Hoops Tonight - Ranking the Top 5 Players in NBA: #3 Kevin Durant

Those were a ton of fun all around. It's by far the best sports gambling experience I've come into contact with. If you are new, just download the fandel sports Book app to get started now. Sign up with promo code Jason T so they know I sent you again. Promo code Jason T so they know I sent you twenty one plus in President Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana. Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia or

West Virginia. First online real money wager only, refund issued as non withdrawable site credit that expires in fourteen days.

Restrictions apply see terms at sports book dot fan duel dot com gambling problem call one eight hundred next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, in Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana.

One eight hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven, three six nine in New York. In tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee. Visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are

having a great week so far. Well in our top NBA players list, we have made it all the way to number three. I've had a great time doing this so far. I've done lists in the past, but I've never taken this type of painstaking time and detail to do it, and I've had so much fun doing so, getting into film, getting into numbers, reminiscing all of that

fun stuff. And you know, there's a lot of people piste off about people being too high or too low, even with the same players, which I suppose I'll take as a compliment. If I have you guys equally piss stoff both directions, I think that means that the list is at least okay to this point. The big one that all of you guys have been complaining about is Yokich down at number seven. Again. I tried to explain this. I value perimeter players more than I do bigs for

a bunch of different reasons. I don't need to lay that out again. It was in the video. The main thing I tell you guys, too, is what I told you way back at the beginning, before we even started this, we had twenty nine players that I considered for the top twenty five, and I can't remember exactly who the four that didn't make it was. I think it was Chris Paul, Trey Young, Brad Beale, and somebody else. I

can't remember who the fourth was. But the reality is is, like I told you, guys, the gap between twenty nine, let's call him, let's call him Trey Young. The gap between Trey Young and Jimmy Butler at number nine is not that big of a gap. In the gap between number seven Nicola Yokich and number two Steph Curry is not that big of gap. May seem like a huge number difference, but that has a lot more to do with the how just the sheer amount of talent in the league. Then it has to do with me trying

to diminish what Yoki is capable of. That was never the case. I'm a huge fan of Yoki's. To me, that's just a basketball philosophy thing, and me having him at seven has more to do with the players above him and how much respect I have for them than it does for me trying to lower him. That said, there's no version of this story where I could do a list like this and not piss some people off. It's just kind of part of the journey. Today we're gonna be doing number three. You guys know the drill

before we get started. Follow me on Twitter. I underscore Jason lt S. You guys, don't miss any show announcements. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more videos. And if for whatever reason, you miss one of these and you can't get back to YouTube to finish it, we do release them in audio form wherever

you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. So number three and this is the dead giveaway because you guys will know the rest of the list because you know, I have Janice at number one, but number three I have Kevin Durant. Now, Kevin Durant has been one of my favorite players forever. He's the player that I resonate with the most, even though Lebron James is my favorite player. Who's the one who got me to fall in love with the game of basketball. I grew up in a

football and baseball household. We didn't even have basketball on the TV. I happened to find Lebron James right around two thousand and six, and that's what got me to fall in love with the game of basketball and become the level of fan and nerd of the game that I am now. And obviously it led to me playing the game and getting my school paid for and getting a little bit of money professionally and things along those lines.

That's where it all originated. But since I've gotten you know this, into the game of basketball, particularly the NBA, Kevin Durant has been the player that I resonate with the most. You know why, because that dude loves basketball more than anything else in the entire world. Now, I would have to put it too, because I can't get in trouble with my wife that said basketball means everything

to me. Even in my pursuit of trying to do this for a living, I gave up a very good job that I had worked very hard to earn, like a good solid living that I could have worked for the rest of my life, and I got I'd left because I wanted to do this because I love this game so much and I wanted to be working in this game for as long as I can, as long as I'm alive on this earth. And I get that

same level of love. I won't even say that because I feel like that's disrespectful to k D. But Katie's love for basketball resonates with me, and that's and that's always going to be what draws me to him. And then the second thing is his authenticity, and like this is where all of you guys, I shouldn't say all of you guys, so many of you guys hate Kevin Durant or harbor hate for Kevin Durant. I think there's two reasons that drive that. One, you're really upset because

he went to the Warriors, which I get that. But the big thing that I pushed back on there is every single player that's playing in the NBA right now wants to play on a really at basketball team. They all do. The only ones who haven't left their teams are the ones that their current situation is actually really good and there probably isn't a better option for them out there. But guess what, when Lebron James went to Miami, he wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it was.

