Imagine what Twitter and ESPN would look like if Giannis or Jokic shot 4-17 in a playoff game, I've never seen a star as protected as KD in the NBA before
@@jonevans1568 People have roasted Jokic over his last 3 games, now theres some fairness in the slander but if Joker shot 4-17 he would definitely get killed
Honestly, this opened my eyes a bit, cause I think about the criticism people like, Demar Derozan, Devin Booker, Zach Lavine, Carmelo Anthony, man even James Harden, these guys get so much shit from the media about their one dimensional games, but it feels like KD doesn't the same treatment. Nothing but respect for KD tho, he didn't ask for people to see him like a god
The praise that sports casters and fans give Durant, would be warranted if he actually had some muscle on his body cause the way he's been his whole career he's been weak and frail and has a real hard time with a physic defense which is what the league is and will be returning too shortly and already in the process of doing.
I also think this series has shattered the narrative that "Durant is just gonna do his thing regardless of whatever defensive scheme the opposition plays"
It's one of the funniest things to me as a basketball fan that KD was considered the best player on the planet ''no debate'' until last friday when you think about all that was talked about him these past years. KD going to the warriors was ''the weakest move ever by a superstar'', because he couldn't get past the Warriors, much less Lebron. People were saying at the time those rings didn't count because the team was too stacked. Give it a few years and the narrative completely changed to ''The Warriors needed KD and pleaded with him to come to the Bay''. The warriors now are doubted even thought their team is great because ''Now they don't have KD'' With KD out, Lebron won his fourth ring. ''Wait until KD comes back in Brooklyn''. Then KD came back, Bucks defeated the Nets, Giannis became Finals MVP, and right in the next season... ''KD is still the best player in the world and there isn't even a debate.'' KD never won a ring before and squandered a 3-1 lead. Steph won a ring before and squandered a 3-1 too. Guess who is the player who is ''undoubtely the best in the planet''? It's WILD to me that it looks to most people that they got into their subconscious that KD is the best player on the planet with so many people ahead of him in the race.
First of all the best player in the world is not so much about acomplishments as it is stats and play of you look at Kevin Durant vs steph, kd is leading in every single stat minus steals, better defender, better scorer, better rebounder, better all around game, also before his Achilles injury Kevin Durant was a legitimate 2 way player who played b+ defense and a+ offense that is why, because in the conversation of all around players Kevin Durant is better, also nobody ever said Kevin Durant was better than lebron until after he was old
@@mysermann but then right as kd was “better than bron” Gianni’s was better than him at everything except shooting so argument still doesn’t make sense
Sorry, I've never thought KD was the best player, no debate. I've argued that since Lebron left Cleveland, he slid and there were a group of 3 players - Steph, KD and later Giannis who were are the top. I count defense and rebounding though.
There’s more to offense than scoring. i think Luka Lebron Steph Giannis Jokic are all better offensively than kd because they are better playmakers than KD
I see what you're saying but in reality if u can score like kd can nothing other than scoring matters on offense. Think about it why pass when kd is the best option everytime no matter what, offensive rebound? Kd not likely to miss in an iso situation anyway, setting picks cutting to the basket? Why when kd can just get the ball and score in any way he wants. If kd was 6'7 you would be right but buddy is a full 7 feet tall that's all the difference imo.
@@gabrielcurry457 KD is playing into Celtics’ defense hands by over dribbling to get a shot off and it’s bad shots he’s taking too. If he was an elite playmaker that would counter Celtics physical defense on him and he needs to change the way he scores because his normal scoring style isn’t working in this series.
A great example is Lebron. Lebron can miss a game winner in December and people will act like he lost a game seven. Jokic in Denver is about to be swept while putting up great numbers and is STILL getting blamed. Durant tho? Nope.
