Kawhi Leonard vs Kevin Durant

[Woodsanity]

1. Who has had the better season overall?

2. Who has had the better RS?

3. Who has had the better PS?

4. Who do you take moving forward?

[Quotatious]

1. Who has had the better season overall?

Leonard

2. Who has had the better RS?

Leonard easily, because of games played (74 for Leonard, 62 for Durant - 12 more games makes a huge difference if a comparison is as close as this one).

3. Who has had the better PS?

Leonard comfortably. Durant has been pretty good, but he has a lot more help, so Kawhi's numbers are more impressive (they are more impressive on its own, but especially considering the context).

4. Who do you take moving forward?

Leonard by a bit. Pretty close, though.

[Dr Spaceman]

I think Kawhi is better defensively, better offensively, and better overall.

[BasketballFan7]

Leonard across the board.

[Dupp]

Swap durants name with currys and this thread becomes a lot more debatable

[The High Cyde]

Wow I thought this was going to be fairly close, but everyone so far is taking Kawhi. Maybe he has actually passed Durant as a player? SA just fell apart without Kawhi out there.

Just sucks with Durant, they guy just has no pressure to perform anymore, he can just show up and win. Make a few easy baskets, defend a little, and win titles.

[Quotatious]

Just sucks with Durant, they guy just has no pressure to perform anymore, he can just show up and win. Make a few easy baskets, defend a little, and win titles.

Indeed, which is why I think it's conceivable that he'll never have a season as impressive as 2012 from leadership/alpha standpoint (he was an unquestioned alpha on 2012 Thunder, considering that's before Westbrook became an all-time great, it was when Russ was a very good star player, top 5-10 in the league, but not quite GOATbrook yet).

Durant's 2011-12 season was definitely championship-caliber in many seasons, it was just bad timing, considering he had to go against a GOAT level player like 2012 LeBron (but KD has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, in terms of his performance in the finals - he played very well, it was just clear that LeBron was even better).

[Doctor MJ]

1. Who has had the better season overall?

2. Who has had the better RS?

3. Who has had the better PS?

4. Who do you take moving forward?

Kawhi for all however:

The first 3 are determined based on team role and the last is determined by age.

I still see Durant as the more capable player.

[Woodsanity]

1. Who has had the better season overall?

2. Who has had the better RS?

3. Who has had the better PS?

4. Who do you take moving forward?

Kawhi for all however:

The first 3 are determined based on team role and the last is determined by age.

I still see Durant as the more capable player.

Fair enough. I think Kawhi had the better season overall and concede that Durant might still be slightly better as a player. Its pretty dam close now though and who knows how Kawhi will improve next season.

For me I do take Kawhi for all four. I may be a bit biased though since I like Kawhi and don't like Durant.

[ISB]

Am I the only one that remembers Durant ripping Kawhi and the Spurs to shreds with an inferior team just one season ago?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2016-nba-western-conference-semifinals-thunder-vs-spurs.html

Note that I do obviously take Kawhi for "who had a better season", primarily because of injuries, but also Durant's adjustment to a much different team situation. But IMO Durant is still obviously the more talented player.

[Prez]

Kawhi for all. I think Durant's impact is a tiny bit overstated and inflated by his prior status (~2014) as the successor to LeBron. That hasn't happened but I think he still gets a boost simply because he's Kevin Durant. If you eliminated everything done before 2014 and just looked at the past 3 seasons, I don't see any reason he should be placed over Curry, Kawhi, or even Westbrook, and yet there's so many people who put him at #2 simply because of his perceived superior capabilities compared to those guys. Based on actual impact, production, and results he's not in my top 4.

[Woodsanity]

Am I the only one that remembers Durant ripping Kawhi and the Spurs to shreds with an inferior team just one season ago?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2016-nba-western-conference-semifinals-thunder-vs-spurs.html

Am I talking about last season now?

Kawhi outplayed Durant badly in game 1 too. I admit Durant did feast when Kawhi got injured though.

