Kevin Durant's legacy

Joao Saraiva · Post #1 » by **Joao Saraiva** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 11:27 am

His time with PHX is over. What does this run do to his legacy?

I believe it has to hurt. He left GSW to prove he could win in his own team. Not only did it not happen in BKN with the big 3, it also didn't happen with PHX and will end up with them missing the playoffs. Not that I believe that missing the playoffs is KD's fault but at this point seems like going away from GSW ended up hurting his legacy.

What are the overall thoughts of the GB on this?

Is his window to win as the man closed?

druggas · Post #2 » by **druggas** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 11:28 am

He'll always be a "what if" player.

Celts17Pride · Post #3 » by **Celts17Pride** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 11:30 am

Spoiled Brat

Post #4 » by **zimpy27** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 11:34 am

Honestly he shouldn't have left GSW, his time away from them has been a bigger disaster than his time before going to them.

Durant is a great basketball player though, I think he's in that Charles Barkley conversation.

ORLMagicGirl15 · Post #5 » by **ORLMagicGirl15** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 11:37 am

Some of these veterans that’s running around trying to form these “big 3s” might want to join some of the younger teams. They just might be the player needed to push these teams into contention. When you’re forming these big 3s, not only is it expensive but it suck so much assets out of that team that it’s hard to build a good team.

I don’t know if KD himself care about his legacy, but I don’t think him roaming around on different teams is going to diminish what he has done. I’ll remember him as a 2x champion and 4x Olympic champion. When he is needed, he shows up.

Handlez · Post #6 » by **Handlez** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 1:10 pm

I respect that he's a student of the game and loves the game. Always played hard. He just wanted to hoop.

He had to fight fire with fire and do the super team thing since LeBron ruined the competitive integrity of the league.

Durant did a great thing by joining GS because if he didn't, LeBron might have won 2 more super team titles that would unfairly boost his legacy.

Basically, in a way, Durant saved the integrity of the league.

Mogspan · Post #7 » by **Mogspan** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 2:54 pm

Handlez wrote:I respect that he's a student of the game and loves the game. Always played hard. He just wanted to hoop.

He had to fight fire with fire and do the super team thing since LeBron ruined the competitive integrity of the league.

Durant did a great thing by joining GS because if he didn't, LeBron might have won 2 more super team titles that would unfairly boost his legacy.

Basically, in a way, Durant saved the integrity of the league.

Ok, so an elite player joining a 73-win team that beat him a few weeks earlier because of his choking is admirable to you? I assume you’re trolling. I can’t even empathize with the kind of seared conscience one must have to unironically believe that. It’s like saying you respect Jack the Ripper because he killed hookers.

Stan · Post #8 » by **Stan** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 2:54 pm

Is his window to win as the man closed at 37? Probably.

dockingsched · Post #9 » by **dockingsched** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 2:58 pm

Threw away his legacy for two titles and finals mvps he’ll never get credit for, titles that saved Curry’s legacy.

The Master · Post #10 » by **The Master** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:03 pm

Damn, NBA discourse is so funny that somehow every season and every move HAS TO impact player's legacy. And I don't even like KD, lol.

He'll be 37 soon after severe Achilles injury and he's still top20-top30 player in the league. It has positive impact on his legacy, objectively speaking. Kobe wasn't that good as a 37yo nor was Dirk or Hakeem, for comparison. It'd be insane to criticize Durant for his current level of play.

It turned out after he left Warriors that he had one peak season in him left (20/21 for Brooklyn that was ruined by team's injuries) and several All-star-level seasons - that's unfortunate, but considering he tore his Achilles as a 30yo, that's nothing to complain about neither.

So yeah, it seems he could've had theoretically won more as a 1st A option if he hadn't gone to Warriors, but considering he was the 3rd-best player in the world at that time, it's not given, at least he has several FMVP and rings under his belt.

CometGM · Post #11 » by **CometGM** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:03 pm

zimpy27 wrote:Honestly he shouldn't have left GSW, his time away from them has been a bigger disaster than his time before going to them.

Durant is a great basketball player though, I think he's in that Charles Barkley conversation.

You mean he shouldn't have left OKC.

chilluminati · Post #12 » by **chilluminati** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:07 pm

He even had a chance to return to GSW at the deadline this year.

