Will KD surpass Dr.J by the end of his career?

mdonnelly1989 · Post #1 » by **mdonnelly1989** » Sun Jul 17, 2022 1:15 am

Will KD surpass Dr.J as the greater player of all time by the end of his career?

70sFan · Post #2 » by **70sFan** » Sun Jul 17, 2022 8:03 am

He has a chance, because he's not very far from Julius. His injury history doesn't give hin great chances though.

Besides, if anyone cares about off-court stuff then Julius has such q massive gap over Durant that it would be tough to top that.

Cavsfansince84 · Post #3 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Sun Jul 17, 2022 6:31 pm

I lean no if you don't give him much credit for his last 3 seasons. If you do then that might change things but I think Dr. J is a very good intangibles guy while KD has his issues.

pipfan · Post #4 » by **pipfan** » Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:04 pm

I think KD is a better player, and Dr. J was "greater"-if that makes sense. I have Dr J above him, but it could change

Jaivl · Post #5 » by **Jaivl** » Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:16 pm

I think he can do it if he stays healthy. Big if.

HeartBreakKid · Post #6 » by **HeartBreakKid** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 4:09 am

There's a chance but at his age I don't think it's likely.

I'll say no.

iggymcfrack · Post #7 » by **iggymcfrack** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 5:43 am

I feel like they’re close enough now that I’m not sure which one I’d take so I voted “yes”.

Warspite · Post #8 » by **Warspite** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 7:14 am

Do you think KD can win a title like DRJ with no teammate having a PER above 16?

No player in the history of sports has played with as much talented/ accomplished teammates and achieved so little. He has played with a future, current or previous MVP almost every year of his career and sometimes 2. Durant is Karl Malone who joined MJ and Bulls or Dominque who joined the Bad Boys or Gervin who went to Boston.

Jaivl · Post #9 » by **Jaivl** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:52 am

Warspite wrote:Do you think KD can win a title like DRJ with no teammate having a PER above 16?

In a broken league with the talent of 1-2 divisions of today? Yeah he can.

Dutchball97 · Post #10 » by **Dutchball97** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:00 am

I think it's already arguable now but I doubt KD will create enough seperation at this point in his career that he'll clearly pass Dr J. I expect the discussions over who is the 3rd best SF in basketball history to go on for a long time after KD retired.

70sFan · Post #11 » by **70sFan** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:13 am

Jaivl wrote:
Warspite wrote:Do you think KD can win a title like DRJ with no teammate having a PER above 16?

In a broken league with the talent of 1-2 divisions of today? Yeah he can.

I think you underestimate ABA talent.

Dutchball97 · Post #12 » by **Dutchball97** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:46 am

70sFan wrote:
Jaivl wrote:
Warspite wrote:Do you think KD can win a title like DRJ with no teammate having a PER above 16?

In a broken league with the talent of 1-2 divisions of today? Yeah he can.

I think you underestimate ABA talent.

The entire 1976 play-offs was so close too. The final is the only series that didn't go to the last game and it still was a 6 game series. People also tend to assume the Nets were by far the best team that year but they were the #3 SRS team and they beat the #2 SRS team in the Spurs which was Gervin with a noticeably better supporting cast than Dr J had and then the #1 SRS team in the finals which was the Nuggets with Issel, Bobby Jones and David Thompson.

I think KD at his best might've been able to win the title in Erving's place but it's far from a given.

HeartBreakKid · Post #13 » by **HeartBreakKid** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 1:12 pm

Jaivl wrote:
Warspite wrote:Do you think KD can win a title like DRJ with no teammate having a PER above 16?

In a broken league with the talent of 1-2 divisions of today? Yeah he can.

If a team like the Celtics are in that the division then I have my doubts about that one.

Post #14 » by **Doctor MJ** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 4:50 pm

mdonnelly1989 wrote:Will KD surpass Dr.J as the greater player of all time by the end of his career?

I said "No" and was surprised that that was the least chosen of the options.

I'll say that I think KD can surpass Dr. J, but at the moment I'm not optimistic about his career ending with a great denouement.

In terms of the comparison to this point, I think Dr. J had the better peak, and was a drastically better franchise player (yes, I do feel it necessary to think about off-court stuff here). Durant has the argument based on him being the lead scorer on the greatest team in history, and amazingly, might already have longevity argument over the strong-longevity Erving.

Jaivl · Post #15 » by **Jaivl** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 7:10 pm

70sFan wrote:
Jaivl wrote:
Warspite wrote:Do you think KD can win a title like DRJ with no teammate having a PER above 16?

In a broken league with the talent of 1-2 divisions of today? Yeah he can.

I think you underestimate ABA talent.

Eh, if anything I think I'm being generous to the ABA comparing the quality of its 7 teams to 5-10 current teams.