Jokic is in the MVP convo, and is most likely gonna win the MVP this year. Why he’s held to such a high standard. People are just ripping on him since “how can he be the MVP if he’s about to get swept.” I believe that he still does need to prove himself as mvp throughout these playoffs, but he’s still my MVP even if he does get swept. People needa learn that MVP is a regular season award for a reason
@@xavierrey1 the playoffs are a different beast. Teams literally focus all of their scouting and practices towards one team for 4-7 games. Every player has a weakness. Not many ppl believe Jokic is a better player than KD. Plus the nuggets are missing their 2nd and 3rd best players. We just have to admit KD is protected. He was in mvp convo before he was injured so being the mvp race is no excuse
@@JGRG07 KD really isn’t that protected. He has bad games so rarely that it wouldn’t be fair to dig on him when he has a bad game. This playoff series is the worst stretch of games hes since he blew the 3-1 lead to the warriors, and he’s definitely not getting cut some slack. People don’t take into account that he played almost 40 minutes every game since he came back from his injury, so he definitely has some excuses for his current play. Basically all media outlets are having a field day with KD, and I see why. Also, it’s completely debatable on if Jokic is better than KD. Every team can use a KD, but not every team can use a Jokic.
Lebron is in the goat conversation. KD isn't. As a result any comparison in the level of criticism they face is stupid. Jokic doesn't have a ring KD does.
Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless also deserve alot of the blame for the special treatment that KD receives. They both push false narratives that they know are not true because they want someone other than LeBron or Giannis to be recognized as the best player in the world.
I can’t believe he didn’t get killed last year when he went 0-6 in that bucks overtime and they lost that series. Giannis still gets killed for the wall raptors built years ago when that was blown out of proportion.
@@RevanDarkStar KD played the most minutes in the series out of everyone, and on two occasions, at least that I remember, played every single minute of the game. One of those occasions was game 7. Also, way to just ignore that KD was the only guy on his team that could create a shot, and he had to do that consistently against one of the best defenses in the league in the bucks who had 2 first team all defense from that season. KD talked about it himself on the JJ redick podcast a couple weeks ago about how he was absolutely exhausted during the end of that game from carrying a team with no other shot creators almost past the eventual champs. If you watched, you would remember all the times KD sat there with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath whenever there was a break in the game because he played every second. That’s why people were saying he was tired; it was obvious if you watched. KD also came up way short on his final shot. Let me guess, you are gonna act like he just shoots like that all the time, and it wasn’t him being exhausted after playing 53 straight minutes of playoff level basketball in game 7 of an intense series?
The celtics have their entire defensive gameplan built around locking up KD, and he's not punishing them with passing, and he's getting knocked off balance quite a bit because of his slender frame compared to the freight trains Boston is putting out there.
It's almost like Boston noticed his game was one-dimensional and are exploiting it very successfully. If their superstar is only good at scoring, and he can't score then suddenly he is no big deal. To be fair, it does open up Kyrie and the role players when the defense is so fixated on stopping KD. It's like 2019 Raptors vs. Bucks except the other Nets are stepping up unlike Giannis' teammates back then.
@@harmonicarchipelgo9351 What's crazy is that it's still not enough for the Nets to win games right now too. It's like they needed Kyrie to play like game 1 every game too, where the Celtics still stole the win
Celtics aren’t even doing anything exceptional vs him the Nets are just really mediocre on offense and defense. Idek why anyone had this team even as a contender or the winner of this series, they’re 7th for a reason.
@@HDRookie That's because, unlike Giannis, KD isn't much of a passer or playmaker so whenever he gets the ball he'll often just attempt difficult shots instead of finding the open man. The Celtics are putting on a masterclass on how to shut down the Nets on Defense. If they were also an elite offense, the games would all be blowouts.
Idiots said that he is the most skilled on offense, when all he does is one dribble move and shoot over smaller defenders. Boston exposed his handles and passing
Kevin Durant is now facing the same defense that Curry has faced his entire career. That speaks to the difference in the levels of players that they are.
I think the reason why he's so soft towards criticism and acts like everyone hates him whenever someone points out something that is negative about him even if it's something minimal, is because of what you said, the media barely talks bad about him compared to the other top players in the league.
I think it’s more accurate to say NBA media wont bring it up because most fans don’t understand the difference between offensive capability vs offensive efficiency, and if fans aren’t talking about it, NBA media doesn’t have a clue it even happened. As far as KDs attitude goes w criticism, I think it’s really dependent on the source of the criticism (in my opinion, shouldn’t matter but it usually does for stars)
The reason why media has been positive with KD is because he came back from Achilles tear. People has started to appreciate his crazy skill more after his return. Even it’s logical to say he is not the best player in the league anymore. Intense Criticism to jokic should not be applicable to Durant because you simply don’t expect this high level of production if the guy is not Durant or Dominik Wilkins. Simple
I’ve always been confused when I’ve heard people use overall skill set to judge scoring ability over production and efficiency. As if Tmac is a better scorer than Shaq
I was surprised to see not many people in the mainstream media blame him, more people blamed Kyrie and Nash even though KD wanted Nash, big reason why Harden wanted out
I think it's because of how KD scores. It's way more difficult. He shoots mostly jumpers whereas those players make most of their points close to the basket. Make those players take the same shots KD does, they wouldn't average above 20. Only Embiid might have a chance.
