is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

[GSW]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

I dont want to turn thsi into a Lebron thread but Born come on man.

Lebrons not dominating the league?

really?

in 1992 - 1996 shaq was DOMINATING the league and he didnt win a single ring...I dont think dominating in the instance that peopel refer to LeBron out and out means winning rings as well..

It means he is simply ****ting on people and quite unstoppable at that.

If/When he adds rings to his resume that just means he is a dominating CHAMPION...but you need a team for rings...just like you say hes not "dominating"
per your definition (because he has no rings)...you have to also acknowledge the team factor in regards to that argument.

[slimm44]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

Lebron isn't dominating now. I made that point in a blog post a while back. No one cares about scoring titles and MVPs. It's about getting to the Finals and winning championships. If you get to the Finals, you dominated your conference, and if you get the ring you dominated the whole league. Otherwise, you just put up great numbers.

The main thing thing people have to realize about Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kareem, Kobe, Shaq and Tim Duncan is that they have dominated whole decades. We're talking about spans of 6 to 10 years where these guys were ALWAYS in the Finals or getting a champaign shower. That means no soup for anyone else. I think people lose sight of just how dominant that really is.

Lebron may dominate in the coming years, but the challenge before him is a league where he is not head and shoulders above the other talent. There are other players that are in or near his class, and after that there are several players behind him.

Sure, Lebron is great, but what if Brandon Roy joins Dwight Howard? What if Chris Paul hooks up with KD? What if Deron were to go to Atlanta right now?

Not saying he can't dominate. Just saying that it's a big leap to treat it as a foregone conclusion. If Lebron is able to keep Durant, Melo, CP3, Dwight, Roy, Wade and the rest from winning for the next 6 to 8 years, that will truly be an amazing feat.

And what if Lebron gets a legit #2. Ridiculous argument if you really don't think Lebron is not dominant right now.

[Bornindamecca]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

Lebron's individual greatness is unquestioned, but you guys are missing the point. Let's say Portland wins seven out of the next ten championships, and the other three are spread out amongst the rest of the league. After the decade, people would say "Brandon Roy and the Blazers dominated the decade of 2010 to 2020", even if Roy only averaged 25 ppg, 4 rebs, and 4 assists.

The same way that regardless of the great individuals who played in the last ten years, we unquestionably give the decade to Shaq, Kobe and Tim Duncan, because they have ALWAYS been in the Finals the last ten years, and have twelve rings between them. If Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson had the exact same numbers, but three more Finals appearances apiece, their entire legacy would be different.

I'm surprised you all are so hung up on the semantics of this argument, to the point of acting as if you've never heard it before. Not only is this how the entire sporting world behaves, it's also what these guys say as individuals. Even Barkley discusses his lack of a ring in this context: "I would have a championship if I was a better defender". Barkley was destroying the league individually, but he believes he needed to take one more step to be a champion, and didn't take it. Why would he say that if this step doesn't exist?

Funny thing is, I'm almost CERTAIN that Lebron would take my side in this discussion.

Either way, this is just a different view of what dominating the league means. Looking at the past twenty years, and being astonished at how the same faces keep showing up in the Finals, I have a different perspective than you guys. Watching players go through the playoff gauntlet and dethrone past champions might be my favorite part of the game. That gauntlet changes players and their legacy for the better. We can agree to disagree on that point, because I can't imagine anything you guys say will change my mind about that.

It's not a jab at Lebron either. I don't know why you take it that way. I feel the same way about Durant and Iverson, who are two of my favorite players.

[HMcCoy]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

Lebron's individual greatness is unquestioned

You shoulda stopped there.

Lebron is a [insert your favorite superlative] player.

Period.

[Lumalu]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

I think KD has a lot of improvement left in him......it's scary thinking what type of player he could become.

[slimm44]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

You shoulda stopped there.

Lebron is a [insert your favorite superlative] player.

Period.

Co-sign.

[bubbachuck]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

All he can do is score its plenty of players like that.

There def aren't plenty of players that can score like him.

He will be one of, if not the, best offense players in the league no doubt. whether he figures everything else out will depend on the work he puts in. I like his attitude and feel like he is the type willing to put in the work to be great. He will be a different kind of player than Lebron obviously but it will be scary if/when he gets that killer instinct to consistently take over games in the fourth against top competition (Kobe, Lebron, etc). I am excited to see what they got going on over there in OKC. Great young talent and adding Maynor was a really good move. I think having that kind of young talent will help KD because he can work on exactly what he needs to do to give his team the best chance of winning. That would be defense, rebounding, passing, and taking over at will. Next few years should be fun to watch in the NBA. Really starting to see the changeover of stars taking place. Mcgrady and Iverson (unfortunately) are some of the first casualties and there will be more to come in the next few years.

