Oden = All-Star?

I would not list Ray Allen as a good playmaker at all, and even he is loads better than Durant in that category. I don’t see what we have seen that suggests Durant has the potential to even be a playmaker, which is part of the problem.

I do agree he has amazing scoring ability, which can’t be discounted (but will always be overrated), and obviously amazing length. But he isn’t very quick laterally (unlike someone like Tayshaun Prince in his prime), and doesn’t use his body on defense. That is what hurts him in one on one defense and makes him targetted at the end of games, and his lack of experience with team defense hurts in general.

I firmly believe his team defense will improve, and he’ll become (like, say, Martell had) a non-negative on defense. But he’s shown no signs of being good at it, same for the playmaking— it’s just that defense normally improves with experience, unlike playmaking.

I am not arguing that Durant’s raw numbers aren’t impressive, because obviously they are. But how he gets them and how it affects the rest of his team make them matter less than they appear to.

Now, as far as a fit for the Blazers… do we NEED more offense from our SF spot? I’d say no. With already having the most efficient offense in the league and the most big time blowouts, I don’t think we need a finisher on the perimeter at all. We could use another creator, which we got in Andre Miller, but we don’t need another finisher since we got more than enough of that.

We need a star role player at SF who plays defense and not just a scorer. Durant will improve defensively, but never to the level that you ask him to go and play hard defense for 35 minutes a night.

A player getting comparisons to Kobe, Lebron, etc, would lead a team with that much raw talent (which the Thunder do have) to more than 23 wins. Our God-awful Telfair/Miles/Z-Bo led team won 21 games. Roy played 50 games and helped lead a Jack/Z-Bo led team to 32 wins. To me, it is all about the ability to elevate your teammates games mostly via playmaking, and it is a skill any great perimeter player comes into the league with.

I honestly do not mean to blast Durant so much, because he WILL lead the league in scoring and that ain’t no small potatoes. It’s just that… it is all he has shown he can do. Plus decent rebounding from the SF spot.

Because his percentages are numbers ARE amazing (which they truly, truly are— he is very efficient) he will get a lot of credit for greatness for a while until the onion is peeled and people realize why his teams aren’t very good. If I am right, anyways.

I can’t think of any who came into the league as a more-turnovers-than-assists guy who was also the primary ballhandler for his team, who then turned that around into serviceable playmaking. And if Durant just needs a great PG next to him, well, that means he isn’t on the level of Kobe or Lebron or MJ… let alone Roy.

I think Durant is a better version of a combo of Carmelo Anthony (with less inside game, more better jumper) and Kevin Martin. Very good, not great.

His youth means he could end up almost being anything. I just think we should see him get a few assists and create a few plays a game, and maybe win more than low-20s as the leader of a ballclub, before we consider him above the Danny Granger’s of the game. Still very, very, very, good though.

Mortimer