I don't know why I'm even trying, but ... Durant and Harden have had almost identical careers Although they are so similar, where there are slight differences, they basically all favor Durant Starting from the beginning, Durant was the alpha of Finals team, while Harden never cracked the starting lineup - edge KD Ignoring their shared OKC/BKN years and KD's Warriors run (KD vs JH): Playoffs - Peaked out with 2 losses in the WCF Scoring titles - 5 vs 4 All-NBA - 8 apiece MVPs - 1 each I'm not really sure how any of those Thunder or Nets teams were so 'stacked' either The past 3 years have completely debunked the Westbrick myth 6'3" Ben Simmons that never plays DEF and jacks up ridiculous shots with wild turnovers mixed in does not a stacked team make At least Ben has the sense to not jack up 5 3's a game shooting 30% I'd take CP3 over him at any stage of either's career, and Harden didn't do any better with Russ either Kyrie hardly ever played with Durant in BKN, and Harden was there for most of it anyway For me, Durant has 2 big advantages on the court: Size - dude has lined up at every position but PG Defender - he's always been a versatile, good 2way player while we all know James was conserving energy most of his court time on this end Harden's only clear advantage on the court is as a playmaker, but that's more a positional thing than skill KD has evolved into a capable playmaker He's so good off the ball it would be wasteful using him at point setting up shots for others James, on the other hand, is notoriously disengaged playing off the ball Sometimes not bothering to cross half court while pouting at the thought of playing team ball He's also a much better shooter from every spot except finishing at the rim, gets to the line just as well, and is more efficient overall (higher shooting % & fewer turnovers) Over the last dozen years, my best overall list goes like this: 1 - LBJ 2 - KD 3 - Steph 4 - Kawhi 5 - Harden Harden's been the best SG by a mile, but KD can claim the same at PF Curry is the top PG and best shooter ever Kawhi got 2 rings by outplaying 2 of those ahead of him on this list in the Finals The rest all have multiple rings as the best player of a championship squad The Dubs were already great, but let's not act like KD did not supplant Curry as the alpha of that team from day one Curry only has 1 ring wo KD vs 2 with him, and it was Durant that won Finals MVP both times, something Curry has never done Bottomline is that Durant has clearly been LeBron's main rival for the title of best in the NBA during his reign Being second best in the league for a decade puts him in the same class as Wilt, Bird, Dream and Kobe All 2-way superstars that led title runs James has never been or done either Being an OFF-only superstar without a title puts him a tier below the group above Others in this class include Barkley, Malone, Iverson, Tmac Durant is better than all of them, including Harden Even if he finally gets his ring in PHI, it's Embiid's team, so he only gets Pippen sidekick credit He has missed his window to lead a title run Case closed
this fool Ben Simmons willingly held out of playing for the Sixers…did not even make an attempt to try and play now he’s asking for reimbursement man, go sit down somewhere “I refused to work, but u need to pay me my salary that I lost”…FOH
He doesn't really care about basketball, he just wants to be rich and famous.... and he is certainly rich and fairly famous.
Random theory: Ben Simmons's back is fine, but he needs to sit out to build a strong legal case against the Sixers.
Either his back isn't the real issue or the Nets f#cked up big time in their medical analysis when acquiring him.
i'm saddened by this because all the hype youtube and tiktok videos clearly show that simmons could shoot lights out from the 3 last summer, even with an elite defender guarding his from 5ft away.
What's the point of Ben Simmons making a come back in the playoffs with teammates he has never played with? Makes no sense to me.
