Kevin Durant Says He Will Fill the Void Left By James Harden

Totally agree. Kevin Durant, the best scorer in the league in my opinion, is still improving as a scorer AND facilitator. His passes of the pick-and-roll (esp. the pocket passes to the roll or pop man) have become so much more comfortable and routine for KD. I think that’s one of the most overlooked parts of his game. And that’s not to mention Kevin Durant is statistically the best post player in the league on the right block on a very healthy amount of possessions. KD is improving and that’s partly because he has more ‘freedom’ to expand his game. That should be downright scary to all his opponents in the league.

meanwhile Tobias Harris, Nikola Vucevic, and Mo Harkless look like good trade assets/building blocks in the future

No, the Thunder lineups have not shown that they can keep up their defensive rebounding with KD at power forward. He may be a better shot blocker but he definitely does not have the same understanding of space and defense that Lebron has. You try to qualify your reasoning with the box score; yet, there are so much more aspects to the game than just those stats.

I believe that KD will improve, maybe not massively, but in significant ways. Maybe we’ll see KD near the kind of passing that Lebron can do (making that extra read and taking the hockey assist / predicting the rotations and hitting roll man at the right moment / etc), maybe we’ll not. I don’t think that KD can ever become the same kind of main ball-handler that Lebron is, however. I do believe that KD will become an even more varied scorer, perhaps evening out his efficiency in the post (currently great on the right block, just “good” on the left one) and/or being utlized in the PNR more often (as both the ball-handler AND the roll man much in the same way Lebron is used as) But then again, I don’t really see how KD can improve scoring-wise apart from some marginal ways.

I think the biggest strides are to be made defensively. When OKC can have KD at the four w/o dropping off defensively (rebounding as well), I think the rest of the league should give up unless you’re the Heat. By the way, I would not say KD is an equal rebounder to Lebron. Look at the disparity in their TRB% as well as DRB% as well as their respective teams’ small-ball lineups’ rebounding numbers.

Durant is a more efficient offensive player so far for his career. However, Kobe has shown this season that he can be quite efficient as well if he chose efficiency over scoring. Kobe’s the better offensive player than Durant but takes more risky shots as well.

Bron and Wade have been in the L for almost a decade right now and we’re comparing them with a 4th year Kobe? There’s no way a team with Wade or Bron would’ve done the same sort of damage along with Shaq if it was a 4th year Wade or Bron.

Did Wade-Shaq have the same impact as Kobe-Shaq did?? IMO, they did not. But they were still very good though.

LeBron hasn’t had a consistent jumper till the last season. He still doesn’t prefer taking outside shots. He all but disappeared in his 2nd Finals appearance after 8 years in the L. How the hell does having no range on a team and nobody to take over at the end make the Lakers of the old better?

The problem with saying that they’d have won 5 titles with the same team is that the teams Kobe played on required Kobe to be a jumpshooter ( look at his play when one of Pau/Dwight sit on the bench ), which is neither’s strength.

Durant might’ve made it successful though. Of course, all of this is assuming replacing one player with another doesn’t lead to a domino affect.

No you won’t Durant. Not if Westbrook has anything to say about it. & thats why fam won’t win ….