Jerry West vs Kevin Durant

[Matt15]

Who has the better peak? Prime? Who ranks higher on your all-time list?

[eminence]

I’ll go KD at this point. Close comp though.

Longevity about equal, both fairly versatile, very good, neither top of the league guys, KD in the stronger era, but probably more worries for team building purposes.

[Elpolo_14]

I take KD. Sub-Goat tier Scoring and serviable playmaking with a touch of great secondary or primary defender. All time Scalability to teammates and able to be portable with his Scoring arsenal and interior defense.

He might have some wankie floor situation without another great ball handler but overall he a player I put in high regard.

[Dr Positivity]

West is simply a much better leader than Durant, and has higher bball IQ controllingl the game. Durant's main saving grace on ATL is his longevity is really good.

[tsherkin]

I like KD here by a small margin.

[70sFan]

Still West, just an all-around better basketball player with better postseason career than Durant.

[penbeast0]

West in the regular season might be a bit behind Durant due to injury issues (Durant has similar missed games but it's much more common now). Durant also has an advantage in positional size which is significant. However, West's postseason heroics probably elevate him over Durant even before taking personality and leadership into account.

[One_and_Done]

KD, and it's not even close.

[Cavsfansince84]

I got Jerry at about 13 and KD at more like 20-21. I don't think KD proved enough outside of the GS years to be top 15 and I don't think he's even reached a conf final since he turned 30. His whole post 30 career seems to be 'if he hadn't had his foot on the line'.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

In an era-relative context, I would take West. The first thing you think of for both players is the scoring - not just volume, but efficiency - and Durant is one of the few players of his era that can match up with West in terms of relative TS on similar volume. But the issue is that I don't think Durant did anything else at a particularly high level, whereas West was lauded by his peers as one of the greatest perimeter defenders of his generation, and I think he was also a superior playmaker to Durant, given particularly later in his career he was averaging 7-9apg for four seasons in a row, and sustained it in the playoffs, leading all post-season players in apg in 1970(8.4), 1972(8.9), and 1973(7.8), all long playoff runs that saw his team go the finals.

And this doesn't mention the intangible stuff like leadership, as mentioned in a previous post.

[Gibson22]

There's no argument for KD, Its west by a considerable margin. KD may be a slightly better scorer and can provide some better fit/matchup problems in certain contests but West is a significantly to enormously better defender and he's also an overall more impactful offensive player because of playmaking, motor, things like that. Factor in the playoffs heroics and probably leadership, and I guess also KD doesn't have an era relative longevity advantage and I don't see why KD would be particularly close to West. I think that ship has sailed as far as what the consensus is about Robertson and West, but in my mind its quite clear they are both top 11 players ever at worst.

[GeorgeMarcus]

I like West here due to his impact as a floor general and defender. Without checking the numbers, I imagine relative scoring efficiency is pretty closer between the 2. KD would need a significant edge there for me to reconsider

[70sFan]

KD, and it's not even close.

Well, you are in the minority, so maybe it is close after all.

[tsherkin]

I like West here due to his impact as a floor general and defender. Without checking the numbers, I imagine relative scoring efficiency is pretty closer between the 2. KD would need a significant edge there for me to reconsider

Adding to this. West is a career 112 TS+ guy, topping out from 64-66 (116, 120, 118) and in 68 (119).

Durant is a career 113 TS+ guy, with his best stretch from 2012-2018 (116, 121, 117, 118, 117, 118), and then also his partial season in 2021 (117). He was even at 116 in 2023 (again, partial season).

Fairly similar. Better individual peak from KD, but like, 0.5% difference in rTS, give or take. Longer stretch of dominant efficiency from Durant, too.

But not a huge gap, looking at things era-relative.

[One_and_Done]

KD, and it's not even close.

Well, you are in the minority, so maybe it is close after all.

Not a chance. In today's game West wouldn't be a star at all.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

i thought more people would say kd lol

[falcolombardi]

My view is that durant is a better player but jerry was better at his time/league. So you could answer this either way depending how you weight stuff

[capfan33]

Era-relative West comfortably, in absolute terms KD by a mile.

[penbeast0]

Two of the great shooters of all time, roughly equal relative to era. Durant has better durability and positional length, again relative to era. West was an outstanding defender, Durant above average. West got more assists but that's positional, Durant more rebounds though less than one would think from his size. The other big difference is leadership where West is one of the more respected and highest BBIQ players ever while Durant has been a bit of an insecure person.

[Cavsfansince84]

Two of the great shooters of all time, roughly equal relative to era. Durant has better durability and positional length, again relative to era. West was an outstanding defender, Durant above average. West got more assists but that's positional, Durant more rebounds though less than one would think from his size. The other big difference is leadership where West is one of the more respected and highest BBIQ players ever while Durant has been a bit of an insecure person.

I'd also noting that West was basically an A+ to b playoff performer while KD is more like b- or c(obviously depending on the individual playoff run). Durability also seems more like a push to me or even favors West given that he was playing 39-41 mpg throughout his prime and KD has only played in 60+ games twice since 2019.