Milbuck wrote:The-Power wrote:justinian wrote:I was mocked when I called him KD-lite when he first got traded to Bucks. OBVIOUSLY not KD level, but a poor man KD is the most apt comparison if he keeps progressing
I don't see that at all. They are not really similar as players.
How so? Middleton is a sick shooter off the dribble, long smooth athlete with an array of scoring moves. Obviously Middleton is not nearly the caliber of Durant, hence the "poor man's" label, but I think stylistically it's solid.
Both are good/great shooters and long perimeter players, I agree. I didn't say they have nothing in common but for me to toss around the 'poor man's' or 'similar' label there has to be more than a few similarities.
For starters, KD is much longer. His physiognomy is an important part of makes him so damn lethal and while Middleton has great length for a SG or even an SF, it's still not really comparable to KD. 7'5'' wingspan and 9'2'' standing reach are the measurements of (pretty long) Centers. Middleton has a 6'11'' wingspan and a 8'7'' standing reach. As I said, really good for a wing but not even in the realm of KD.
Secondly, Durant takes the ball to the rim much more frequently and with considerably higher success. Durant takes about 10 FTA per 100 with a peak of 13.4 FTA per 100. Middleton got to the line more often this year, and clearly so, which is a great improvement. But he still only takes 6.1 FTA per 100 (and never more than 3.6 in his prior three years in the league) which is a number even Rookie-KD clearly surpassed. The FTr of Durant is at 42.8 for his career, the FTr of Middleton is at 30.1 this year.
For his career, 22.2% of his FGA come from within 3ft where he converts them at amazing 72.3% rate - and even higher if you exclude his first two seasons. In 2014 and 2015 he was at 80% (!), so far in 2016 he's at 74.4%. Middleton, in comparion, takes only 14.1% of his shots from inside 3ft which by the way constitutes a career-low (i.e. he increased his volume by shooting more often from outside 3ft). He converts them at 60.2% this season and 59.6% for his career which is night and day compared to KD. Combined with the FTA/FTr, we can clearly see that KD is in a complete different class as a finisher. The style of play is vastly different in this regard and given how huge the difference in terms of output actually is, I don't see any similarities here at all. In fact, this is exactly where KD's huge advantage as far as efficiency is concerned stems from
Also, Middleton likes to create for himself inside the arc while Durant has proven to be also capable of consistently creating his own shot from outside. In the last three years, KD is assisted on slightly more than 60% of his 3's and if we exclude his Rookie and Sophomore season, in which he didn't leverage his shooting from beyond the arc as much (only 3.7 and 4.1 3PA per 100 respectively), he was assisted on roughly 80% of his 3's over the subsequent four years. Middleton is being assisted on 87.8% of his 3's while being assisted on almost 100% of his 3's in his first three seasons. Sure, some of it has to do with opportunity and how a team plays but Middleton didn't strike me as someone who would like to create more from the behind the arc for himself, on ball. Instead he choses to create for himself inside the arc (only 44.4% of his 2's are being assisted; KD only got assisted less once in his career (in 2012) and roughly matches this mark twice (in 2013 and 2014)).
On the defensive end, Middleton is very clearly an elite perimeter defender and earned his reputation as such. KD, while being a really good defender when being locked in, didn't have the same label. Not to mention that his defense is less predicated on interrupting at the perimeter as he prefers to contest with his length inside. Middleton has a different approach to defense and prefers to bother perimeter players the whole time instead of challenging them inside and/or during the shot. I'd say KD plays more like a very mobile PF or a very long SF who can effectively guard the perimeter and inside, while Middleton is obviously the more traditional perimeter defender you want to guard the opposing best perimeter player (be it the PG, SG or SF; something I wouldn't say with regard to KD).
Overall, I simply don't see enough similarities to call them extremely similar or one of them a poor man's/rich man's version of the other. Of course they do share some characteristics, that's only normal in basketball. But I definitely wouldn't use one of them to describe the other player's playing style. And as you should be able to see, I'm by no means talking Middleton down here as a player. He would be my first pick to replace Klay on the Warriors if for some reason I had to. I'm merely stating differences.