He wasn't expecting to have to scratch and claw in two thousand twelve and in two thousand thirteen, to win, to lose in two thousand eleven, in two thousand fourteen, he thought it was gonna be easy. Just watch his presser when he got to Miami. When he went to Cleveland, he didn't go there to go home. I mean sure that was part of it, But he went there because Kyrie Irving was there and he thought he could flip Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. That's why he went to Cleveland.

When he left Cleveland and went to l A, it was because he believed he could get at least Anthony Davis, and maybe Anthony Davis and Paul George or Kawhi Leonard. Everyone's following the basketball situation. Why does Kauai want to play with Paul George for a team like the Clippers that's extremely well run and has a ton of talent? Why is that we all know the case. Why do you think it was so important for Janice to try to pressure the Milwaukee front office to trade the house

for Drew Holiday so that he could have talent. Everybody wants to play with talent. Let's not pretend like that's a k D thing. That's not a k D thing. That's in everybody thing. And at his core, Kevin Duran just wants to play good basketball and he will try to pursue those sorts of things. That's the driving force behind this trade request right now. He doesn't like his basketball situation and so he's looking for something better. And so many people are so mad that he went to

Golden State. You know what I think he thought. I think he was like, Man, I'm here with Russell Westbrook and all of these role players, and the game is just hard for me right now. There's no spacing. Russ is a tough player to play with. Man, look at those guys in Golden State. They're moving around, They're playing beautiful basketball. I want to play beautiful basketball too. That's what I think drove it. I don't think it was

anything more complicated than that. And look, a lot of you are just gonna hate him for that forever, and I get that. I'm not going to make your decisions for you, but I'm just trying to explain that I think it's just a very human thing and that it's driven by a love for the game. And then, like I said earlier, his authenticity. Okay, So Kevin Durant talks to people on Twitter, so do a lot of you guys.

So because he has money or because he's very good at basketball, he's not allowed to do the thing that so many of you guys do. We all use social media in different ways. It doesn't make us more or less of a of a human being. It's just it's just our own personal experience with the tools that we have at our disposal. That's Kevin Durant being Kevin Durant. I don't know why so many people hate him for that.

It's it's it's genuinely confusing to me. And so now that we've got that out of the way, all of the non basketball, all of that stuff, and I can explain to you guys why I have always been a fan of Kevin Durant. Now we can get into the basketball. So, just like we did with all of the other yeos, we're gonna be doing strengths, weaknesses, biggest hopes, biggest fears, biggest what if. So in the regular season this year, Kevin Durant average thirty points on with seven rebounds and

six assists on sixty true shooting. That's outstanding. That's unbelievably good. In the postseason again, four games, four game sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics, which I thought was the best defense in the field last year, one of

the best defenses of all time. He averaged twenty six, six and six, and his true shooting percentage dropped all the way from sixty three to We are going to get further into that later in the show, because there is some There is some context there, and I do believe that those numbers are a little bit overplayed, But just in general, before we get into these strengths, I'm never going to completely change my opinion on a player over one playoff series, especially when they've got over a

decade of evidence. You know, so many of you guys complained yes or day when I had Lebron for so many of you complained, like he missed the playoffs last year, he doesn't won a playoff series in two years. You want to know why I don't care about that guy. That guy's the same reason why I didn't care when Steph missed the playoffs two years in a row. One of the consistent themes you're gonna pick up from me is that winning is the ultimate goal, but it is

a team accomplishment. I'm not interested in Kevin Durant versus Lebron James. I'm interested in the Brooklyn Nets versus the Los Angeles Lakers. I might take time to appreciate the individual matchup and all of the elements there, but the end result is a team achievement. That's why Steph Curry can miss the playoffs two years in a row and then win a championship unassailably with his best teammate being Andrew Wiggins because of the organ the organism of that

team and the way it came together. They changed the types of role players they had, the ones that were better fits Wiggins obviously, elevating Clay Thompson getting back and getting healthy, Draymond Green getting back and getting healthy. All of those things came together and the team was better, and then Steph was able to put them over the top into winning a championship. And Lebron James has had a bad season last year, and he had a couple of at a rough season health wise the year before.

