Will Kevin Durant ever win a Championship as the best player on his team?

[NZB2323]

How was Tatum clearly the best player on the Celtics last year? Brown won ECF MVP and Finals MVP.

Also, the play by play data shows that Durant had a higher +/- in the 2018 playoffs than Curry. Curry’s playoff numbers were down across the board in 2018 from 2017.

Maybe Curry was the best player in 2017 and Durant was the best player in 2018?

Where in this thread did anyone say he was clearly better? Brown stepped up last year and Tatum struggled with his shot but he was still likely the better player because he had more defensive attention while he led the team in statistical categories.

The past 10 years, these players won rings as the best player on their team

- Tatum (2024)

KD was amazing during his OKC tenure as their clear-cut best player. After when KD joined the 73-9 GSW team, Curry was objectively still clear-cut bus driver even when they were teammates for 3 years.

[Triple M]

How was Tatum clearly the best player on the Celtics last year? Brown won ECF MVP and Finals MVP.

Also, the play by play data shows that Durant had a higher +/- in the 2018 playoffs than Curry. Curry’s playoff numbers were down across the board in 2018 from 2017.

Maybe Curry was the best player in 2017 and Durant was the best player in 2018?

Where in this thread did anyone say he was clearly better? Brown stepped up last year and Tatum struggled with his shot but he was still likely the better player because he had more defensive attention while he led the team in statistical categories.

The past 10 years, these players won rings as the best player on their team

- Tatum (2024)

KD was amazing during his OKC tenure as their clear-cut best player. After when KD joined the 73-9 GSW team, Curry was objectively still clear-cut bus driver even when they were teammates for 3 years.

The op names who he thinks are the best players and it's hard to say what he thinks seperate the best and 2nd best players other than the years he is comparing KD and Curry. He never mentions that Bron, Kawai, etc were clearly the best players. If you dont think Tatum was the best player on the Celtics than that is a different discussion.

[Deivork]

So if this turns into a KD vs Curry debate, for those claiming he was the best tell me, how would the warriors lose more during the course of those two championship years: without KD or without Curry? The championship is not one only in one 7-game series and the answer to that question is what valueable means.

[Effigy]

He's not going to do it going forward, no. He's too old.

He did do it on the Warriors, but he joined the team with the best record of all time in order to do it. He was completely superfluous and they would have won it without him anyway (IMO), but he was the best player. He was the 2nd best player in the league at the time, and Lebron wasn't on the Warriors, so KD was their best player.

[KazuoOda]

Will he again? No but he's already done this.

[Johnny Tomala]

He already did this twice.

[srhcan]

The past 10 years, these players won rings as the best player on their team

- LeBron (2016 & 2020)

- Curry (2015, 2017, 2018 & 2022)

- Jokic (2023)

- Giannis (2021)

- Kawhi 2019)

- Tatum (2024)

KD was amazing during his OKC tenure as their clear-cut best player. After when KD joined the 73-9 GSW team, Curry was objectively still clear-cut bus driver even when they were teammates for 3 years. Just look at their on/off numbers on a massive sample size.

https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612744&Season=2018-19,2017-18,2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=201142,201939

Curry ON Durant ON: +15.89

Curry ON Durant OFF: +12.44

Durant ON Curry OFF: +2.40

Durant OFF Curry OFF: -3.79



Do you believe KD will somehow manage to win a Championship as the team's best player before retring?

He has already done it 2 times get a grip

[Drygon]

How was Tatum clearly the best player on the Celtics last year? Brown won ECF MVP and Finals MVP.

Also, the play by play data shows that Durant had a higher +/- in the 2018 playoffs than Curry. Curry’s playoff numbers were down across the board in 2018 from 2017.

Maybe Curry was the best player in 2017 and Durant was the best player in 2018?

The sample size for playoffs is much smaller compared to the regular season.

Also, Curry missed games in the earlier rounds against weaker opponents and played against better teams in later rounds.

Looking at the games where both Curry & KD participated in, Curry has higher +/-

[JayMKE]

It’s arguable he was the best individual player on those GS teams but if the question is if he’s going to win a ring elsewhere then it’s not looking very likely

[Triple M]

KD waa the best player on the court in the 17 and 18 finals. Even better than Bron

[Patches Perry]

I still think he was good enough to do it but due to injuries and choosing to play with Curry and the Warriors for a few prime years, it just never happened. At this point, its very unlikely due to his age and circumstances.

You can argue Durant was 1b on the Warriors but I don't think it's even arguable that he was the clear best player. You can't really make that argument without significantly discrediting Curry, who lead those Warriors to titles both pre and post Durant.

[Raps in 4]

He's 36. Of course not.

[Raps in 4]

KD waa the best player on the court in the 17 and 18 finals. Even better than Bron

He was not. He only had the most freedom to score because defences focused on Curry and LeBron, the actual two best players in the series.

[picc]

He already did. At least 1B on the offensive side of the Warriors and by orders of magnitude a more impactful defensive player (always miraculously slips through the cracks in these debates, I wonder why) for the team as they won the chip. And was acknowledged as so with his award.

[DimesandKnicks]

Steph Curry isn’t better than Kevin Durant and he proved that twice. So he already has; two times.

[MiltownMadness]

What a stupid thread. 2x champ, 2x finals MVP

[DimesandKnicks]

He's too old now.

He was the best Finals player on the 73-9 team though.

Regardless of how you feel he has the 2 Finals MVPs to his name

Steph fan here! What a wild ride it's been.

KD already won as the best player on Golden State and he's a 2x Finals MVP.

Do you also acknowledge that Iguodala (2015) & Jaylen Brown (2024) were clear-cut best players on their teams as well then?

Finals MVP isn't a good metric on whoever was the bus driver for a Championship team.

Doing it twice is

[benson13]

KD waa the best player on the court in the 17 and 18 finals. Even better than Bron

He was not. He only had the most freedom to score because defences focused on Curry and LeBron, the actual two best players in the series.

The Cavs were clearly much more worried about Curry than Durant. I mean, they only had LeBron on KD on about 55% of Golden State's possessions. Clearly Cleveland's best defensive player was spending more of his time focused on stopping Stephen Curry.

https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/2017/06/lebron_james_not_guarding_kevi.html

To the OP's question, no Kevin Durant will not win another NBA championship as a team's best player. It's possible, but I don't see an NBA team making the moves necessary to construct the team KD would need.

[cpower]

He's too old now.

He was the best Finals player on the 73-9 team though.

I would say he is the best Finals scorer, not only in these 2 finals but overall in NBA history. But best scorer does not make him best player but best scorer do make him FMVPs. Casual fans or medias could not tell the difference between the two and that's ok. Being a great scorer still make you an all time great

[dhsilv2]

lol people in their feelings saying Durant wasn’t the best player on GSW continues despite all the evidence and statistics to the contrary.

Is it because he embarrassed Lebron in those series? Regardless of how you feel he has the 2 Finals MVPs to his name

The stats are pretty clear it was Curry. You can certainly argue for KD based on things like his ability to stabilize the warriors or something. But you can't really make the case if you're rooting in it stats. unless you of course pick and choose metrics and focus on those with worse track records in predicting future results.