[Bornindamecca]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

Lakers' drama ruled the decade
By winning multiple titles, self-destructing and then rising again, the Lakers dominated the decade.

interesting how they phrased that.

[slimm44]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

interesting how they phrased that.

Also interesting they didn't say {insert any individual's player name}, but credited the Lakers for dominating. Kind of crazy how it takes a team to win championships. Individual players can be dominant, but the most dominant player in the world can't win one without a good supporting cast, usually a second-fiddle player, and a good coach.

[Bornindamecca]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

Also interesting they didn't say {insert any individual's player name}, but credited the Lakers for dominating. Kind of crazy how it takes a team to win championships. Individual players can be dominant, but the most dominant player in the world can't win one without a good supporting cast, usually a second-fiddle player, and a good coach.

And I never claimed otherwise, but the fact of the matter is that those who are lucky enough to have a good enough team to win multiple championships are elevated above those who aren't. Then in a retrospective, those players, both as individuals and in association with their respective teams, are the ones viewed as the dominators of an NBA era. That was my point.

[slimm44]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

And I never claimed otherwise, but the fact of the matter is that those who are lucky enough to have a good enough team to win multiple championships are elevated above those who aren't. Then in a retrospective, those players, both as individuals and in association with their respective teams, are the ones viewed as the dominators of an NBA era. That was my point.

It's pretty much what you said right here.

Lebron isn't dominating now. I made that point in a blog post a while back. No one cares about scoring titles and MVPs. It's about getting to the Finals and winning championships. If you get to the Finals, you dominated your conference, and if you get the ring you dominated the whole league. Otherwise, you just put up great numbers.

The ONLY way Lebron hasn't dominated is by not winning a chip yet. I think there's a saying about having your cake and eating it too that fits here.

ON TOPIC

I don't think KD will be the next best thing in 5 years, as there are TOO many awesome mid-20's superstars right now. Chris Paul, Wade, Bosh, Roy, KD, and more that I didn't list. I'm super-duper excited about the young ballers in the league.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

As i've said before in previous Durant threads:

"He's only 21 and he's only gonna get better."

That's a scary thought to have right there.

[slimm44]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

As i've said before in previous Durant threads:

"He's only 21 and he's only gonna get better."

That's a scary thought to have right there.

I forgot he's only 21. He is an absolute freak for being 21. His maturity and approach to the game are probably his biggest assets.

[faster]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

lebron hasn't dominated anything but the stat sheet yet. this ridiculous era of "stats" and "all around players" makes too many people think that you have to rebound or you have to get all these assists to dominate a game. if you have a true team you don't need to do all that stuff, that's why there's a PG, a PF, and a C. wanna know what making teammates better really means? it means telling them to get off their butts, winning championships, and then saying "let's go do it again, get back in the gym."

triple doubles mean your active but they don't mean anything else. i'll take a deadly scorer, an assassin with cold blood and no hesitation at the end of the game over ANYTHING. second to that, i'll take a dominant big man. after that, i'll take lebron... a guy who fills up the statsheet but still, and never will, know for sure what to do with the game on the line.

Durant will win more titles than Lebron, bank on it. he's a scorer FIRST and foremost and that's how he's built. contrary to what everybody thinks, it's easier to build around guys that aren't stat stuffers. give me a scorefirst guy to build around, a couple defenders and a couple rebounders and we'll do it big.

[AlexBrady]

Re: is kevin durant the next best thing in 5 yrs

lebron hasn't dominated anything but the stat sheet yet. this ridiculous era of "stats" and "all around players" makes too many people think that you have to rebound or you have to get all these assists to dominate a game. if you have a true team you don't need to do all that stuff, that's why there's a PG, a PF, and a C. wanna know what making teammates better really means? it means telling them to get off their butts, winning championships, and then saying "let's go do it again, get back in the gym."

triple doubles mean your active but they don't mean anything else. i'll take a deadly scorer, an assassin with cold blood and no hesitation at the end of the game over ANYTHING. second to that, i'll take a dominant big man. after that, i'll take lebron... a guy who fills up the statsheet but still, and never will, know for sure what to do with the game on the line.

Durant will win more titles than Lebron, bank on it. he's a scorer FIRST and foremost and that's how he's built. contrary to what everybody thinks, it's easier to build around guys that aren't stat stuffers. give me a scorefirst guy to build around, a couple defenders and a couple rebounders and we'll do it big.

Indeed, most NBA watchers have a myopic view of the game.