If the Lakers can pull off a nice trade and have a good training camp and implement a good offense, they'll be right back in the mix. And the same

goes for Kevin Durant. You guys who all took a big old, all of you guys who put him down, all of you guys who put him down when he got swept by the Celtics, might find yourselves in a predicament if he gets traded to the Celtics and your team is facing him in a playoff series this year, and suddenly he's way better than all of your guys, And now all that ship you talked is irrelevant because

he's busting your ass on national television. That's why I'm always saying with these kinds of things, be careful with victory laps over one bad matchup or one bad week of basketball. That's one week of basketball. You're gonna rewrite Kevin Durant's entire career over one week of basketball. Come on, guys, like that, that's just that's ridiculous. All right, let's let's get into the strengths. So Katie's the best scorer alive and he's a top three score ever, I I'd probably

take MJ and Kobe over him. I'm not looking at that as a numbers thing. I'm looking at that as a skill set thing. Obviously numbers do matter there, but skill set matters as well. And there's a bunch of different Like there are a lot of like really dynamic scores in terms of production that don't really manifest um

in the type of versatility of skill set. For instance, Lebron and Steph are two of the most effective and efficient scores, ever, but Lebron does almost all of his damage at the rim, and Steph does almost all of his damage on the perimeter. So, like when I'm talking about scores, I value versatility. That's just my take on it. Steph fans, Lebron fans. If you guys think they're the

best scores, go nuts man. Tell everybody about that. Um So, Katie average one point set then restricted area makes per game this year again over the percentage threshold that I look for for a big wing, which is seventy. But his relatively low volume one point seven restricted area makes is pretty low. We'll get to that more when we get to his weaknesses. Two point six restricted excuse me, outside of the restricted area makes, but that are inside

the paint. That's really good. That's pretty close to what Luca does. This is where Katie's the best player in the world right now. Four point one mid range makes at fifty, there's just nobody in the league who's close. He's the best midrange shooter. It's him, and then a big gap and then everyone else. His numbers don't even make sense. Everyone else we look at it just doesn't. It's hard to even wrap our brains around, he's the

best midrange player in the league. Then he averaged two point one made threes this year at thirty eight percent. So not a brandon ingram DeMar de Rosen esque player who can thrive in the mid range but cannot score from the perimeter. He has the full three level effect. K He took six hundred and twenty nine pull up jumpers this year and made three hundred and seven of them.

That's a Katie pull up jumper resulted in one point zero seven points per possession, which would be a better offensive rating than the Blazers, the Pistons, the Magic and the Thunder this year. So literally, a Katie pull up jumper, which is like a rescue possession. Like a pull up

jumpers are generally considered an offensive player settling. So when Katie settles for a pull up jump shot, either in the middle of the clock or to save a possession at the end, he's more efficient there than entire NBA teams four of them. He was more efficient this year on pull up jumpers than Steph Curry. Albeit Steff had a really downshooting year, and I would expect him to flip the script on that this coming year because Steph is the best pull up jump shooter in the league.

Typically um very low volume on post ups. He's doing it right on twice a game, which is not enough to put him up with the more volumes post up players in the league. But he scores on fifty of him and gets one point one three points per possession, which is outstanding. So obviously, as he gets older and he can't move his feet as well, you'd like to see him kind of lean on that a little bit

more because he's a very good post player. He had two hundred eighty eight isolation possessions this year and scored a hundred and forty four times. So he scores on If you throw the ball to Kevin and say go to work in isolation, he's gonna score half the time. And that resulted in three sixteen points. Just Katie isolations would have had the twenty three best offensive rating in the league this year. Just he is the best scorer in basketball. It's it's crazy to me now what I

wanted to get into. There's two specific concepts as it pertains to Katie's scoring that I wanted to kind of dive a little bit deeper in here. And the first one is one that I did a video on. I can't remember what it was. I think it was back in March. I will retweet this out, So go to my Twitter page and scroll down and you'll see a retweet of this specific but I did a full video breakdown of the way that Katie works hard for easy shots.

