Is Kevin Durant Still The Second Best Player in the World?

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For years now there has been no ambiguity over who was the best player in the world. LeBron James has earned that distinction, whether it be through his historic numbers in both the regular season and the playoffs, his 4 MVPs, or his ability to seemingly make any team around him into a contender. Even as he approaches the end of his prime, LeBron James doesn’t seem to relinquish his reign atop the NBA.

Up until this past season, there was a general consensus in the NBA community that Kevin Durant had firmly established himself as the league’s unequivocal Number Two. In fact, it was so generally agreed that Kevin Durant was the second best player that he expressed his frustrations of being second in a Sports Illustrated interview. After an MVP season in 2014, where he averaged 32 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists, it seemed as if Kevin Durant was finally closing the gap between him and LeBron James.

Unfortunately a series of foot injuries and surgeries have us questioning whether he’ll return to the elite level of play, which made him the unquestionable the second best player in the world. After all, foot injuries have wavering results. Michael Jordan had one of the greatest careers of all time after a foot injury in his second season. On the other hand, foot injuries derailed what was an otherwise promising career for Yao Ming.

In Kevin Durant’s absence last year several players stepped up their game threatening to wrestle away KD’s position as second best. The reigning MVP Stephen Curry had a spectacular season. He lead a historically great Golden State team by breaking his own record for 3s made in a season and being only the second player ever to average 23.5 points, 7.5 assists, 2 steals, and a true shooting percentage above 60.

James Harden, the runner up, led the league in win shares and points. Kevin Durant’s teammate, Russell Westbrook, put on his best Oscar Robertson impression by putting up 11 triple doubles.

Finally there’s Anthony Davis, who had the highest PER of any player not named LeBron James, Michael Jordan, or Wilt Chamberlain. However, have any of these players done enough to take away the title of second best player from Kevin Durant?

Stephen Curry, the current league MVP, might be closer than you think. Although Stephen Curry lacks Kevin Durant’s offensive arsenal, Curry’s scoring prowess is quite impressive in its own right.

According to Basketball Reference, Curry averaged 35.5 points per 100 possessions last season, very close to Kevin Durant’s career mark of 36.7. Curry’s career offensive rating of 115 is only slightly less than Durant’s career offensive rating of 116. Curry, however, is a far superior passeraveraging 9.8 assists per 100 possessions for his career, more than double Kevin Durant’s mark of 4.7.

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In regards to shooting, Kevin Durant’s remarkable two-point efficiency of 56.5% is over 7 percent higher than Curry. Likewise, Curry can say the same thing about his three point shooting.

Kevin Durant is, of course, a much bigger threat around the rim and in the mid-range area, which combined with his extensive wingspan and ability to get to the free throw line, makes him the better overall scorer. Durant also proves to be the slightly superior defender as his career defensive rating of 107 trump Curry’s defensive rating of 105. Finally–and this factor ultimately gives Durant the decisive edge over Curry–is that Stephen Curry only has two or three seasons that are comparable to Durant’s seven seasons of consistent excellence.

The MVP runner-up, James Harden–similar to Curry–has had impressive stats over the past few season, but he still doesn’t compare to the greatness of Kevin Durant. In terms of box score stats, Kevin Durant has the definitive advantage across the board with the exception of assists. However, James Harden does have the edge in offensive rating and free throw attempts per 36 minutes. Unlike Curry, though, James Harden can’t compare to Kevin Durant when it comes to shooting efficiency.

Kevin Durant is the superior shooter from every area of the court. James Harden, unlike Kevin Durant, is a maligned defender, and trails Kevin Durant in most defensive categories, including defensive rating and defensive box plus/minus. Thus, Kevin Durant still has the edge over both leading MVP candidates from last season.

Kevin Durant also faces challenges from his own teammate, Russell Westbrook, as he attempts to hold on to his position as second best. Until this past season, it was universally perceived that Kevin Durant was the alpha male of the Thunder. Then Russell Westbrook just put up ridiculous stats as he nearly led a severely undermanned Thunder team to the playoffs. Kevin Durant never displayed the all-around excellence that Westbrook did this past season. However, Westbrook’s dramatic increase in stats could be attributed to having the second greatest usage percentage of all time.

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While Westbrook is nowhere near the efficient scorer that Kevin Durant is, he still has the clear advantage when it comes to playmaking and even rebounding. Westbrook also seems to be more aggressive on the defensive end boasting a superior defensive box plus/minus. However, over the years, Kevin Durant has been far more valuable to the Thunder than Russell Westbrook has.

For their respective careers, Kevin Durant has .207 win shares per 48 minutes while Westbrook has .148. Westbrook has never had more than 12 win shares in a season while Kevin Durant has done so five times. Durant also has the superior net rating. Therefore, by being more efficient and valuable, Kevin Durant still has to be considered the best player on the Thunder.

Finally, there’s Anthony Davis, who has a legitimate chance to establish himself as the best player in the league. He became the only player, other than Shaq, to average at least 24 points, 10 rebounds, 2.5 blocks before the age of 22. His combination of athleticism and length is unparalleled in today’s league. He has the potential to one day lead the league in points, rebounds, blocks, and steals.

According to Basketball Reference, he had an offensive rating of 122 and defensive rating of 100 last season. Such two way versatility is rare even for a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber. The only thing holding him back from being atop the league is experience and team success. The best team he’s been on is an eighth seeded, 45 win Pelicans. That’s not going to be enough to usurp Kevin Durant who’s consistently led his teams to 50+ wins and deep playoff runs.

Therefore, for the time being, Kevin Durant should still be considered the second best player in the world. That could all change next season–if he hasn’t fully recovered from his injury or if we see historical play from the aforementioned names. Until then, Kevin Durant will have to deal with being second best.