If Durant leads the Nets to a championship without Harden — he is the king. 3 Finals MVPs — not many players can say that.
He always thinks he's playing the hero, but he plays the villain very well. Durant is more the antihero.
You know who he is. You know who he is. He's Kevin Durant. There were 2 plays in this game he destroyed Giannis. He shot a 3 right in his face that went in and then took him off the dribble and finished a layup right in his face. If you were creating a defender to stop KD in nba2k he would look just like Giannis and it still wasn't enough. The only thing that stops KD is injury and the wrong team around him.
This can easily be turned around with saying If Kawhi won a championship this year, he will have 3 finals MVPs
True, and I think people would talk about him like he's the league best player if that happened. I mentioned Kawhi on the first page as a candidate, but was less convinced about Durant. Only bringing him up now because there's a fair chance he could lead the Nets to a championship without Harden.
Durant isn't fake? The guy who pretended to be all humble in OKC and then started created burner social media accounts? So was Jordan, he was just fake pre-social media. Pro athlete superstars always have major character flaws. Almost impossible to get to that level of accomplishment without some "issues". Why expect them to be perfect? Just enjoy the game. No one should be looking to these guys as role models. As long as they're not actually terrible people, it's fine, and LeBron is certainly not. He's far more generous to the community and the game than any of the guys I listed, for example.
... And also James Harden and a healthy Chris Paul, when Durant doesn't have a 73-win team and Scott Foster on his side. Durant is incredible, but let's not get carried away by a couple good games against the Bucks when the entire Nets squad was absolutely on fire for 96 minutes. Giannis has been sh!tting the bed so far, too.
I cant remember the last time BOTH Eastern Conference Semi Finals were worth watching. Things seem to be balancing out. KD and Harden going east definitely played a part.
I get it, I'm a Rockets fan too. But, even when we were competing with those Warriors teams he got whatever he wanted when he iso'd. The only thing that really stopped him was the need for their team to run their offense and move the ball. Even if the Nets lose the series to the Bucks my point is that KD score on anyone. Harden and CP are all time greats but they've never been unstoppable scorers, they're more playmakers. There's an argument for Kawhi as well but that's mainly about his skill to get to his spot where as KD has the skill to score at any spot.
KD slithering to the throne. can anyone stop him? 3 championship in the 5 years is pretty tough to beat. But wait, there's a dark horse in race. Kawhi rising from the dead. His perpetually bored looking face would have 3 championship with 3 different franchise if he can win it all. That might be even tougher to beat (only Lebron the previous king has done that!) The only other contenders who barely have a shot is the Joker (but his team just isnt that healthy or good) and Harden (but he's being viewed as a second or third banana)
To be honest, you can find fault in just about anyone, if you look hard enough, even with about bringing a worldview into situation. Being a superstar athlete, celebrity, or well-known person, it can be pretty easy to that, because any kind of flaw or mistake at any juncture in your life can up for scrutiny.
That's what I've been arguing against LeBron. People give his legacy extra credit because he won with "three different teams." My beef with that kind of thinking is that these guys win with different teams because they simply abandon their own teams once they aren't good enough to sustain their championship runs and look for greener pastures. This has been the M.O. for lots of star players since The Decision more than 10 years ago.
Bill Simmons or someone made that exact point recently. Player movement/empowerment is a new thing and completely different from the previous era, so I agree Lebron and Kawhi doing it with 3 diff teams shouldn't be compared with the past. Bird, Magic, Isiah, Russell, Kareem etc era's were much more limited in terms of player mobility/freedom. Star players in their primes hardly changed teams and in the rare cases they did... it was only once. But regardless of that fact, Lebron and Kawhi (if he can) being the first to do it will still get a ton of credit. It illustrate how with their talent/star you can easily build a championship team. I don't hold it against players for "abandoning" their team but I don't neccesarily think they should get extra credit either.
No one is doubting his ability to score. But firstly, he was surrounded by All-Stars, which makes an effective ISO like an order of magnitude easier for a talented scorer. The Rockets were single-covering him with PJ Tucker. Not exactly a difficult matchup for Durant. Secondly, getting whatever he wanted when he ISO'd is different from the all-around carrying that guys like LeBron and Jordan have proven themselves capable of. Durant might be the most efficient and unguardable scorer since Jordan, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's the best/most impactful player. I think a couple years ago, I would have bought that Durant was the best (in a league without LeBron), and I think there may still be an argument for it. Again, he is a great player. But I think you are vastly overstating how easy of a pick he is. I think there's a strong argument that he's not even the best player on his own team, and that he hasn't been since 2016. ... I also kind of have to wonder how much (and how efficiently) Harden would be capable of scoring on this team if he still had that ISO mentality. You have to remember that these last two years, as Harden reached his prime and put up 35 ppg on a ridiculous 62% TS%, he was doing so out of necessity. If he was a scorer-first like Durant instead of focusing on playmaking this year, could he get 40 ppg with the same efficiency? Maybe 30-35 ppg on Durant-in-GS-like 67% TS% efficiency? Doesn't seem all that far-fetched to me.
Last three seasons, Giannis has averaged 32 pts, 14 reb, and 6.5 ast per 36 minutes, 3 All-NBA 1st team selections, 3 All-Defense 1st team selections, he’s won 2 MVPs, a DPOY, an all-star MVP, a Finals MVP, and a championship. AND … he’s 26.
Best player in the NBA and NEW KING... 1. Giannis 2. KD... With Lebron, Curry, Jokic, Embid, Luka trailing.
