murksiderock
Superstar
This is simple...
Durant is universally viewed as a GOAT 15 All-Timer, with some people making the argument he's Top 10. So he gets his roses, and he gets them aplenty...
The overall resting point of his basketball career will feature questions no one else of that historical stature really have...
Durant is the Top 15 All-Timer who won multiple titles who never, as of yet, showed he could lead teams to the pinnacle of the sport. What underscores this more is he's played on contending teams his entire career, save for the first three OKC seasons. Every other year he's played on contenders...
Just some bullet points:
•he and Westbrook played 8 years together in OKC. That's two Top 50 GOATs for almost a decade and they got just one Finals appearance (0-1) and a 1-3 WCF record from it. Here are some other Top 50 duos in league history who played with each other for a minimum of 5 seasons;
--Malone/Stockton, 18 years, 0-2 Finals, 2-3 WCF
--West/Baylor, 11 years, 0-7 Finals, 7-2 WDF
--Jordan/Pippen, 10 years, 6-0 Finals, 6-2 ECF
--Kareem/Magic, 10 years, 5-3 Finals, 8-1 WCF
--Kobe/Shaq, 8 years, 3-1 Finals, 4-0 WCF
--Russell/Havlicek, 7 years, 6-0 Finals, 6-1 EDF
--Russell/Cousy, 6 years, 5-1 Finals, 6-0 EDF
--Duncan/Robinson, 6 years, 2-0 Finals, 2-1 WCF
--Wilt/West, 5 years, 1-3 Finals, 4-1 WCF
--Duncan/Kawhi, 5 years, 1-1 Finals, 2-1 WCF
Including KD and Russ, there's been 11 duos of two Top 50 guys, who played a minimum of 5 years together. Only KD/Russ, West/Baylor, Malone/Stockton didn't win a championship---->and those other two duos at least made multiple Finals...
This is an underplayed characteristic of Durant's career that will be more widely criticized when he retires. Two Top 50 players who play most of their primes together win championships. West/Baylor and Malone/Stockton got requisite critique for not doing so. This chicken is eventually coming home to roost for Durant (and Russ)...
•the injuries. He and Russ only lost 2 of their 8 years together to injury ('14 and '15), so the characterization of their run as injury-riddled is revisionist...
However Durant's injury history cost him chances in '15, '19, and '20. And he missed huge chunks of '21 and '22 and '23 hurt. And he missed 20 games in '17 that would have cost him a title opportunity if not for the excellency of the Warriors franchise...
So going back to Y8 (2015), the only season he hasn't missed a minimum of 20 games, was '16, '18, and '19. You guys do realize this is nearly half his career, right? He's currently in Y16. 6 of his 16 years, he's missed 20+ games...
Availability is a skill and while we don't typically "blame" guys for being hurt, the reality is unavailability matters too, there are definitely guys who have gotten heat for always being hurt (start with his new teammate Paul). This is underplayed in his career and this is coming home to roost at some point, too...
•the '16 choke is underplayed, and the '22 choke was underplayed. They are part of his story though, we know guys whose choke jobs catch way more critique (start with former teammate Harden). 2016 in particular, leaving that team to go to the team they had on the ropes will always be viewed as funny by many people...
•the entire Brooklyn experiment. A colossal failure and probably the worst superstar experiment in league history, they never made an ECF. That franchise gave red carpet treatment to KD and he twice demanded a trade, and what makes this worse is he could have played this year out with Brooklyn...
The Kyrie trade brought back Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith. Durant returning on March 1, with BK still a 5 seed, this is not like a squad he couldn't win with. He's not a foxhole guy, forcing his way out instead of playing out the string is a bad look. I don't know that the Nets couldn't have competed with Milwaukee or Boston. Durant is great and the rest of the roster was good. His greatness gives them a fighting chance in any series, and I think tapping out after Kyrie is going to reflect poorly on him...
Durant is universally viewed as a GOAT 15 All-Timer, with some people making the argument he's Top 10. So he gets his roses, and he gets them aplenty...
The overall resting point of his basketball career will feature questions no one else of that historical stature really have...
Durant is the Top 15 All-Timer who won multiple titles who never, as of yet, showed he could lead teams to the pinnacle of the sport. What underscores this more is he's played on contending teams his entire career, save for the first three OKC seasons. Every other year he's played on contenders...
Just some bullet points:
•he and Westbrook played 8 years together in OKC. That's two Top 50 GOATs for almost a decade and they got just one Finals appearance (0-1) and a 1-3 WCF record from it. Here are some other Top 50 duos in league history who played with each other for a minimum of 5 seasons;
--Malone/Stockton, 18 years, 0-2 Finals, 2-3 WCF
--West/Baylor, 11 years, 0-7 Finals, 7-2 WDF
--Jordan/Pippen, 10 years, 6-0 Finals, 6-2 ECF
--Kareem/Magic, 10 years, 5-3 Finals, 8-1 WCF
--Kobe/Shaq, 8 years, 3-1 Finals, 4-0 WCF
--Russell/Havlicek, 7 years, 6-0 Finals, 6-1 EDF
--Russell/Cousy, 6 years, 5-1 Finals, 6-0 EDF
--Duncan/Robinson, 6 years, 2-0 Finals, 2-1 WCF
--Wilt/West, 5 years, 1-3 Finals, 4-1 WCF
--Duncan/Kawhi, 5 years, 1-1 Finals, 2-1 WCF
Including KD and Russ, there's been 11 duos of two Top 50 guys, who played a minimum of 5 years together. Only KD/Russ, West/Baylor, Malone/Stockton didn't win a championship---->and those other two duos at least made multiple Finals...
This is an underplayed characteristic of Durant's career that will be more widely criticized when he retires. Two Top 50 players who play most of their primes together win championships. West/Baylor and Malone/Stockton got requisite critique for not doing so. This chicken is eventually coming home to roost for Durant (and Russ)...
•the injuries. He and Russ only lost 2 of their 8 years together to injury ('14 and '15), so the characterization of their run as injury-riddled is revisionist...
However Durant's injury history cost him chances in '15, '19, and '20. And he missed huge chunks of '21 and '22 and '23 hurt. And he missed 20 games in '17 that would have cost him a title opportunity if not for the excellency of the Warriors franchise...
So going back to Y8 (2015), the only season he hasn't missed a minimum of 20 games, was '16, '18, and '19. You guys do realize this is nearly half his career, right? He's currently in Y16. 6 of his 16 years, he's missed 20+ games...
Availability is a skill and while we don't typically "blame" guys for being hurt, the reality is unavailability matters too, there are definitely guys who have gotten heat for always being hurt (start with his new teammate Paul). This is underplayed in his career and this is coming home to roost at some point, too...
•the '16 choke is underplayed, and the '22 choke was underplayed. They are part of his story though, we know guys whose choke jobs catch way more critique (start with former teammate Harden). 2016 in particular, leaving that team to go to the team they had on the ropes will always be viewed as funny by many people...
•the entire Brooklyn experiment. A colossal failure and probably the worst superstar experiment in league history, they never made an ECF. That franchise gave red carpet treatment to KD and he twice demanded a trade, and what makes this worse is he could have played this year out with Brooklyn...
The Kyrie trade brought back Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith. Durant returning on March 1, with BK still a 5 seed, this is not like a squad he couldn't win with. He's not a foxhole guy, forcing his way out instead of playing out the string is a bad look. I don't know that the Nets couldn't have competed with Milwaukee or Boston. Durant is great and the rest of the roster was good. His greatness gives them a fighting chance in any series, and I think tapping out after Kyrie is going to reflect poorly on him...