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It's obvious Durant is trying to become more of a playmaker this season.
He's averaging a career high in assists (almost 4,5). Last season, he averaged 3.5, the season before 2.7 assists.

So you can see, that, by getting more assists per game, he's trying to become more versatile on the court.

My question to you guys: Do you think, Durant can ever become as good as LeBron in terms of playmaking abilities?
Can he become more of an allrounder or do you think, he always will primarily be a scoring-machine?

Imo, the big difference is the assist/turnover ratio (LeBron, @18, 2.71/Durant, @78, 1.22 during this season).

I think James is the best natural passer to play in the NBA since Nash/Kidd. His court vision, anticipation, basketball IQ is just as good. Passing the ball is just a part of his game.

Durant actually improved his passing a lot, but when I watch him play, it doesn't look as easy/smooth.
For me, he will always be a scoring-machine, who can do everything, to put the ball into the basket

But I don't see him become as good as James at passing the ball. What do you think?

btw: Sorry for my crappy english...

If i was a durant, i wouldnt care about assist, i would just drop 40 a game and blow teams out, but becoming an all-around player never hurt anybody. But no Durant will probably never be as good as passer as lebron but i can see him avg 5.5+ assist as a peak

He's trying to force this assist thing and has a lot of turnovers as a result.

Nope way too forced and he is way too turnover prone. He should improve his defense and scoring abilities and improve his playmaking slightly. When he focuses too much on playmaking it hurts his game. It does not come natural to him like Lebron.

narmerguy wrote:He's trying to force this assist thing and has a lot of turnovers as a result.

This.

Lebron has been doing it since High School. Its natural for Lebron.

Durant is the best pure scorer ive seen and his shot is unblockable. Everytime he passes it the defense wins. That guy is the one guy who could chuck like Kobe and not hurt his team. He should be trying to average 40 a game.

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This is not the knock on Durant.... but LeBron seemed like he was born with his abilities to pass. Since high school he's been doing this stuff.

Durant is now trying to be more versatile while Lebron has been more versatile his whole career even before the NBA.

Durant I believe is a better scorer and that's where his talent is, especially his 3 point shooting.

But I don't think he'd be as good as LeBron because I just feel LeBron is more of a natural talent than to actually cultivate it. I could, or could be wrong later.

And yes Durant's high turnovers, you can just see he is trying and learning. But again... LeBron was just... born that way.

LeBron is a point guard stuck in a power forward's body...

GoodSir wrote:Lebron has been doing it since Grade School. Its natural for Lebron.

DefenseWins wrote:This is not the knock on Durant.... but LeBron seemed like he was born with his abilities to pass. Since grade school he's been doing this stuff.

Much better...

As others have said, LeBron is a natural passer, whereas KD is a natural scorer. KD is talented enough to become a good playmaker, but not on LeBron's level. He might, however, be a better pure scorer than LeBron because that's just what he does and he's probably better at it than everybody in the league (Melo is up there too). If anything, it's Westbrook who should develop playmaking skills on that team.

DWadeno3 wrote:As others have said, LeBron is a natural passer, whereas KD is a natural scorer. KD is talented enough to become a good playmaker, but not on LeBron's level. He might, however, be a better pure scorer than LeBron because that's just what he does and he's probably better at it than everybody in the league (Melo is up there too). If anything, it's Westbrook who should develop playmaking skills on that team.

Westbrook is actually a pretty good playmaker. He is averaging 8.6 assists right now with 3 TOs. The problem is he is way too shot happy but he is shooting less than last year and getting way more assists and fewer TOs.

Woodsanity wrote:

DWadeno3 wrote:As others have said, LeBron is a natural passer, whereas KD is a natural scorer. KD is talented enough to become a good playmaker, but not on LeBron's level. He might, however, be a better pure scorer than LeBron because that's just what he does and he's probably better at it than everybody in the league (Melo is up there too). If anything, it's Westbrook who should develop playmaking skills on that team.

Westbrook is actually a pretty good playmaker. He is averaging 8.6 assists right now with 3 TOs. The problem is he is way too shot happy but he is shooting less than last year and getting way more assists and fewer TOs.

Part of being a good playmaker is possessing good decision making qualities and that's where Westbrook still has a lot of work to do.

Durant is a decent playmaker, but he will never reach LeBron's level obviously. LeBron is one of the greatest playmaking non-guards in NBA history and Durant's ceiling as a passer is an above average passer. However as a player, Durant has a chance of challenging LeBron due to his unparalleled scoring ability. His repertoire/shooting ability from someone with a standing reach of Tyson Chandler is just stupid.

Durant just isn't a great passer, and there's no reason he needs to force it, especially when he's the best scorer in the league.

Just by making good decisions and moving the ball around, he can get 3+ assists on good TOs easily.

I'd rather see him move defensive attention away instead of handling the ball, sorta like Melo last season (point forward BS) and this season (playing best ball of career).

His assist/TO stats might not be pretty but it'll be more beneficial.