@@spankstar Because these players are from a rare breed who came back in the league and that is called... BIG MEN, yes big men scored around the basket and are more efficient than other positions Plus these modern bigs can pass, shoot and dribble despite their size, frame and weight . People nowadays are not used to these "big men" anymore so I understand your point about "big men doing big men shit" is not that great
Both the Warriors and KD mutually benefitted from each other, but I think it's fair to say that he needed the Warriors more than the Warriors needed him. I think the Spurs and Warriors have shown over the years that a well-run organization will always trump an all-time great player, whether that player is playing for them or against them. NBA discourse in general needs to move in the direction of giving organizations more credit instead of individuals.
KD underperforming is a big issue for the Nets but in reality this is what happens when a team doesn't really have a structured offense. Nets are kind of just KD and Kyrie freelancing which is cool until a smart defensive team simply chooses to focus on the 2 stars and force the rest of the team to beat them. Funny enough the team KD left doesn't have this problem at all. Warriors have 4 selfless guys in a structured offense each capable of putting up 25+ on any given night. Makes KD look even worse for leaving honestly, he left to play a more selfish style of basketball while have less success.
KD has been getting constantly slandered on Twitter or by general NBA fans. Not saying it’s not justified, it most certainly is but to say he’s barely getting any hate is simply not true
@@utkarshpandey6424 not necessarily hate I just said tht in the context of the guy above, personally I criticize kd for his weaknesses mainly bc he hasn’t really improved them like player such as steph, kawhi, Giannis and lebron all of them have improved in crunch time, all of them improved their offense game nd all of them improve their mentality, Kd never really had to improve offensively bc he was already great on tht end Tht made him complacent in okc, then he never won so he left nd marginally improved his defense but not to all defensive standards, he’s gotten better in the clutch but not as good as the other guys nd Ik steph nd lebron don’t have the greatest history but they’ve improved immensely nd Thts the thing kd hasn’t really improved his playmaking isn’t better either he’s average at best nd when he does try to do what steph nd lebron nd Giannis does his turnovers go up and his pts nd efficiency go down, nd Ik kawhi ain’t the best player maker but his hustle nd defense makes up for tht nd he passes at the right moments he doesn’t force shots at least not like kd.
Faced criticism for not winning with Russ in OKC, faced criticism for leaving, faced criticism for the way he left Golden state, faced criticism for his play early in Brooklyn coming off injury, faced criticism for coming up short in the playoffs against the bucks, is facing criticism now for his lackluster performance against the Celtics, and I could go on
@@jonevans1568 more of the blame was on Russ for them not winning as years past and the way he left golden state okc and all that shit was not abt his ability to play basketball like the videos talking abt and he didn’t face any crriticism for his play in Brooklyn this year or last year did you watch the video that’s what it’s abt 💀
I always have like KD’s game but its kind of clear cut that if you’re going to be the best player in the nba, you need to have that all around game or as close as you can possibly get to it. This is why from 2008-2018 in most peoples eyes LeBron simply held that title because he was the best player in the league at nearly every aspect of basketball that you can get to (2013 LeBron or 2014 LeBron to me were his best two years). I never really saw KD as the best player in the league always top five for sure but never the best because of a few main things to me. As a scorer, dont get me wrong, KD is and might very well be the best making something out of nothing bucket getter in nba history, but as for the rest of his game I dont think its really as good and whenever I have friends say hes the best player in basketball, I have a few things. KD historically isn’t a top tier playmaker. He’s nothing close to lebron or jokic level in terms of that or even steph either. In terms of his defense, a fully locked in Kawhi, Giannis, Lebron, Embiid, and Jokic this season all are better defenders than KD is. Now this is in part because in Brooklyn he really has to do more but even still if you want to be the best player in the league you need both sides of the basketball. Even picking a part his offense, KD has always been an elite scorer, but a player whose also been an elite scorer who people say cant be the