So the biggest difference between Kobe Bryant and Katie, for instance, I talked about this yesterday with Lebron. But Kobe Bryant, I think is the best shot maker in the history of basketball. That's improvisational basketball, that's incredibly difficult shots where you can't even find a video of one that resembles that earlier in your career. Everyone's kind of unique. All

of them are ridiculous. All of them have a degree of difficulty that supersedes what you could even imagine a player attempting in a pickup game, let alone an NBA game. That's what Kobe did for that was that was his bread and butter. Kevin Durant, what I've always appreciated about him is he's got that stuff. He can make difficult shots. He is a very good shot maker, but he also puts in a lot of work to get easy shots in the flow of the offense to help supplement his efficiency.

He does this by moving without the basketball, which we've talked about a lot with Steph and we'll get way deeper into when we get to Steph here later in the list, but essentially keeping your defender engaged and taking advantage of little openings where your defender stops paying attention, you can get an easy shot moving without the basketball, fighting for position. Katie is very tall, right, so he can shoot over the top of defenders. So he doesn't

have to do that from ft. If he's fighting for position, to catch the ball at ten ft like the semi circle, and he can quick turn and shoot over the top. That's a much higher percentage shot. You don't do that by dribbling down to ten feet. You do that by giving the ball up, fighting for position and demanding the basketball and making a quick move. The thing in this video that I'm gonna tweet out to show you guys, the thing that he does best without the basketball is

setting his man up for screens. This is a concept I've never talked about on this show before, but it's a very nerdy basketball concept that we can spend a minute on here. But basically, you know, if you're defending a player who's coming off of screens, you do what's

called a lock and trail. So if I'm coming, if my man is gonna be coming this way off a screen in a straight line, and the screener is gonna be setting right here, and I'm coming this way off the screen, I want to position myself as the defender directly behind him so I can follow him over the screen. That's the best way if I stay close. That's what

they call locking and trailing. If you stay locked to his backside and you're trailing him around the screen, it's impossible to get screened because the screener would have to somehow jam his way in between the two of you as you're passing by. Really good lock and trail defenders will stay attached to shooters and force them to curl over the top of the screen typically or deny the basketball entirely. What Katie does extremely well is setting up

his man for a screen. So let's say he's in the left corner and the balls at the top of the key, and he wants to come off of a pin down to catch the ball around eighteen feet and to shoot a jump shot off the catch. What he will do is he will work his man down from the corner all the way to the block. Now, because Katie does fight for position often over the course of the game post up position, the defender will typically have to fight his way to stay behind Katie between Katie

in the basket. If he doesn't, then he's just cutting right to the rim. You're throwing a lob and he's catching that thing and he's dunking it. So he fights his way down to the block. Now the defender can't get into trail position. He has to get into post defense position to protect Katie from getting all the way to the rip. Now instead of being behind his line off the screen, he's on the side of that line.

Then what he'll do is he'll wait for the defender to get set in his screen, and when he's ready to go, he'll just give him a little shove, just a little shove that won't get an offensive foul. And now not only is the defender out of position because he's not in lock and trail position, now, he's also a step behind because Katie pushed him a little bit. He'll come flying off that screen he'll catch at eighteen feet, He'll be wide open, and he's gonna make that shot

damn near two thirds of the time. And that's one of the things I've always appreciated about k D. That's not a highlight play, that's not gonna show up in a hoop mixtape, but that's a damn that's a very

reliable two points. And he did it by doing something that kind of is overlooked a lot in basketball development, and it's learning how to use screens properly and make it so that the pin down screen that you're trying to use is effective, rather than the defender getting into lock and trail position and all of a sudden, you're not open. You know. I I tweeted about this a couple of days ago as it pertained to Katie compared

to some of his other scores. Like one of the scores that everyone throws out as a competitor to Katie all time is James Harden, And he has some statistical stretches of basketball. You know, we're talking, yeah, ten twenty games at a time where the averages forty plus points, Like that's insane, right, statistically, Yeah, Hardens in those conversations But one of the big reasons why I've appreciated the Katie archetype over the Heart and archetype is scoring in

the flow. James Harden will bring the ball up the floor and dribble twenty times to get to whatever offensive move he wants to get to. Katie will almost never do that. There is a predictability to his offense. Everything he does is quick. It's a quick decision, and he's efficient with his time and with his ball handling. Why does that matter? If you're the teammate of a score and he's dribbling the air out of the basketball, it disrupts your rhythm and it makes it difficult for you

