagon. Rather you are the thoroughbred at the head of the wagon.
Kawhi and KD dont have the health to pull it off. Maybe they can lead a team but it has to be full of superstars like what KD did in GSW. People forget KD missed a ton of games during his final year then he sat for a large part of the regular season last year and so was very well rested during the playoffs. If you put either of them on a team like the rox or cleveland where they depend on the superstar to play 36+ mins every night both KD and Kawhi will break down before the post season.
He was well rested of course he can drive a team to the ring. But if his team was normal instead of having 4 other stars then they wouldn't even make the playoffs. Rather than being the head of the wagon he was somebody who took a shortcut and only joined the wagon at the final mark. OTH the other horses were laboring for the entire trip no wonder KD will put up a great performance against them. What if Lebron and Harden were able to rest for like 3 mos before the playoffs started instead of being a league leader in mins? How good do you think they will be? I bet they will also put up one of the best modern playoff performances of all time.
Not true, if you take two players of the same caliber you want the one on a cheaper salary. Towns is no where near as good as KD or Harden.
You musta got me mixed up with the other guy, that was my first post directed toward you. And yes KD is a mismatch for Lebron, he averaged 30 plus on 70% shooting on Lebron in the finals. No one player in the league can guard him. KD jumping ship has more to do with Wesbrook than not being an Alpha. You just can’t play with Westbrook. Love Hardens loyalty but KD has something Harden will never have, which is the prototypical nba body. If Harden was 7 feet with that wingspan and could run like a gazelle, he’d be the best player ever.
LeBron, Durant, and Harden. Put one of them on the Hawks, Mavericks, or Bulls right now and they would quickly turn it around into a winning team and make the playoffs at the very least without any other roster changes. Curry is prolific shooter, but has never carried a team without other all stars.
The 2012-13 Warriors did not have other All Stars. Klay was in his second season and improving but hardly an All Star shooting a subpar 42%. Draymond Green was a rookie bench player that hardly played. Their second best player at that time was David Lee, who had a nice season but wasn't an All Star. Curry led that team to a 47-35 record improving from previous year of 23-43, beat a good Nuggets team in Round 1 and lost to the Spurs in six in Round 2. These same Spurs that almost won the championship that year. Without Curry but a replacement level player, that 2012-13 Warriors would not do very well at all. And keep in mind that 2012-13 Curry was himself not the player he would become later. You put MVP Curry on that same team 2012-13 team and I'm sure they would do even better.
KD was rested against Lebron who was dead tired all season. What if you exchanged Lebron and Durant? Oh wait they wouldnt even meet cuz the Cavs wont make the playoffs when Durant went down. KD also admitted he wasnt a leader and he doesn't want to be a leader. I even pointed out that link for you. Look up what "Alpha" means in the dictionary before you keep insisting durant is an alpha. You seem to be fixated on 1v1, like I said Harden has playmaking which durant doesn't have. If you are talking about advantage as NBA bodies then Davis or Embiid have a better body than Durant because they are bigger and stronger than him. Hell Giannis has a much better body than Durant.
I’d say Lebron, Durant, Harden, Curry and Kawhi. You put Kyrie on the Suns (using the Suns because reastically he almost went there) and I don’t think he thrives with a scorer like Booker. They’d be pretty bad.
Of course its true. Towns is making 5M compared to KD's 25M and he is locked up to that deal for 7 more years. Is durant 4 times as good as Towns? I dont think so. With that 20M you can then pay another dude and then their combined production will be better than Durant. I'm just showing you how dumb your argument is, if you want to take salary into account when discussing best players then the best players will be rookies because they only make a fraction of their true value esp now that superstars are getting paid 30M instead of 15M. You are just so biased against Durant you make all these BS points to put everything in his favor. The only reason KD has a lesser salary is cuz he took a discount. The only reason he took a discount is because GSW have 4 other stars on the team, its not like he will take that discount for other teams. If in a theoretical scenario where KD is actually traded he will just wait it out for 2 years and then sign a max deal and not his old 25M salary. It is an amount that only applies to GSW.
If they switched places the Cavs would have still made the finals. They are in the east. Kyrie and Love woulda done enough to get the 8th seed. I mean the bulls made the playoffs at 41-41. Shoot I love Embiid, if you can guarantee he will be healthy I might trade Harden for him right now. He's the second coming of Hakeem, with that footwork and that touch around the basket. If you polled every GM around the league a majority of them would say KD is the second best player in the league. I doubt Harden even gets 1 vote. He maybe one of the greatest regular season players of all time, but when it comes down to in the playoffs I would rather have Durant. I do have some hope Harden will turn it around this year in the playoffs since he is not getting all the calls he was getting last year and still putting up ridiculous numbers. If he continues to shoot his step back 3 pointer at 42% I like our chances. The play making thing is less of an issue cuz we have Chris Paul now. And Durant's assists since Curry and Green went down have gone up significantly. His play making is nothing to sleep on. He is averaging 7.4 assists in that span as the lead dog on that team playing with scrubs.
Lol the Cavs had a negative point differential when Lebron sat last year so no, they wouldnt make the playoffs. And remember Durant went down while having a light load in the warriors, if he played im the Cavs where he had to take on a heavier load he might be out of the season. You say a lot of your opinions as fact. First of all not all GMs are smart so whats the point of the poll? Secondly you don't speak for the GMs so unless you have some evidence to back up your claim then just shut it. This is all about the MVP discussion which is the regular season. If you want to talk post season then it starts with Lebron and ends with Curry. While KD had a historic season last year he did benefit from rest so why would you count that? If KD was that good then he wouldnt have joined Curry and became his b****. So what if Durants playmaking is nothing to sleep on? 7.4 assists? Great! Now compare that to Harden's 11 assists last year and try again. Also Klay Thompson, Jordan Bell and Iggy count as scrubs now? GSW just went from being OP with 5 stars to the rest of the league's best with 3 stars how does that count as playing with scrubs? Just now GSW were taken to OT by the freaking lakers, and thats with 3 stars on their team vs Lakers full of young guys who dont know wtf they are doing. Gimme a break
You Act like KD was a scrub, and he didn't get to the Finals before he jumped ship. So Golden State has 5 stars? Who are we counting as the 5th? Iggy? Don't get me started on overrated Klay. I really like how you threw Jordan Bell in there like he isn't a rookie who averages 4.5 points and 3.1 rebounds. Where else can I get that kinda production..... It is obvious you hate KD, you must have been an OKC fan or something.
Cornerstone- Harden Lebron (aging but still respectable) Durant Eye Brows Embiid KAT Niche (needs a great system/gm to do what they do)- Curry Kawhii Giannis Westbrook