best player is Steph Curry, why because he doesn’t play good enough defense to be so. With this logic then, KD shouldn’t be able to be the unanimous best player in basketball either. Also both Steph and KD imo have very similar levels of gravity when it comes to how defenses want to defend them, just curry is a better user of his gravity to be a playmaker and set up his teammates. And then when it comes to being that best player, every single one of these guys would get ripped apart if they shot 4-17. If Curry shot 4-17 it would be oh he cant carry a team, if jokic did that everyone would say oh where are you’re advanced stats now? If giannis did that it would become oh no jump shot no makes, if LeBron did that it would be LeChoke. But kd its more of oh ok he did bad but we put it to the side where as we would rip other superstars apart. It really feels like we put KD on this pedestal of what the best all around basketball player is like when really hes all time great in one thing but not everything else is up to par with how good his scoring is. I know that this is all highly opinionated and also when youre getting into the likes of who the true best player in the league is, it all can be decided by such a small negligible difference. In my opinion, if you say from Jokic, Giannis, Joel, KD, Steph, LeBron, that one of these guys are best in the league, its really coming down to splitting the difference and with some bias too. Like for me, last season Steph Curry was the best player in the league because his offense was otherworldly that season even if his defense is not that great. I’m not gong to be mad if you pick KD, but it’s simply not a unanimous race of who the best player in the league is especially now with how stacked each position is right now. there have been to me only very few instances where it was clearly one player was the best in the nba and those to me are: 2013 or 2014 LeBron, 2016 Steph in the regular season, MJ from 1991-1993, Shaq in 2000
Lebron was never the best at every aspect. He probably had the best rank if you were to assign ranks at how well he Defended, Play maked, scored, rebounded, and stole the ball. Which is what they mean by overall. But lebron has never been the best rebounder in any season or even top 5. His steal were also never the best or top 5. His defense was top 10 for a long time and even top 3 for some years in my opinion but never the best. So saying he was the best at every aspect is a lie. Collectively in those aspects he was probably the best.
@@asherjohnson6678 respect the opinion, definitely worded it weird but you actually worded it how i wanted it to sound, yes absolutely LeBron wasnt the clear best at absolutely everything but he was so well rounded and such a Swiss Army knife of a player that it’s hard to find something close to a 2013 LeBron in nba history
@Disgruntled Simp Mod Kobe was 03-10. Bron was 11-19. Don't know who told him Bron was the best in 08. He was the best for longer than kobe for sure, but not at that time.
5 points got Durant to this level of a pedestal (which I've been arguing against for about a year now). 1. People's misunderstanding of the value of his two Finals MVPs with the Warriors. 2. Always this idea that he was the natural successor to LeBron in the "best player in the world" discussion, only LeBron never fell off enough for it to actually happen and now there's an idea that Durant "deserves" it. 3. That the Warriors lost to Toronto in the 2019 Finals (despite finishing off Houston and wrecking Portland without KD). Had Golden State won, Durant would have certainly been saddled by the media about his decision to join Golden State and how they didn't need him at all (devaluing his two championship rings from a historical sense). But because Golden State lost, the narrative turned into Golden State and Curry couldn't do it without KD (which is illogical to put so much weight there, but that's how it played out), 4. he somewhat got bailed out with excuses in 2021 with the Irving/Harden injuries. 5. The "best player in the world" title became disputed. I've of the opinion that it was LeBron James from '12 through '18, Leonard in '19, James again in '20 and then Giannis in '21 (arguments for a different time). But as you mentioned, the make-up of the league is that the top player in the league is unclear for a multitude of reasons. That uncertainty paired with point #2 gave Durant a status he never quite earned. Injuries to LeBron, Leonard and Curry (who's usually been in my top 3 each year except 2020) made it easy to slide Durant into that spot (and forced Giannis to kick everyone's ass in 2021 to prove a point).
True, I've absolutely never bought that the Warriors needed him myself. Klay Thompson also went down in 2019 and he was on fire, had that not happened the Warriors still probably win without him.
