RealGM

Much like my other thread

Plain And Simple ~ Today's game who you picking?

This gotta be one of the closest ones I've found so far.

And for those who say floor spacing will be a huge difference, don't think so here.

Place Dirk In today's game and I think he matches Durant In stats PPG
Assist still might be a problem

Being old school guy, I'm picking Dirk.

SO IN TODAY'S GAME WHO YOU GOT? ~ Durant vs Nowitzki

Dirk Stats: 1x chips, 1x season mvp, 1x finals mvp, 20.7 PPG, 7.5 RPG 2.4ast
Durant Stats: 2x chips, 1x season mvp, 2 x finals mvp, 27.3ppg, 7.0 RPG 4.4 ast

https://www.landofbasketball.com/player_comparison/kevin_durant_vs_dirk_nowitzki.htm

Top 10 plays of each

Durant and I don’t find it all that close. Dynamism, versatility, switchability is the name of the game today, Durant fulfills all 3 better than Dirk. Would Dirk still be elite in this era? Of course, he’d be amazing.

But imagining 2012-18 Kevin Durant when he still had his rim pressure in today’s league… scary, scary sight.

Floor spacing would very well benefit Dirk as it would for nearly any early mid 2000s stars. But let's apply it to both ends.

Durant is clearly the more rounded offensive player (ever?) but he's also shown to be the more versatile and consistent defender at each level and in space.

Sure Dirk was sometimes unfairly maligned on that end of the floor, but putting him in 2024 would exacerbate some of his areas of
weakness - particularly lateral quickness and reactivity.

For the purposes of comparing him to KD I think that's a substantive difference.

I think they're fairly similar as players but who would I pick if I was running a team: Dirk, 0 hesitation. Durant is basically a nomad switching from team to team, in good spots and bad.

Why would I want that guy over a very similar level of player who would commit for decades?

sp6r=underrated wrote:I think they're fairly similar as players

In the sense that they are both tall and shooters, perhaps. Durant was considerably more athletic in his youth and has a much better handle than Dirk did. Nowitzki was pretty mobile for his size and era, and eventually turned into a notable post player. Better rebounder, too. I don't know that they're all that similar except on the surface level aesthetic and that they are primary scorers who aren't helio ballers.