to know what to do. But if your scorer that you're playing with makes quick decisions, doesn't over dribble the basketball. If he has an opening, he takes it. If he doesn't, he moves it and tries to get the ball back somewhere else on the floor. That sort of thing keeps things in motion. Now you're not standing and watching the whole time. Katie's gonna make a move and he's gonna shoot. If he doesn't, he'll move the ball and you'll be moving again. And that might happen to three times in

one shot clock before somebody ends up scoring. The offense stays in a flow. The only the only time I've ever seen Katie disrupt flow is a little bit with the Golden State Warriors in two thousand eighteen. But that's literally because the Golden State wars are the most motion heavy offense that we have in this league right now. So even normal flowing offense looks slow compared to what Golden State typically does. But that predictability to help his

teammates the quick decisions, so that people know where. People can become more anticipatory and reactive if they can react to what Kevin Durant's doing. All of that amounts to

scoring in the flow of the offense. That's what allows Kevin Durant to average thirty points a game for a season without it appearing like he's hogging the basketball, without it appearing like he's gunning as a score even though his field goal attempts are up there, even though his efficiency in scoring is up there, It manifests in a way that doesn't disrupt the team. That's why, you know, one of the most common things that was said after

Katie went to Golden states. You hear things like, you know, Katie's the best plug in play superstar in the league. That's probably true. You can plug Katie into any defensive system and he's gonna be productive. And you can plug him into any offensive system and he's gonna be productive. Whereas some of the guys like Staff and Lebron and Luca, their play styles are so unique and so different from what other players in the league do that you kind of have to cater the offense around what they do.

Doesn't diminish what they do because those Lebron and Steph for two of the top six players of all time to the top six to ten players of all time depending on who you ask, right, So I'm not diminishing them at all. It's just a different archetype of player. Katie is a very plug in play style. The last thing I wanted to say about Katie's offensive you know, scoring ability, skill set and stuff is this is where

his love of the game manifests. We talked earlier in the show about Katie's love for the game, how that resonates with me. His love for the game is what gives him the patients and the you know, the willingness to spend endless hours in the gym tightening up these things. You know, Kate. One of the things that Katie always talks about is doing reps at game speed. This is something I talked about all the time with young players.

If you're were gonna pull up jump shooting and you're doing it at a slow pace, and then you get into the game and the pace picks up, you're gonna miss your pull up jump shots. It's just a fact. You need to practice at a pace that mimics what the game does, because if you don't, you will have an adjustment period in the game that will cause you to have problems and you'll have a lot of bad

shooting nuts. It's hard in an empty gym to come flying off a screen like you're in an NBA game and rise up and shoot not just once, but maybe a hundred and fifty times over the course of a good half hour hour session. That's not easy to do. It takes love for the game. It takes a passion and a willingness to put in that kind of work to do that. And and I've always thought that that's

the coolest part of the Katie dynamic. He's what would happen if the ultimate love for the game of basketball met with the ultimate set of natural abilities, And that's kind of what it's manifested as So Katie isn't above average playmaker, which is good compared a lot of the wings around the league that can struggle with that. Specifically, this is something that really came on in the late half of his career. We talked about this earlier when

we were talking about brandon ingram. In the first eight seasons of his career, he only broke five assists once. In the last six seasons of his career, he broke five assists five times. And he's starting to get the higher level reads, which we've broken down many times in other videos in this series, so I won't go into it again. He did have a rough series against the Celtics as a playmaker. We will get in. I think

he had twenty five assists and twenty one turnovers. We'll get a little bit further into that when we get into the weaknesses specifically as a passer. The thing that's impressed me the most with Kevin Durant lately is his ability to navigate traps. So, like we talked about earlier, Kevin Durant is outstanding at navigating screens. That goes double

for ball screens. So he does the same thing in a ball screen situation, using the dribble to get the defender on his side so that he can bait him into running into the ball screen and get separation as he comes off. Okay. Obviously, is a very good pull up jump shooter like we talked about earlier. That can be problematic for defenses and pick and roll scenarios, so the big has to come up and in many cases they just straight up trap and it or it'll be

like a trap. When the the wing is chasing Kevin Durant over the screen and the big has to be up at the level of the screen, it's effectively a trap. And Kevin Durant's size is what allows him to navigate traps so well. There's a lot of guards like Steph Curry, for instance, has struggled with turnovers in his career navigating traps. Even though he is good at navigating traps, turnovers manifest