It's crazy how obvious Giannis became the best player in the league and were people thinking KD was the best player because of that series agaisnt the Bucks. If i remember well, even Giannis in a press conference gave him the props, but he was being modest. You didnt mention that full recovering from the injury and playing like he played in OKC made the people believe also he was the best player in the league again.
I think one forgotten element was when Durant won the MVP in 2014, every media personality used it as a means to attack Lebron at a time when Lebron and the Heat were clearly falling apart. It was a way almost to congratulate themselves for caring about "the right things"; complimenting Durant on his humility, his willingness to play for small market OKC without complaint, how he credited his mother with his accomplishments, etc. etc. etc, in absolute contrast to the egotistical, self-promoting Lebron of "The Decision" who was crashing and burning. It also was a means of absolving a great many of them for how they handled Lebron and his tenure in Miami when it became quite apparent it wasn't the celebratory story they were originally portraying it as. And I think that never went away. Durant's got that unique quality that if you like his game and find it superior to all others, you're a fan of "pure basketball" and "pure fandom" untainted by hype and pretense.
I think it's definitely most to do with the perception of what skill is to that type of fan. Shooting and the ability to create the shot for yourself you want is held in the highest regard of "skill" for some. It's very similar to how Kobe fans treat him. Neither Kobe nor Durant have a glaring or noticeable weakness skill wise or athletically like how LeBron and Giannis its shooting /free throws, or Jokic and Luka its noticeable that they are slower and makes them look worse on defense etc.. Durant and Kobe have had just as many if not more sub par games in the playoffs than other best in the world contenders , but they make missing look pretty. So it just looks like to fans of theirs "the shot just didn't fall today" .
Love your "well their shot just wasn't falling" point. I see it with Harden and Steph too, and Russ likes to use it as a defence when his chucking isn't working. If your shot isn't falling then you should be looking at the other 4 guys on the court with you and not just forcing it over and over. The Bucks won the championship in part because Giannis became better at figuring out when things weren't working for him and used his team mates more. That's the difference between the Raptors using the Giannis wall to stop the Bucks dead and Giannis being able to take the Bucks to a whole new level
My problem is kd always had a luxury of having a another star/all-star level player with an soild bench help. And defenses normally just play him 1v1 but teams like grit grind grizz and now Celtics show different way of defeating him.
@@garrettwilson9664 I wasn’t saying it as a bad thing I was saying teams can’t double or focus all the attention solely on him so he not getting consistent pressure but when teams figure something out that stops him or focus solely on him sometimes.
This is the difference between someone like KD and Lebron. He’s held to a lower standard and is often protected. Is he great? Yea, and one of the greatest talents to play the game and first ballot HOF player but he’s never been in that all time great stratosphere of players like MJ, Bron or Kareem
@@charleswilson4526 i wouldnt add kawhi i personally think hes overrated he got to an alltime great team and won with them and then left to another amazing team where yes he won hes a great two way player ut after not having the perfect tram around him he rarely plays good on his own (which is ok i would also go to a team where i fit in perfectly)
Just to rub it in the bulls in game three versus the bucks scored 66 points in 43 minutes while the woarriors in game two versus the nuggets scored 70 points in 19 minutes.
Thank you for saying Jordan was a better scorer than KD. Cause he was. I'm tired of hearing KD is a better scorer than Jordan. Jordan scored more points on similar efficiency in an era with 0 spacing on a team that was defensive oriented and depended on him for the scoring. KD has played now on two teams with ridiculously good spacing and offensive heavy talent...and still averages less points per game on similar efficiency to Jordan.
I never cared much for KD, but then again there was a time from 2014 to 2018 I didn’t have a favorite player. I respect KD’s game in OKC, however, I didn’t like his move to the GSW. I’ve been a huge fan of Giannis since he started his climb to the top. He’s stuck with his team and has taken them all the way, and I honestly can’t say KD has ever done that. He went to a championship caliber team to all but solidify his chances at a ring and he got it. The Warriors won without him and continue to do so post 2018 and I’m damn sure of it. I’d rather watch the Bucks lose to Golden State than watch them lose to the Nets. Even then as an Eastern Conference guy I’d rather see Curry get 4 than KD get 3.
@@showtimej2582 Kevin Durant never joined a superteam, he joined a very good team that won a ring in 2015 against an injured Cavs with no Kyrie or K Love. Also the same team who blew a 3-1 lead against the Cavs with kyrie and K love. So how could you say they were a superteam before he got there?