Gilmore, Gervin, Thompson, Jones and Buse are a good match to, for example, Giannis, Butler, Trae, Mobley and LaVine. Intentionally took the worst 2 divisions and left out some of the better players. And not going to mention the depth, cause it's a no contest.

The 2021 Nets performance alone should dispel the notion that Durant can't carry an overmatched team against superior talent (and honestly pretty superior to the 76 Nuggets as well). He's not favored to do so, sure, but it's perfectly possible.

NW BBALL · Post #16 » by **NW BBALL** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 7:46 pm

KD has to be the most underappreciated modern NBA star. Yes he is petty. Yes he can be toxic. But strictly as a basketball player he is brilliant. Even though he has played among talent, including MVPs and future HOFers, throughout his career he has outshone them when on the same court. Think about his 2017 and 2018 Finals appearances for a minute. Durant played two playoff series sharing the court with Curry and LeBron, two era defining superstars, and came back away with the best performance. His stats are absurd. A good argument could be made that he is the second best shooter of all time (surely top 5). At nearly 7 feet tall. As a volume scorer. You may not care for his personality, but he is an ATG.

Cavsfansince84 · Post #17 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 7:52 pm

NW BBALL wrote:KD has to be the most underappreciated modern NBA star. Yes he is petty. Yes he can be toxic. But strictly as a basketball player he is brilliant. Even though he has played among talent, including MVPs and future HOFers, throughout his career he has outshone them when on the same court. Think about his 2017 and 2018 Finals appearances for a minute. Durant played two playoff series sharing the court with Curry and LeBron, two era defining superstars, and came back away with the best performance. His stats are absurd. A good argument could be made that he is the second best shooter of all time (surely top 5). At nearly 7 feet tall. As a volume scorer. You may not care for his personality, but he is an ATG.

This feels like something of a strawman reply tbh. He is being compared to Dr. J. This has nothing to do with whether KD is an atg or not. Two playoff series can't define a player's entire career either. Being toxic is part of being a bb player as well. You can't completely separate that from him as a player.

70sFan · Post #18 » by **70sFan** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:26 pm

NW BBALL wrote:KD has to be the most underappreciated modern NBA star. Yes he is petty. Yes he can be toxic. But strictly as a basketball player he is brilliant. Even though he has played among talent, including MVPs and future HOFers, throughout his career he has outshone them when on the same court. Think about his 2017 and 2018 Finals appearances for a minute. Durant played two playoff series sharing the court with Curry and LeBron, two era defining superstars, and came back away with the best performance. His stats are absurd. A good argument could be made that he is the second best shooter of all time (surely top 5). At nearly 7 feet tall. As a volume scorer. You may not care for his personality, but he is an ATG.

So Julius wasn't brilliant strictly as a basketball player?

capfan33 · Post #19 » by **capfan33** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:30 pm

NW BBALL wrote:KD has to be the most underappreciated modern NBA star. Yes he is petty. Yes he can be toxic. But strictly as a basketball player he is brilliant. Even though he has played among talent, including MVPs and future HOFers, throughout his career he has outshone them when on the same court. Think about his 2017 and 2018 Finals appearances for a minute. Durant played two playoff series sharing the court with Curry and LeBron, two era defining superstars, and came back away with the best performance. His stats are absurd. A good argument could be made that he is the second best shooter of all time (surely top 5). At nearly 7 feet tall. As a volume scorer. You may not care for his personality, but he is an ATG.

Best performance is questionable, and he definitely wasn't the best player. And there a lot of guys you could argue over him as a shooter even thought that's harder to measure.

falcolombardi · Post #20 » by **falcolombardi** » Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:30 pm

NW BBALL wrote:KD has to be the most underappreciated modern NBA star. Yes he is petty. Yes he can be toxic. But strictly as a basketball player he is brilliant. Even though he has played among talent, including MVPs and future HOFers, throughout his career he has outshone them when on the same court. Think about his 2017 and 2018 Finals appearances for a minute. Durant played two playoff series sharing the court with Curry and LeBron, two era defining superstars, and came back away with the best performance. His stats are absurd. A good argument could be made that he is the second best shooter of all time (surely top 5). At nearly 7 feet tall. As a volume scorer. You may not care for his personality, but he is an ATG.

The fact he was benefitting from the defensive attention drawn primarly by one of those two era defining stars in his own team (curry) while the other one (lebron) didnt and was facing draymond defense instead of tristan thompson is a big deal tho

Durant outscored lebron and curry but the gap in creation with both is just huge, even in the finals from a pure box score perspective lebron slash-line may still be more impressive considering assists and curry may have still been the engine of wsrriors winning as he enabled durant to score so well

And from a pure boxscore perspective 76 julius numbers stack up more thsn well to anyone