because of his lack of size. Kevin Durant is ridiculously good at navigating traps because he's so tall he can just reach over the top and drop it off to the big man slipping to the basket. He's also gotten really good at kind of starting high, getting defenders to come high, and then throwing a bounced pass into the pocket. His ability to navigate traps has made the Kevin Durant

pick and roll a very deadly action. Um Kevin Durant has ridiculous physical tools like He's basically is like Anthony Davis on the defensive end in terms of what his frame and mobility can accomplish. What this means is that even though he's been in his career a pretty subpar defensive effort guy, he still has above average defensive impact even though he doesn't really give that much effort on the defensive end of the floor consistently in his career.

Testament to just a ridiculous set of physical uh tools that he has, rim protection has been the most impactful defensive thing that he can do. This manifested a lot in two thousand seventeen when he was in Golden State and the year prior in two thousand sixteen in Oklahoma City, when Kevin Durin's on the back line and he's helping around the rim and he's actually dialed in and really trying.

He can be Anthony Davis esk with his ability to affect shots around the rim Alright, moving on to his weaknesses. So Katie's thin, so he's mildly susceptible to physical defense. Usually this manifest is like a bad game rather than a bad series. So think like p J. Tucker and the Bucks two years ago, where it's like a couple of the games in that series, PJ really bothered him

with his physicality. But then it's not like it was something he couldn't figure out, because then he'd like pe a on fire the next game, right, and still came this close to stealing that series. But it has affected him and he has had some bad series over the years.

He had a really bad one against the Memphis Grizzlies almost a decade ago, struggled with his efficiency towards the end of that two thousand and sixteen collapse against Golden State, and then this year against Boston he struggled a lot against their relentless physicality. That's just something that's going to

happen with his with how fain he is. But his physical tools also manifest manifest in other positive ways, like His height and wingspan is what allows him to be so deadly, pulling up and shooting over the top of defenders that simply can't bother him with the contest um. This is probably the Kevin One of Kevin Durant's biggest

weaknesses that we don't talk about enough. He doesn't apply much rim pressure, so, like we talked about earlier, he only finishes one point seven restricted area makes per game. Jan and Lebron are getting about five additional makes in the restricted area than Kevin Durant in every single game. Like we talked about in the Lebron video, there's a ton of positive impa act that comes from rim pressure.

I won't go into those things again because I just broke them down in the last video, But in the Lebron video, if you watch, you'll see me talk about rim pressure. Rim pressure has a bunch of cascading positive effects on an offense a lot of times that don't even manifest on the box score. In the box score for the player who's applying the rim pressure, So I think that's another side effective. How thin he is, He's just not the type of player that is physically imposing

going to the basket. Time and time again, it's a little bit easier for teams to handle him in that specific way. UM inconsistent defensive effort. I've talked about this before, but like you know, Kevin Durant, with his set of physical tools, could be a perennial all defense guy. He just hasn't never He hasn't really consistently cared enough in that specific area to have consistent impact there. We will get deeper into that when we get into the biggest

what if of his career. UM his playmaking deficiencies. And I'm not talking deficiencies relative to the rest the league, because I do believe that Kevin Duranson above average playmaker, but he does have some playmaking deficiencies compared to Luca and Lebron and Nicola Yokitch and some of the other guys that are at the top of the league. It's typically not a problem, but it did become a problem

in this Celtics series when is jumper stopped falling. So, like we talked about earlier, during the regular season, he was about fifty on pull up jump shots I think on huge volume. That went way down against Boston. His pull up jumper left him pretty much in that series, and even Kevin Duran himself was perplexed by it. He didn't even necessarily have an answer for why things were

going that way. I would argue what typically happens in a series like that that that is that grueling physically, it tends to wear on legs and pull up jump shooting has a lot to do with lift um. Your ability to get lift is what allows you to get separation from the defender and to have the the amount of legs in the shot to where you're not out of control with your wrist when you're flicking the shot forward.

I think it was a combination of that physicality and defensive pressure from Boston that just caused Kevin Durant to lose his legs a little bit and it caused his jump shot uh to leave him. You know, that series was interesting because, like I talked about, there's so much focus on Kevin Durant and Kyrie struggles, and they did struggle.