What gets me the most is the media narrative that a 73 win Warriors team "needed" KD to lead them to championships. They won a championship before him and are a contender again without him
I feel like KD on the Warriors was Insurance for whenever the other Allstars were getting low on gas. It was a Free Ring for KD just as much as the Warriors but i agree, They never "Needed" him.
@@shamsielshahar120 I couldn't believe how passive he was. I really thought he was going to come out guns blazing. The Nets are just so outmatched right now.
I think thats a mental thing, Cause once KD feels like he isnt gonna win. i think he puts himself on "autopilot mode". where hes playing but hes not playing to win. i know that sounds like im a KD stan. But im not, i think all High level players have the same thing.
I still believe that KD's rise to the top in media/fans minds is entirely predicated on being a thorn/opposition to Lebron. He'd be viewed the same as PG on that superstar potential level. But bc he was on the team that stopped Lebron from winning his 4th/5th ring people act like he's the best in the world. Even at his best he was never higher than 2nd or 3rd for even 1 series.
I honestly believe that KD’s decision made his 2016 3-1 blunder more scrutinized, not less. I remember people ripping into him for leaving after they blew that lead and him going like 12/30 in games 5 and 6 was all over ESPN
Kevin Durant is the biggest example of the aesthetic bias. He’s not that much better than Giannis, if anything Giannis scores just as efficiently with better defense. But KD is treated as beyond him
Aesthetic, but otherwise you are completely right. The irony is that Steph benefits from this as much as KD himself, whereas players like Lebron and Giannis and Kawhi are penalized. Kawhi in particular: this man averaged 30 in the last playoffs with a TS% of 67.9, significantly better than both KD and Giannis, being the fourth year where he has averaged around 30. But no one mentions him as the best player and we have to listen to content creators saying how Steph is the best player when he had not even been able to make the playoffs at all that year.
@@davidng8870 Kawhi's issue is he's always injured. But he's always been above KD in my book and if he were consistently healthy he might actually be the best player in the game. That choke job against Denver gotta count against him though
I hope he never wins another championship, when he was with golden state, I felt like he thought the warriors needed him more then he needed curry, green, klay. Now he can see how hard it is, Go Dubs
Yeah KD is the best version of himself in GSW because of Steph's gravity which game him open looks most of the time and Draymond's being a defensive anchor which made him a defensive monster.
@@bigsmall2842 bro do you remember how everyone talked about Giannis last year after the Nets led 2-0 against the Bucks ? That was craaaazy. Even tho Giannis was averaging like 26, 11 on 55%
Rusty i usually agree with your takes but i’ve always felt you’ve been wrong about KD, everyone outside of Stephen A criticizes him a good amount the thing with him compared to the rest of the league is he hasn’t had much opportunity to criticize him over the last 5 years, He did what he had to in golden state and would’ve won a 3rd ring cuz he was going crazy til he got injured in 2019, he missed the whole entire bubble szn so what is anyone gon say about him, than last year he dealt with injuries all reg szn and still put up historically efficient numbers, then against the bucks we were watching him almost pull off what shouldn’t have been possible which is solo handedly beating the bucks and as much as people don’t wanna hear it he really was an inch away from accomplishing that, the over time was bad but dam he couldn’t really get in shape the whole year so fatigue really was a factor and he still got slandered like crazy but somehow the narrative that he gets a pass for every underperformance which isn’t true at all, than this year he played amazing when he actually played until these playoffs where he is getting slandered more than any other player but people spend more time on wanting to see him get slandered than actually acknowledging that he has been getting slandered, also to say that he is a B- playmaker and defender is crazy especially since he got to GSW, When compared to everyone in the league he has the least weaknesses while being the best scorer so it’s not hard to understand why people think he’s the best in the league,
LeBron isn't even in the playoffs and he's been more criticized than KD who's been horrible. Both LeBron and KD tried to make a super team trio and both failed, but everyone ignores KDs failed super team. Even though KD is considered the best player on the planet and should have the highest standards of any player. The criticism around LeBron going into year 20 runs circles compared to KD
KD is not criticized like LeBron or Steph. Stop it. KD is the NBA's golden child. He literally joined the best team in nba history. LeBron joined a fringe playoff team and still gets hell for it. Teams were built to beat LeBron and he gets knocked for not being good enough. KD lost 3-1 lead and Russ gets the blame for it. LeBron has one bad finals series and gets hell for it. LeBron gets knocked for losing to the Warriors in the finals with his 2nd and 3rd best players were hurt. "If you're the best in the world you should be able to win" is what ppl said about Bron but we haven't heard that yet for KD. LeBron lost in the first round last year with is co-star out and ppl said he was washed up. Lets see how many ppl say KD is washed up after he gets swept
KD has been a below average defender since his Achilles tear. He gives no effort and isn't quick enough to utilize his length anymore. Gets burnt on cuts all the time and hardly protects the rim anymore which was his main attribute as a defender. Y'all want him to be the dude he was on golden state so bad and he keeps showing you he isn't.