KD is just out here doing what he wants to do, regardless of what people think about a legacy.

LarsV8 · Post #13 » by **LarsV8** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:08 pm

One of the best ever, and a real shame he never got the ring.

There was always something off with him, and perhaps why he didn't have the success you would expect. Kind of a weird insecure Beta undertone in his personality, that always made me cringe a little bit. I do wonder if it was his personality that held him back, the lack of competitiveness or fire. He has all the talent in the world, but was really also looking for someone else inferior to take the lead.

Somewhere between Dirk (lower) and the Barkley / Malone (higher) tiers on the GOAT list. Late teens maybe? Probably right above Harden.

CodeBreaker · Post #14 » by **CodeBreaker** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:08 pm

Dude is not a winner. He's just so good at riding Curry's coattails.

Shouldn't be placed in the same tier as LeBron and Curry.

bkkrh · Post #15 » by **bkkrh** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:47 pm

druggas wrote:He'll always be a "what if" player.

If a player that won 1 league MVP, 2 Final MVPs, made 11 All NBA teams, lead the league in scoring 4 times and will very likely wind up in the top 5 of the all time scoring list (he is currently 8th) is considered a what if, it would mean that more than 99.9% of all NBA players are what ifs.

I'd there is a lot of room between being a Top 10 player and a "what if player". He ranks in the mid to lower areas of top 11 to 20 and that's an insane accomplishment for a league that exists for more than 70 years and had thousands of players.

Ambrose · Post #16 » by **Ambrose** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:56 pm

His legacy will be that he's one of the greatest scorers ever and was a brand-new archetype as a wing.

3ddman23 · Post #17 » by **3ddman23** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:57 pm

Would be karl Malone, Barkley, Stockton,etc. Great player with no rings, if he never snaked his way to gs.

xAIRNESSx · Post #18 » by **xAIRNESSx** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 4:02 pm

Crazy to think how different the NBA would've been if OKC didn't trade Harden

shi-woo · Post #19 » by **shi-woo** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 5:53 pm

He'll be the man the LeBron fans spit venom at till the day they die. To me he will go down as the star that sacrificed his image to show the world just how sleazy it can get when a bunch of HoF players jump on the banana boat together. We were headed to an extreme no one but LBJ/casual fans wanted, where every star who didn't win by age 25 was going to be teaming up with their best buds. KD's move put an end to that, and made it distasteful because turns out it's not all about just winning the ring after all.

As a player, he will go down as a Top 5 scorer of all time, a tier ahead of guys like Melo/Pierce, and on for his career you'd have to put him in the KG/Dirk level of players, so Top 25 All Time. He had an amazing career, winning an MVP, 2x Finals MVP going 2/4 in the finals, which is similar to the Bad Boy Pistons/Heatles run, and will have had the longevity that all the Top guys outside of Bird had.

He'll be seen as the 3rd best player of his generation similar to Dr J in the 80's (though he was a 70's guy), and will be viewed similar to how Baseball Views A-Rod. One of the most talented players of all time with some of the craziest stats in the modern era, but his personality and decisions just rub people the wrong way.

Wherever you put Dirk and KG, put KD a few spots ahead of them.

It's wild to me how in 2016 most people had LeBron as a head and shoulders above KD, and Wade above Curry, and Bosh above Klay, but for some reason what LBJ did was admirerable, and what KD did was devilish. People really wanted LeBron to match MJ's 6, and will forever hate/minimize KD and Curry because of it. Breaking those peoples hearts is the highlight of KD's career, and what he'll ultimately get known for when we can realistically place the team hoping superteam era in it's proper context as the era of brand awareness and image outside f the game

TheGeneral99 · Post #20 » by **TheGeneral99** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 6:03 pm

I think he'll be thought off in two ways:

1) One of greatest scorers in NBA history and arguably the most lethal iso scorer in NBA history.

2) A guy who made one of the weakest NBA moves ever and couldn't win a chip on his own.

I think in 20 years years he'll be viewed in the same light as a Karl Malone, a Dr. J, a Barkley, a David Robinson etc...amazing players who won MVPs, but 2010s and early 2020s will be viewed as the Curry-Lebron era.

And now we are in the Jokic era (and whoever else can make solidify themselves over this decade).