They they'll be the first to tell you that. But the reality is is that team in that series managed about nine seven points per one half court possessions against Boston, which is better than any other team did against Boston. They did lose that series on the defensive end of the floor, and they did lose that series in the margins. However, what I will say though, is seven points per half court possession is significantly below what they were getting in

the regular season. Brooklyn is not a team that's gonna beat you in a grindout series. There a team that's typically going to have a really high powered offense and kind of outscore you in a lot of different ways. So when Kevin Durant's pull up jumper started to fail him, he wasn't able to make the high advance like the highly advanced reads that you see from the Lucas and the Lebrons and the Yes of the world that disswaded defenses from being as aggressive sending attention to Kevin Durant.

He could have loosened things up on himself and made it a little bit easier for him to get separation. But at the end of the day, if I'm Kevin Durant, what I'm looking at that situation like is give me that same series again. I'm gonna make those shots this time and will be in better shape. And he's not wrong. But in the Celtics series, when his jumper failed him.

His playmaking was not there to to fill that gap, and he had damn near as many turnovers as assists, and that's not good enough when you're considered one of the best players in the world. Again, bad series. I'm not going to rewrite Kevin Durant's basketball career over one week of basketball, but we also have to acknowledge that bad week of basketball, and then last weakness for Kevin Durant his health. He's averaged only thirty games played per

season over the last three seasons. Now it remains to be if those were blips or trends, and we're going to find out over the course of the next couple of seasons. But just like I helpd Kauai down on the list because of his available availability, I would argue Lebron's down on this list because of availability. These are real things. Joel Embid's availability is an issue. We're factoring that in and these discussions. And Kevin Durant on any given night might be the best player in the world.

But one of the big reasons why I'm not going to include him in that discussion. I don't think any players in that discussion other than you honest this year. But the reason why he's not firmly in that discussion is I'm not sure you can count on Katie to be available, and some of that age, some of that, some of his injury history, some of it might be flukey, and we're going to find out over the course of

the next couple of years. Biggest hopes. You know, I I defend k D so much in large part because of all of the negative energy sent his way. It's kind of like me trying to balance that out little bit, you know what I mean. I want Katie to win a championship as the undisputed best player on a team, just to kill all these stupid as narratives, because regardless of how you feel about Katie and look, I think

Lebron and Steph were better in this decade. For the record, even as a big Katie fan as myself, I think Lebron and Steph were better. I also think Katie is almost underrated at this point because of Lebron and Steph fans and their insistence I'm trying to diminish every accomplishment he's had in his career, and I hate that. I hate that for him, and so I hope he gets that title just so he can throw all of you guys the big middle finger, the ones that have been

really disrespectful to him. And over the course of his career. You're right, he went to the best team in the league in two thousand seventeen and he won two titles that were easier than a lot of the titles in NBA history. That's a fact. Here's the other fact that doesn't diminish how damn good he is at the game of basketball. Like, like, all those strengths that I laid out, those aren't team results things. Those are just basketball skills.

What he does with the basketball is undeniable, and we use team results and whatever our neuroses are to try to diminish that, and I don't necessarily think that's fair. And then the last I hope he gets that championship just to kind of kill that narrative. And then secondly, I hope he finds a good, consistent basketball situation to

finish his career. I think he left Golden State, like we've talked about a lot in the past, because he wanted to kind of be up that wanted to kind of build his own thing rather than be a part of something else, and obviously that backfired in Brooklyn, but I I do want that for him, and I hope that whether that's Boston or whether that's somewhere else, And I don't think he cares anymore who originated the situation.

I just want Katie to find a good basketball situation where he can be happy, and he could stay there for the next five years and finishes, uh excuse me, finish his career in peace, playing the game of basketball.

