dhsilv2 wrote:Joey Wheeler wrote:dhsilv2 wrote:
It isn't like KD played 80 games...or even 70 for that matter. Don't get me wrong 17 more games is meaningful, but KD isn't some iron man.
KD still played 89 matches all season, including 21 in the playoffs. Curry missed 31 RS games and the entire first round of the playoffs. In a non-ungodly stacked team context, the best or 2nd best player missing all these games would never lead to success.
And normally if a star player has similar impact to KD, that team doesn't win a title either. Most teams need a guy wtih Curry like impact. We can play the "normally if blah blah blah blah blah doesn't happen" game all day. I'm not sure what it adds to the conversation.
Curry missed games but when he was playing he was the better player. I wanted to make sure it was pointed out that KD himself did miss a decent number of games as well. Missing the first round was the biggest issue that differentiates the two.
I just don't see any objective argument for Curry over Durant unless your argument is that you like Curry better. The Warriors were kind of a mess in the regular season and played with so many different lineups that I'm not sure how useful any +/- stat is going to be when evaluating any of them.
Durant played poorly in their last stretch of games but they were all kind of awful and just coasting. I mean Draymond was like unexplainably bad at the end of the season. The rest of the year, Durant played fantastic ball and contributed to more wins than Curry did. He was still the leading point getter on a 58 win team. I don't need a stat to tell me he was just average when I watched him play all year and he was almost always the most impactful player on the court. He does things that a player like Oladipo is simply incapable of.
I think a lot of this Durant criticism in general is missing the forest for the trees. This is a team that caught the injury bug that was trying to get back to the Finals for the 4th straight year and repeat as champions. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure Kerr handled the regular season particularly well. They all struggled to find their identity with and without Curry.
Despite that, however, when the playoffs started Durant clearly took it upon himself to take them back to the promised land. And he delivered. The Conference Finals was rocky but it was rocky for the Warriors as a team. No one was particularly consistent, Iggy's injury threw them off, and stylistically the Rockets played a more confident brand of basketball. Curry and Klay were just kind of okay. Draymond's scoring was non existent at times. Durant struggled with his identity.
Yet, they got through it, and then Durant and Curry put the Cavs to bed with little doubts.
The regular season this year wasn't going to make or break Durant, so I think weighing his playoff impact is more important. The regular season was never his concern or focus. It was repeat or face heavy criticism. They won again, he won his 2nd FMVP, and he is still facing criticism. Playing the villain like that isn't easy, but he's been pretty damn good at it so far.
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