I suppose KD has to take Niques spot as the guy who gives you hope after an achilles.

[Kblaze8855]

https://www.hostpic.org/images/2404042215550352.png

Nique ruptured his over 30 years ago and came back still giving people hell.


https://youtu.be/loM-lYjNXiY?si=rQlQQEVr6gz55mPk

He put up 30 a game on 47% and 38% from 3 on 4.5 a game. For comparisons sake it’s about the same as Reggie did that year and the two previous(marginally worse than Reggie in 93 and better than 92 or 91). Just came back and added a bit to his game. He was the gold standard for a post 30 rupture comeback though for age reasons he was headed down anyway.



KD is statistically the same or better though I’m sure there are several theory’s as to why that’s the case numbers wise but not in reality. Hes a worse defender but like…as efficient as anyone can be expected to be. 53/42/85. Can’t ask for much more.

Hes the reference from here on. Nobody is realistically gonna come back with that little change or less again.

[warriorfan]

All stats are now inflated a bit so it’s not that surprising. look at league averages since his injury and it’s probably gone up quite a bit

[Kblaze8855]

Well that’s the obvious explanation I was thinking of. I don’t know if he’s actually better. But he isn’t visibly some whole other guy which is what we used to expect. And he isn’t young either.


Skill set wise he seems like the type who could come back from something like that, but even with today’s advances, it’s too much to hope for in most cases. Though we may come to find out there’s no such thing as a death penalty injury anymore. Not even one where you just assume it’s never gonna be the same. Are they all just “Be fine in a year….” injuries now?

Are we still doing micro fracture surgery? Remember that? When they would like drill a bunch of tiny holes to promote healing or whatever the **** that was? I don’t hear about it anymore.

[warriorfan]

It’s still impressive he has kept himself from falling off but i’m sure it’s safe to say he hasn’t gotten better after his injuries and advanced age

[Carbine]

Visually he's not 2017/2018 Durant.

He doesn't have that little extra explosion and spring.

[ImKobe]

He's definitely gotten worse the last 2 years. Inflation has kept the averages up + he's also playing more mpg this year. PER/WS/BPM numbers are all down & the worst they've been since his 2nd year in the league.

The 2021 Playoffs & 2022 RS were still amazing feats for a player in their 30s coming off achilles + other leg injuries. Hasn't really looked like the same guy since the 2022 RS.

Still, very impressive that he's played 69 out of 76 games this season at 35 with great raw production. He's still top 10-ish player.

[Kblaze8855]

He's definitely gotten worse the last 2 years. Inflation has kept the averages up + he's also playing more mpg this year. PER/WS/BPM numbers are all down & the worst they've been since his 2nd year in the league.




Whats the worst he’s been since his third year though? How much is that saying?

Kevin Durant’s third season would be the best year a good 70% of the Hall of Fame ever had. He’s pretty much Kevin Durant. Just having better years and worse within that. Whatever decline is there I don’t think is enough to say he isn’t the same guy. I think he’s more 2003 shaq compared to prime shaq than he’s Miami Heat shaq compared to prime shaq.

Worse…but not a whole other guy yet.

[Phoenix]

Visually he's not 2017/2018 Durant.

He doesn't have that little extra explosion and spring.

That would have been the case injury or not. KD was 28 in 2017 and going 36 this year. Nobody at those career points visually looks the same. I'm not surprised he's still holding up. His skill-set and height were always going to age him gracefully, it was just a matter of how badly the Achilles would have disrupted him athletically.

[ImKobe]

Whats the worst he’s been since his third year though? How much is that saying?

Kevin Durant’s third season would be the best year a good 70% of the Hall of Fame ever had. He’s pretty much Kevin Durant. Just having better years and worse within that. Whatever decline is there I don’t think is enough to say he isn’t the same guy. I think he’s more 2003 shaq compared to prime shaq than he’s Miami Heat shaq compared to prime shaq.

Worse…but not a whole other guy yet.

Depends. I think he's like 95% of the same guy. If he was still his prime/peak self he'd be in top 5/MVP conversations. He looked like it for the first half of the season but post-ASB he's just had a ton of off-nights. Either it's some minor injury he's playing through or it's just his age and the minutes he's played this season that are catching up to him a little. It is the most games he's played since his last GS season so there's that.

With him being able to play this many games and still put up the raw volume at this age is very impressive though, he's on the short list of guys who have been able to keep it up past their early 30s.