Michael Pina has a BA in English with a concentration in Journalism from the University of Delaware. He is currently living in his hometown of Boston.
How good can Kevin Durant be? I’ve asked myself this unanswerable question several times over the past two or three years and the answer, unfortunately, is obviously still unavailable. Durant is still just 20-years-old and when respected basketball writer Sam Smith reported that while he was in Las Vegas watching some summer league exhibition games, he overheard a few general managers and team executives whispering a near blasphemous statement. Kevin Durant might be on his way to dethroning King James as the face of professional basketball.
20 years from now, Kevin Durant could be viewed as having a more impressive career than Lebron James. This statement isn’t quite as outrageous as it sounds, but it’s nearly there.
While Lebron might be the best player in the league, Durant will be the most intriguing and talked about.
When comparing their respective performances at such a young age, James led the league in minutes played while scoring over 2,000 points. That’s pretty incredible. Durant did however finish fifth in the league in points while averaging over 25 a game so comparing them at such a young age seems pointless. Both are great now and both will be great in the future.
But how great will Durant be? He’s a better shooter than Lebron right now and in a few years will be the best scorer in the league, but what about defensively? If he can use his freakishly long arms to his advantage like Tayshaun Prince has done for the past 10 years in Detroit, then things could get interesting.
His game seems most suited for the long haul of a double-digit year NBA career. He can shoot from nearly anywhere on the court and they’re rarely forced.
Normally, when a player was drafted out of either college, another country’s club team or high school a question is asked about whether or not they can succeed in the NBA. Will they be a dud, a role player, an all-star. With Kevin Durant that question was never posed; instead replaced by, how great can he truly be? Can this player with his prototypical body and work ethic be one of the greatest basketball players of the next ten years? Does he have a legitimate ceiling or will he merely lead the league in scoring and become the youngest ever to score 10,000 points.
Like I said earlier, nobody can answer these questions yet and nobody can reasonably predict how great Durant will end up being. My personal opinion is that in his two seasons running the Oklahoma City Thunder, Sam Presti has already compiled a legitimately exciting and promising roster around the 20-year-old superstar.
Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic have all been acquired and can be used to either round out a talented supporting cast or serve use as young, valuable trading chips.
With the Lakers, Spurs, Suns and Mavericks all having franchise players who are aging and soon to be retired, the future in the West (besides Portland now that they’ve locked up Brandon Roy) looks to be controlled by Kevin Durant.
