Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=ArbitraryWater;14903583]14 is very far off.
I doubt you can find 1 list making that claim.[/QUOTE]
[video=youtube;jmlxwgz16Gc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmlxwgz16Gc[/video]
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
Look this is the same thing we're dealing with Jokic right now. Where a player is today does not mean they are going to end up at that spot. At one point in time, when looking at SF's he was clearly #2 right behind Bird (I consider Lebron a PF). When he went to the Warriors he dropped behind Dr. J. Now after his terrible runs in Brooklyn and Phoenix I don't see myself ranking him ahead of Rick Barry and Elgin Baylor.
For a period of time he was the second best player in the league...Curry has overtaken him. This season Giannis and Jokic have moved past him and if I'm being honest...I think CPIII deserves to be ranked higher all-time now. If his career is a huge disaster I don't see him falling out the top ten at SF but he's no longer a top 30 player...and he's likely going to finish his career in the top 40.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
I think he's in the #15-20 range. He just hasn't done enough to be top 10 nor do I think he has a convincing case for a top 10 peak.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=John8204;14903601]Look this is the same thing we're dealing with Jokic right now. Where a player is today does not mean they are going to end up at that spot. At one point in time, when looking at SF's he was clearly #2 right behind Bird (I consider Lebron a PF). When he went to the Warriors he dropped behind Dr. J. Now after his terrible runs in Brooklyn and Phoenix I don't see myself ranking him ahead of Rick Barry and Elgin Baylor.
For a period of time he was the second best player in the league...Curry has overtaken him. This season Giannis and Jokic have moved past him and if I'm being honest...I think CPIII deserves to be ranked higher all-time now. If his career is a huge disaster I don't see him falling out the top ten at SF but he's no longer a top 30 player...and he's likely going to finish his career in the top 40.[/QUOTE]
Yeah at some point the story becomes as important as the stats, que Isaiah Thomas vs John Stockton and Durant just doesn't have a good story, much like Kyrie. Maybe Kyrie can change his story, but Durant's seem done and I think he'll be remembered as just another very talented NBA player, but with no real career defining moment, except dropping the dagger in Lebron's face.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=j3lademaster;14903586]If anything Westbrook has proven to be an underrated teammate. Durant got to play with a better version of Kyrie that Lebron won a ring with(and would have multiple if not for all time collusion) and couldn’t get out of the first round…in the east.
And are we seriously comparing Lakers Westbrook to Okc Westbrook? There’s kind of a big difference there, even bigger than the versions of Kyrie each played with.[/QUOTE]
Kyrie was out almost every year with Durant. He was out all 2019 and 2020 and got hurt vs the Bucks in 2021. With LeBron when he won a ring kyrie played every playoff game and went off in the biggest ones. That's nonsense what you said. But the point is Durant was a great overall player... he was an MVP talent level.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=tpols;14903606]Kyrie was out almost every year with Durant. He was out all 2019 and 2020 and got hurt vs the Bucks in 2021. With LeBron when he won a ring kyrie played every playoff game and went off in the biggest ones. That's nonsense what you said. But the point is Durant was a great overall player... he was an MVP talent level.[/QUOTE]Nonsense what I said? You just used okc Westbrook vs Lakers Westbrook to compare Lebron and Durant. Not to mention you just compared 38 year old Lebron to 27 year old Durant.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=90sgoat;14903604]Yeah at some point the story becomes as important as the stats, que Isaiah Thomas vs John Stockton and Durant just doesn't have a good story, much like Kyrie. Maybe Kyrie can change his story, but Durant's seem done and I think he'll be remembered as just another very talented NBA player, but with no real career defining moment, except dropping the dagger in Lebron's face.[/QUOTE]
It's not just the story but the entire career...people have Isiah over Stockton, I have Stockton over Isiah. Isiah had a much better peak but Stockton was just consistently competing. Being productive and competitive for 19 seasons is more impressive than running after Hall of Fame players and then failing to win with them.
He's still a top 76 player and that means a lot but their was a time when he was clearly a top 25 guy and that's gone and never going to come back for him.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=John8204;14903612]It's not just the story but the entire career...people have Isiah over Stockton, I have Stockton over Isiah. Isiah had a much better peak but Stockton was just consistently competing. Being productive and competitive for 19 seasons is more impressive than running after Hall of Fame players and then failing to win with them.
He's still a top 76 player and that means a lot but their was a time when he was clearly a top 25 guy and that's gone and never going to come back for him.[/QUOTE]
That's true.
His Brooklyn move really destroyed his career more than Warriors honestly. He hasn't been relevant since Warriors.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
If the Dubs didnt get hurt in 2019, they would have won the chip easily. A dominant three-peat would have made them very difficult not to consider as the GOAT NBA team ever. I mean, some people say it already with two rings. So Kevin Durant would have been the best player on the best team of all-time. In a lot of people's minds.
It would be hard not to consider the best player on the best team ever a top 10 player. Now obviously they didnt three-peat but we all know they would have without breaking a sweat if healthy so it's not a big what if.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=Nowoco;14903619]If the Dubs didnt get hurt in 2019, they would have won the chip easily. A dominant three-peat would have made them very difficult not to consider as the GOAT NBA team ever. I mean, some people say it already with two rings. [B]So Kevin Durant would have been the best player on the best team of all-time. In a lot of people's minds.[/B]
It would be hard not to consider the best player on the best team ever a top 10 player. Now obviously they didnt three-peat but we all know they would have without breaking a sweat if healthy so it's not a big what if.[/QUOTE]
That's pure conjecture, Curry would get at minimum 50/50 consideration for that, probably even more considering what the Warriors accomplished before KD got there and their insane record when Curry played and KD didn't.
And if things play out the same way, with KD leaving and the Warriors winning another championship without him, there's no chance what you said would be true.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=Nowoco;14903619]If the Dubs didnt get hurt in 2019, they would have won the chip easily. A dominant three-peat would have made them very difficult not to consider as the GOAT NBA team ever. I mean, some people say it already with two rings. So Kevin Durant would have been the best player on the best team of all-time. In a lot of people's minds.
It would be hard not to consider the best player on the best team ever a top 10 player. Now obviously they didnt three-peat but we all know they would have without breaking a sweat if healthy so it's not a big what if.[/QUOTE]
I would still see Durant more as Drexler to Hakeem or Wade to Shaq.
The team defining player was Curry.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=Nowoco;14903175]Nick Wright made a good point the other day when he said that 5-6 years ago, there was lots of talk of KD being top 10 all-time with some prominent analysts putting him in there.
Now he was saying that it's a struggle to get him in the top 20. I have to say I agree.
Where DID you rank him and where DO you rank him now? Has it changed?[/QUOTE]
How does that work? In your opinion which active players overtook him in the rankings for him to be bumped down 10 spots in 5 years on the all time list?
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
I had him a spot below Curry last week, now he's 2 spot below Curry.
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=L.Kizzle;14904849]I had him a spot below Curry last week, now he's 2 spot below Curry.[/QUOTE]
Who got moved up?
:milton
Re: Where did you rank Kevin Durant at his highest and where do you have him now?
[QUOTE=tpols;14903606][B]Kyrie was out almost every year with Durant[/B]. He was out all 2019 and 2020 and got hurt vs the Bucks in 2021. With LeBron when he won a ring kyrie played every playoff game and went off in the biggest ones. That's nonsense what you said. But the point is Durant was a great overall player... he was an MVP talent level.[/QUOTE]
?
Both KI and KD were out the first year.
KI missed 2 games in 2021 and they were on pace to be tied against the Bucks and they were together in 2022 and got SWEPT.
