It seems more reasonable to me to assume that a player with no injury history will continue to be injury free for the next few years than to assume that he will definitely suffer an injury serious enough to permanently diminish his game.
i wasn't sure whether he is or not, but after what i saw he did against Kobe both offensively and defensively in the 4th qtr last night, he's a top 5 on my list now.
I'll wait until the series is over, but after last night's game, I might have to move KD up. When you consider how offensively challenged the Thunder are (which those of us who follow them have seen all season), what KD has done so far against the Lakers is great. If you put Dirk or Melo on the Thunder team in place of KD for this series, I don't think they would score more efficiently or play any better defense. This is fun.
Here's how I see the top 10 in the NBA right now with playoff performance so far having an influence in the order: 1. Lebron and no one's even close 2. Wade 3. Kobe 4. Durant 5. Deron Williams 6. Carmelo 7. Dirk 8. Chris Paul 9. Duncan 10.Pau Gasol
Dwight Howard is blocking every shot the opponent takes inside of 15 feet and he's still not in your top 10?
In this playoff, he hasn't been that special. Great player defensively. Offense? Not so much. He has been subpar this series. Averaging 9.8 points and 9.3 rebounds Sure he had a 9 block and 7 block game, but during this whole series the least amount of fouls he has had in a game is 5. So if you take away the blocks, he is pretty much an average player. Definitely not deserving to be a top 10 performer thus far in the playoffs.
I forgot to include Howard in my list, sorry! Then I would take out Pau Gasol from the #10 spot and put Howard at #8. Like I said before playoff performance thus far has influenced only the order. I still consider Chris Paul top 10 eventhough he's not in the playoffs.
With the cast of players he has around him on the offensive end, who would do much (if any) better besides LeBron and maybe Wade? OKC is a poor offensive team and the Lakers have exploited that the entire series.
yeah, blame those 4.2 turnovers a game on the players around him too. melo's cast has disappeared and he is still putting up good numbers. no excuses. i said kd has to prove himself to get in that top 5 and he hasn't.
If you go by these standards, there would not be a top 5 as far as the OP take out Howard (even though I love the guy) and put in Anthony and Durant
So he's not a top 10 player because he didn't play well offensively in a series that his team won in a sweep? And saying "if you take away the blocks, he is pretty much an average player" is stupid. First off, it doesn't make any sense. It's like saying "if you take away the 30 points per game, Kevin Durant is an average player." Second, it's wrong. He's still one of the best rebounders in the league. He still has a huge impact on the game defensively even when not blocking shots by altering shots. He still draws a lot of fouls offensively, which puts the other team in the penalty early in quarters and helps his teammates.
His preperation has led to 38% shooting and his passing ability is a big fat question mark. Kevin Durant has modeled his game after Tracy Mcgrady. As stated before Durant, does not have a game that translates towards an NBA title. He reminds me of a 24 year old Tracy Mcgrady(his role model growing up). I believe he will be a better version at the end of the day(Scoring wise), but he needs to work on his passing and his strength. The guy is just getting manhandled by Ron Artest, and it shows at the end of games. Wade, Lebron, Kobe, Nash, and Howard all impact the game more than Kevin Durant. Carmelo Anthony is a better scorer than Kevin Durant and thats prescisely what Durant is. That being said, he still is really good.
durant's game is NOTHING like tracy mcgrady. the only similarity is both tend to like shooting jumpers. other than that, their games aren't similar at all. durant is much better at getting to the line and is more efficient offensively. he's also more focused defensively. tmac is a much better playmaker and all-around offensive player.
wade will do terrific with this cast. westbrook should have shot 20+ times every game with dfish on him, but more shots went to durant who struggled mightily for the most part shooting over 40%. for this particular matchup v,. artest, durant should have shot less. he rarely played well v. artest during the reg. season. playoffs are about matchups. more of the offense should start with westbrook. melo would do well with this team too. people underestimate their defense. look at the defensive improvement as a team from last year to this year. they decreased their points allowed by 5 points and fg% allowed by 4%. that's a BIG improvement. and their defense on the lakers is the reason they were in games. if the thunder sucked on defense (or kobe had a kobe-liek series), with durant playing like he has, they WOULD HAVE BEEN BLOWN OUT. there was zero chance durant would have played well for more than one game with artest on him (and i predicted that during game one). he only had one great game v. the lakers during the reg. season. the reasons this series was competitive are for these main reasons: 1) kobe playing subpar 2) thunder's terrific defense 3) westbrook's maturation
