Unfortunately, he is. When is the last time a team won anything of note with their best player pushing 40?
KD has averaged ~55 games since his Achilles tear, not 65. He did play 75 game two years ago, so there’s that.
KD in the playoffs with Brooklyn, 32/8/5 on .602 TS%. With Phoenix, 28/8/5 on .612 TS%. If you replace his production with Jalen on last year's team, the Rockets at least make the WCFs.
I get why the trade happened. We all know the stats and we all saw Jalen’s flame out. Plus, Phoenix practically gave Durant away. Now we’re hearing that he might not automatically get a max extension, so it’s even better now!
I mean, that's alright I guess, but future HOFer Jalen Green had a stellar 0.86 PPP in ISO in just over 200 possessions, so I don't see how KD is much of an upgrade.
Harden still top 5 while leading the league is total iso possessions. Last year he was #2, behind SGA.
So age 37 is “pushing 40?” Using that metric, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won a championship at age 37 with the Lakers. That’s the 1985 championship and they had to defeat a great Celtics team, in 6 games, to do it. Kareem averaged 35.5 mpg, 31.7 ppg, 9 rpg, 5.2 apg, 1spg, and 1.5 bpg during the series, and all at age 37. Pretty impressive for a 37 year old player. Look, the Rockets are gambling that KD can take us over the hump in the playoffs and get us to the Finals. If we get there with KD, I like our chances. I’ll add that I think all these “franchise player” threads have become beyond tiresome and are cluttering up the GARM.
Taller, longer, better efficiency, just plain better all around. Teams gameplan in fear of KD... not the case for JG!
Age 38 was kareem’s last allstar level season, durant is below that level now though and while his numbers still look great, impact wise he’s fallen off massively the last few years.
If Durant is the Rockets best player, he's still a great player despite his age such that him being 37 doesn't matter. If he's not the Rockets best player, Rockets likely have a best player much younger than 37. I'd guess Durant will be the best offensive player on the Rockets. Best player...I'd say odds are more likely he isn't as I expect others will have to cover for him defensively as well as him needed to coast a little here and there because of his age (i.e., he can't go full tilt for 30 mpg such that his coasting to save energy will allow one of the younger players to be the better player on average).
He doesn't get it right now because he is aging and if he has a grave injury you could cut ties really quick, if he has success like WCF then you give him the next 2 years.
Durant is banking on Sengun's gravity to free him up and vice versa. FVV, Amen, Smith, DFS, Sheppard, etc. are expecting to be the glue that makes the Sengun, Durant inside-out game work and will be expected to carry their fair share of the weight to be bring the offense to a Top 5 level. I believe the expectation going into next year is to perform at a Top 3 Defensive level and a Top 5 Offensive level and gel well enough by the post-season that they bring a Championship home.
Kareem, 39yo. 1988. LeBron, 36yo (almost), 2020 Tim Duncan, 38, 2014 Jordan, 35, 1998 The thing about THIS team, is KD will be the best player but there are 2-3 guys on the team that is up-and-coming superstars, which is different than the other 4 players on the above list. They didn't have players like Amen, Alp, and Jabari who can carry the load during the grind. You only need KD to keep the scoreboard ticking if there is a scoring drought and/or handle crunch time situations. Alp and Amen will constantly be getting touches and drawing double teams.
