Around the League: 2020 Offseason

[Kobblehead]

% assisted inside the arc:
Kobe Bryant: 35.6%
Dwyane Wade: 32.7%
LeBron James: 34.6%
Kevin Durant: 49.1%

Durant sticks out like a sore thumb when you stack him up to other GOAT-tier players.

[stormi]

Doesn't have to work nearly as hard to get similar or greater output. Goat.

Also in another league shooting wise compared to the other 3.

[sixers4real]

Why do people think KD is in a GOAT tier? That's crazy. He hasn't even ONCE in his career consistently scored buckets off the dribble and been a dominant iso scorer. He's an elite shooter that can attack closeouts better than most, that just happens to have freak height and freak length. Average at best athleticism. Average at best shotcreation ability. Average at best passer. Weak defensively outside of recovery and help blocks.

Luka Doncic is on another planet than KD. So is Harden. KD is overrated as hell. Just an elite shooting, elitely efficient assisted scorer with freaky measurements.

You’re just way too focused on whether a player fits in this box you have decided is what a player should be rather than how good they are.

I swear we are like a post away from you saying you’d rather have Colin Sexton over prime Shaq.

I'll take Brandon Ingram over Kevin Durant as a #1 option. Far better scorer. Far more talented.

Kobble, are you drunk? If you wouldn’t be a Sixers fan, I would that as a sig

[Kobblehead]

Doesn't have to work nearly as hard to get similar or greater output. Goat.

Also in another league shooting wise compared to the other 3.

"Doesn't have to work as hard" sounds like a convenient way to spin the possibility that he simply can't cook.

Okay, so those guys can't shoot. What about Pelicans iteration of Brandon Ingram? He can shoot just as good as Durant. He doesn't have to work nearly as hard. He doesn't need that excuse though because he can actually cook (unlike Durant).

Kevin Durant: 1.9 threes made per game at 38.2%, 49.1% assisted inside the arc
Brandon Ingram: 2.4 threes made per game at 38.5%, 32.2% assisted inside the arc

Numbers don't lie, man. Durant's perception as an elite offensive player or a GOAT tier baller is a fabrication. He don't stack up because he can't create.

[sixers4real]

Luka is the literal GOAT.

Why? What exactly has he already achieved in the NBA to call him that? Won 2 playoff games?

[Sixerscan]

% assisted inside the arc:
Kobe Bryant: 35.6%
Dwyane Wade: 32.7%
LeBron James: 34.6%
Kevin Durant: 49.1%

Durant sticks out like a sore thumb when you stack him up to other GOAT-tier players.

And Durant also has the highest career PPG and the highest career ts% of those 4 both in the regular season and the playoffs. His last playoff run was 32.3 PPG on 66 TS. And that includes him leaving 2 games early due to injury.

And for the record, Michael Jordan was assisted on 50% of his 2s in 97 and 98 (the only two bulls years that were tracked).

A rational person might look at that and think to themselves that maybe entirely evaluating basketball players based on a random statistic that you clearly just cherrypicked because you thought it was a good proxy for what you already thought was most important is a bad idea.

[Philly2good]

Lay off the meth Kobblehead....

[DCasey91]

As the player Durant is probably my favorite ever.

Offensively he isn’t goat tier (top 5 all time)
His handle/passing/facilitating is behind always will be.

But for scoring and scoring alone he’s definitely goat tier. And lol at the assisted vs unassisted % just dump it to Durant anywhere in the half court there’s the primary teams output in the one go lmfao.

He’s easily the best scorer right now even with an Achilles injury not close at all. (Lebron jumper, Doncic isnt 7ft too young, lol at Giannis, lol at Lillard/Curry/Harden etc.)

Pure offense though Lebron (Goat game manager) ahead but that’s about it. (Curry/Harden is in the equation one team though is about as offensively gifted as you’re going to get with GSW.)

[HardenToSixers]

You’re just way too focused on whether a player fits in this box you have decided is what a player should be rather than how good they are.

I swear we are like a post away from you saying you’d rather have Colin Sexton over prime Shaq.

I'll take Brandon Ingram over Kevin Durant as a #1 option. Far better scorer. Far more talented.

I respect you too much to do it, but take this down, before someone makes this their Sig.

I love the implication that you don’t respect Fischella

[VDT]

% assisted inside the arc:
Kobe Bryant: 35.6%
Dwyane Wade: 32.7%
LeBron James: 34.6%
Kevin Durant: 49.1%

Durant sticks out like a sore thumb when you stack him up to other GOAT-tier players.

This has more to do with how inflated assists numbers are and the fact that Wade, Kobe and Lebron are/were ballhanlders. I dont think the percentage of the meaningfully assisted shots are anything close to that for Durant.

[LloydFree]

I'll take Brandon Ingram over Kevin Durant as a #1 option. Far better scorer. Far more talented.

I respect you too much to do it, but take this down, before someone makes this their Sig.

I love the implication that you don’t respect Fischella

No comment

[Kobblehead]

just dump it to Durant anywhere in the half court

That's my point.

You need to dump it to him or feed him field goal attempts because he doesn't have the handle or scoring package moves to go on the ball and generate his own shots off the dribble. He's not a shotcreater. Numbers don't lie. Durant is a heavily assisted scorer, how can he be the GOAT? GOAT tier scorers create their own shots.

[Kobblehead]

How is this even a hot take? I thought everyone realized Durant is not really a good on-ball scorer. Even his own coaches put the ball in the hands of other players and not him.

My actual hot take is that Andre Drummond is the best defensive C of all-time.

This Durant take should be widely accepted as conventional wisdom, IMO.

[Stanford]

honestly I'd rather have Grant Riller with the ball in the half court than Durant

[Kobblehead]

The key to identifying an actual GOAT-tier scorer is when you spot the perfect marriage of highly unassisted players with high scoring efficiency. That's how you know you got an iron chef in the building.

[Stanford]

That's how you know you got an iron chef in the building.

Big difference between Morimoto and Bobby Flay

[Kobblehead]

You mean Bobby Slay...

[Sixerscan]

How is this even a hot take? I thought everyone realized Durant is not really a good on-ball scorer. Even his own coaches put the ball in the hands of other players and not him.

My actual hot take is that Andre Drummond is the best defensive C of all-time.

This Durant take should be widely accepted as conventional wisdom, IMO.

Watch on YouTube

Quit while you are behind.

Yes, of course you think that about Drummond, because much like this, you just base your opinions about defense entirely on very basic statistics like defensive rebound rate and block and steal rate and so on. Those are helpful indicators to some extent but anyone with any understanding of basketball or analytics at all would tell you that is a terrible oversimplification.

[Sixerscan]

honestly I'd rather have Grant Riller with the ball in the half court than Durant

Grant Riller the (Du)rant Griller

[HardenToSixers]

How is this even a hot take? I thought everyone realized Durant is not really a good on-ball scorer. Even his own coaches put the ball in the hands of other players and not him.

My actual hot take is that Andre Drummond is the best defensive C of all-time.

This Durant take should be widely accepted as conventional wisdom, IMO.

I think you’re oversimplifying this. It would be one thing if you were using this argument for a post player who needs the ball fed to him and is therefore rendered less effective in critical moments. But it’s not like it’s some kind of supremely prohibitive thing to get the ball to KD to score when you need a bucket, regardless of if he is initiating the whole play or not.