[ISB]

Am I the only one that remembers Durant ripping Kawhi and the Spurs to shreds with an inferior team just one season ago?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2016-nba-western-conference-semifinals-thunder-vs-spurs.html

Am I talking about last season now?

Kawhi outplayed Durant badly in game 1 too. I admit Durant did feast when Kawhi got injured though.

No, but come on. The gap between Kawhi and Durant has not changed that much in one year. I did edit my post to point out that Kawhi clearly had a better season, but that's because Durant had a serious injury. As a healthy player Durant is easily better, and he proved it just one season ago.

[Onus]

I'd take Kawhi for all the above questions, I'd even add in I'd take Kawhi over Durant for the current Warriors as well.

Durant is all time great scorer, no doubt, but for some reason his offense just doesn't feel that impactful. I think it's because of how he scores, which doesn't give much room for double teams or shifting defenses. He doesn't attack the basket in the half court very often, so he doesn't suck in the defense. He scores mostly off of either isolation in the mid/high post, which teams are now allowing so the double doesn't come. He scores off of catch and shoot and pin downs, which there isn't much help defense that he is drawing. Sometimes on pin downs they'll double him/switch on him which distorts the defense a bit. So while he scores a lot and very efficiently, there's not much the defense isn't willing to give him so his offense doesn't cause chaos like how Lebron does or how Curry does. Lebron attacks the basket and teams don't want to give up layups so he sucks in defenses and doubles come with defenses scrambling. Teams don't want to give up 3s to Curry so they're scrambling trying to guard the 3 point line on Curry doing a bunch of different things to get him off the line so defenses are scrambling to run him off his spots. Saying all that he is a better offensive player than Kawhi currently, but that gap is closing.

Durant's defense has gotten better, but it's not on Kawhi's level and Kawhi does a lot of the little things as well. Durant needs to be more physical on defense especially on rebounding. He missed so many box outs last night it was maddening.

[Woodsanity]

Am I the only one that remembers Durant ripping Kawhi and the Spurs to shreds with an inferior team just one season ago?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2016-nba-western-conference-semifinals-thunder-vs-spurs.html

Am I talking about last season now?

Kawhi outplayed Durant badly in game 1 too. I admit Durant did feast when Kawhi got injured though.

No, but come on. The gap between Kawhi and Durant has not changed that much in one year. I did edit my post to point out that Kawhi clearly had a better season, but that's because Durant had a serious injury. As a healthy player Durant is easily better, and he proved it just one season ago.

Kawhi averages over 4 ppg more than last season how is that now a drastic improvement? He has become a much more lethal scorer who draws much more free throws and the Warriors couldn't stop him at all game 1 even though he was gimpy.

[Bergmaniac]

Am I the only one that remembers Durant ripping Kawhi and the Spurs to shreds with an inferior team just one season ago?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2016-nba-western-conference-semifinals-thunder-vs-spurs.html

Durant's team wasn't inferior.

[ISB]

Am I talking about last season now?

Kawhi outplayed Durant badly in game 1 too. I admit Durant did feast when Kawhi got injured though.

No, but come on. The gap between Kawhi and Durant has not changed that much in one year. I did edit my post to point out that Kawhi clearly had a better season, but that's because Durant had a serious injury. As a healthy player Durant is easily better, and he proved it just one season ago.

Kawhi averages over 4 ppg more than last season how is that now a drastic improvement? He has become a much more lethal scorer who draws much more free throws and the Warriors couldn't stop him at all game 1 even though he was gimpy.

Meh, 1 game, which the Spurs lost btw, despite the woulda-coulda-shoulda. We'll see what the verdict is after this series is over.

[Woodsanity]

Funny how Durant's "inferior" team ripped the Warriors to shreds and were up 3-1 while Durant himself was playing mediocre basketball at best.

[cpower]

I have to give it to the claw.

[clyde21]

Funny how Durant's "inferior" team ripped the Warriors to shreds and were up 3-1 while Durant himself was playing mediocre basketball at best.

Durant was balling out in OKC's 3 wins. Not sure what your point is.