LeBron rapes him pretty bad on assists. Durant may be a better pure scorer, but he's not that much better.
He can already shoot better than LeBron which isn't very hard considering LeBron isn't a great shooter. LeBron has the advantage just a little bit on driving and defense. LeBron is a way better passer than Durant so that is something Kevin needs to improve on. By age 24, Durant will be better than LeBron.
Now I know this will show my age...but his smooth athleticism and ability to manufacture shots out of nothing reminds me of Dr J. It's ironic really, we have 3 great small forwards in this era, and even the #3 Carmelo would likely be close to the 5th best ever.
Melo 5th best ever? C'mon now get serious, he's barely 5th best in the league. Durant and LBJ though will probably go down as the GOAT of sfs when all is said and done. We'll probably continue to debate which of them is better the same way fans back in the day debated between Magic and Bird.
I voted no. I think it's possible Durant could become a better scorer (hell, he may even be that now), but I don't think he'll ever be as good at everything else. James is a superior passer, rebounder, defender... He has the kind of all around game we haven't seen since Oscar Robertson. I love watching Kevin Durant play and I think he'll be great - but I can't imagine he'll ever be anywhere near the complete player Lebron is.
I agree. I don't see how Durant can all of a sudden become a great passer either. Durant is going to have to become such a ridiculous scorer to overcome the huge edge LeBron has in assists.
Um lol, Melo is significantly better than everyone except those 2, and historically the only other 2 i could with certainty throw ahead of him are Larry and Dr J (next would likely be Worthy who i think Carmelo is better than).
I'll add that yes I'm aware there are a fair few better swingmen (like Jordan often played the small forward role outside of clutch time in the triangle), I'd genuinely consider him as more of a shooting guard, Clyde too, etc.
Naw, James for all his fault, I believe him when he says he can lead the league in scoring whenever he wants to. The reason why he doesn't is because he's light years ahead of KD in play making and making his teammates better.
I don't know what your serious questions are. If you take away Lebron's quickness and athleticism he's still bigger and stronger than Karl Malone. And he's the kind of player that would adapt just as Michael Jordan adapted to losing his athleticism. I honestly think he'd become a dominant post player if he could no longer be a perimeter player.
I say KD. I think the only thing Lebron has on KD is the passing and rebounding. KD has more range to his game and he is an EXCELLENT defender and has been since day 1. Lebron didn't give in to defense till halfway through his career.
I see KD becoming the Jordan of this era in the sense that whether or not he is a better basketball player than everyone else, he will be the first named mentioned when speaking of basketball.
I think physically, athletically, lebron is a cut above durant. But durant is up there with the greats in terms of desire to improve his own game, so in the long run i think durant will surpass lebron.
Why is there a comparison at all? You don't compare a sidekick to a legitimate leader. LeBron has been in the league for 7 years and he only had one playoff series win over 50 wins team in 5 tries. Durant has 4 years to match and surpass that. LeBron was given the chance in 2004 and 2006 to shine in FIBA tournaments and he ended up being LeBronze. And when he had Kobe on his side, he wasted no time to be the "vocal leader". We see one player that needs super friend to boost the confidence, and the other that's humble and dominated without making noise.
Thats my argument for Durant. Lebron is a capable leader and a decent guy, but he needs a buddy system of likeminded bros to be around. I dont think that prevented him from being successful. But it might prevent him gaining any further status in PERSON player ranking. If Durant wins a title, that will put him over Lebron. If Durant goes conference finals or Finals appearance loss, thats not good enough he has to win to be the best since Lebron at least has been there. If Durant makes deep playoff runs going insane in the playoffs while Lebron is being a glorified James Worthy type getting rings, that shouldnt favor Lebron too much I dont think.
What the hell is a "pure scorer"?! And how in the world is Durant better at scoring than LeBron if each of their first three years in the league LeBron scored more points per game on overall similar (though slightly worse because of LeBron's terrible first year) percentage from the field? Does it mean Durant's scoring stands out more because he's just not as well-rounded of a player as James is (like how Carmelo is also sometimes argued for as the best "pure scorer")? In that case - yay him! Three-point shooting? Aside from Durant's second year, which was very impressive in this regard, their percentages are similar. James is McGrady-like in his shooting in that he puts up way more three-point shots than he should, and Durant's attempts have increased to almost the same as James' now. As a result or merely a coincidence, but his percentage from his second year has gone down to almost the same as LeBron's. This year should be pretty telling in showing who, if any, is clearly superior. Right now the edge goes to Durant. Free-throw shooting? There's no comparison - Durant's excellent, James is pretty mediocre. So being a better free-throw shooter and a slightly better three-point shooter but worse at basically everything else except for maybe defense (in which neither was much good at the end of year 3) equals being better in the long run. Right. Oh, but there's the likability! ... Sorry, I was under the impression that we were talking about basketball. What works in Durant's favor is that LeBron's stats up until last year didn't improve much and actually regressed. If I remember correctly, that was the time he started to pay more attention to defense which Durant has to do if he wants to be considered to be as good or better. And unless James puts up a triple double while scoring more than 20 ppg, this last season may be his best season statistically in his career. So Durant knows what to aim for. Other arguments, like "clutchness" (from the stats that try to measure this, LeBron beats everyone in the league in this) or "drive to win" (how much more drive can you have if you team up with another top 5 player in the league?) or "will to improve" (LeBron has significantly improved his defense and his overall shooting, Durant already has improved his rebounding) - I won't touch those. I just don't see how one can argue about something without providing any proof. Then of course there's the "will to be the man". So LeBron doesn't care about that. I don't see how that makes Durant a better (or a potentially better) player, I really don't. So yeah, I concentrated mainly on boxscore stats. Because I have my own biases just like everyone else and what better way to look past them than to look at cold hard statistics? And a lot of people don't want to give much credence to more objective but at the same time less obvious stats so it would be pointless to discuss them.