Biggest fears, My biggest fear of Katie kind of piggybacking off of what happened in the Biggest Hopes segment is that his titles in Golden State end up being his only titles, because if that happens, I think there you know, there will be honest people who have honest conversations about Katie's career, but there's gonna be a loud group of idiots, a very loud group that are going to cling to that narrative that Katie's a loser who piggybacked off of

the Warriors for two titles. And I'm scared for his sake that if things don't break right for him over the course of the next few years that that becomes the narrative. And you know, we talked about this earlier in the show, so I won't go too much longer on it. But the truth of the matter is is so many things have to go right for you to win a championship. When I look through every championship in recent memory, there's good luck along the way. It's just

part of the deal. Steph one in two thousand fifteen, in large part because of a lot of injury luck along the way, including the second and third best players in the Cleveland Cavaliers getting hurt. The Calves one in two thousand sixteen, in large part because Steph Curry was playing on a bad minisket on a torn partially torn m c L or spraying m c L, whatever it was, and Andrew Boget was hurt and Draymond Green got suspended.

There was advantages there, and then the stroke of luck with the c b A that the Warriors were able to sign Kevin Durant will help them win in two thousand seventeen. In two thousand eighteen, Chris Paul's hamstring. You know, in two thousand nineteen, Kevin Durant gets hurt. Clay Thompson gets hurt in two thousand twenty, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are at home on their couches. Like guys, it takes so many things going your way to win a championship.

You need to have a good roster that comes together, which typically requires a combination of competence and luck. You need health, You need guys to stay healthy over the course of the season. You need to catch the right matchups. And then there's even shot results stuff. You don't think the Rockets are sitting there going like man, if we don't make miss three in a row, we win the title in two thousand eighteen. You don't think the Warriors

go man. If Katie and or excuse me, if Stephen and Clay didn't go so ice cold in two thousands sixteen, we'd have the greatest team of all time, seventy three wins in a championship. Shot result is a big thing. Kyrie Irving stepping back over Steph Curry. That's not a hundred percent shot it went in, but there's roughly a coin flip or better chance that it doesn't go in.

You need to get lucky, and so my my, my fear is is that that luck doesn't manifest for Kadi over the course of these Latin this last portion of his career, and then people run with the story and that's really unfortunate. But the winner does get to tell the story, and so I hope for Katie's steak that he gets a win so that he can tell that story all right. Lastly, biggest one if of Katie's career. So a lot of people are gonna say the two

thousand and sixteen Western Conference Finals. I agree there. Obviously, if he shoots better and if Russell Westbrook doesn't implode the way he did in Game six, they win that series. They have a very good chance to beating the Calves in the two thousand sixteen finals, although I view that is more of a coin flip, and if regardless of what happens there, he's not leaving the Thunder in all likelihood.

If he makes it to the finals that year, that could completely change the trajectory of the second half of his career. And then the big one for me, embracing defense. You know, all of the best players of all time, even if they were reluctant to do so earlier in their careers, became consistent year in and year out devoted defensive players, even just in the league right now, if we go from the top of the league, it's like Janice is I think the best defensive player in all

of basketball. Lebron James had a horrible deef ends of season last year, but every one of his four championships he was an outstanding defensive player. Steph Curry, although he lacks the physical tools to be an impact defensive player, has maximized his defensive skill set by his defensive impact by putting as much time and effort and focus into that side of the floor to at least make it so he's no longer negative and now he's actually a

slight positive on the defensive end of the floor. And we can go on and on and on, but most of the all time great players have made that commitment to the defensive end of the four. Katie did for about two years, did in two thousands sixteen, and did it, and he did it in two thousand and seventeen, and then in the big playoff games. He will turn it

on from time to time. And when he does so, it's frightening because like I said before, he has something that he has the same set of physical tools defensively that a guy like Anthony Davis has. But the reality is is that for the most part in his career,

he's left a lot to be desired there. And one of my long staining theories is that if k d had embraced that earlier in his career and done consistently, I think he would have been the goat because the team results would have followed, and he's so damn good offensively that that would have just been the one last trump card with his physical tools to put his leanning impact over that threshold to the point where nobody would have would have been able to do anything with the guy.

Kind of like what you're watching with honest right now, Janice is this unstoppable offensive force, and he's the best defensive player in basketball. Katie would have been a top two or three defensive player in all of basketball every year if he tried, and if that was the case in combination with what he does offensively, I do believe you would have had a more impactful basketball career. I think he would have been, like I said, the best basketball player to ever play the game. It is what

it is. Players are who they are and Katie has had a monstrously successful career in spite of that, but it's just been one of my long standing theories with Katie, like I do believe that his offensive talent in conjunction with his defensive capability is that of the greatest basketball player that I've seen. The volume