@@CarlosGutierrez-qw6pr "LeBron isn't even in the playoffs and he's been more criticized than KD" That is because LeBron failed even harder. Couldn't even make the play-in...
The funny thing is even in OKC Kevin Durant wasn't very highly criticized. He was pretty young there for a lot of that but that young core was expected to get a championship. Imagine what the narrative about Giannis would be if he didn't get one or what it will be around Devin Booker if he doesn't get one.
Yo Rusty, wanted to say that I appreciate your insight and the time you put into these topics. As a Blazers fan (yes, I know), I have disagreed plenty with you in the past, but your dedication to making your videos better and better and to researching these topics is awesome to see. I am sure that you have your fair share of haters being so outspoken, but I wanted to say that I appreciate you, and the way you go about it. Love your videos dawg (hopefully this doesn't sound backhanded, not meant to be whatsoever).
I knew you were gonna bring up Stephen A lol His entire reasoning behind KD being the best player is simply that he’s 7 feet tall and can pull up from 40 😆
Watching this video after the warriors tied the series 2-2. Steph Curry gets absolutely slandered day in day out for not “showing up” in the 4th quarter despite putting the Warriors on his back the entire finals.
People underestimated his lack of speed since the injury because he’s so skilled but just like every great player he has spots and the Celtics are long fast and strong enough to take his spots
Rusty is disregarding a key point on the one dimensional scorer archetype KD falls into. The big difference KD has with Lavine, Melo, Harden, Demar, etc. is that he is able to consistently turn up or at least continue scoring like the best in the world during the playoffs. The other guys get exposed for the lack of other abilities and get shut down but KD is still just as affective because of how versatile his scoring is.
Minimal? LMaoooo, people are slandering him so badly that they're saying LeBron beat this team, even though that's dumb and it isnt the same, but he is absolutely being slandered, and it is not minimal
As a nets fan I never expected to overcome the Celtics this year, but game three really showed all the problems our team had this year. Literally there were two possessions where KD and Kyrie miscommunicated leading to a turnover which just shows how little time the two had playing together.
Love this take Rusty. They really tried to say KD was better than Giannis after last year cos he put up a few more points less efficiently and lost the series, people just overhype scorers and specifically 'skilled' jump shooters that can make difficult shots.
I swear, if I hear one more “he’s 7 feet tall and shoots like a guard” that people say to justify their opinion that KD beats the 96 bulls in a 1 on 5 No disrespect to KD ofc, one of the best to ever play the game, but my god his fanboys always jump to that to argue why KD is literally perfect and invincible
I despite how KD has been shooting... we can all admit the refs let them manhandled each other through the first game and a half only to switch it up midway through the last game right? As a basketball player, that throws your rhythm off and watching his career. He's clearly a rhythm player
The thing with Jokic slander is that, to have a team literally run circles around you and nearly sweep your team, and yet be a 2 time consecutive MVP, it’s just a bad look. To not give him any blame, and just say he has no one around him, as true as it is would be dismissing his underperformance
The Warriors overhyped him, any superstar at that point any player with that caliber would a won with the Warriors. It's obvious and dude can't pull him through the series against the celtics, I'm not even a big lebron fan but if this was lebron or gainis they would have killed him
Plus he made the warriors ofens pretty shit for how it could have been if he didn't play iso ball that's why poole klay and curry could be better offensively And would be if klay and curry can be fully healthy We will see how poole will be against better defens and then I will have my answers
Lebron is in the goat conversation of course he's going to be held to a higher standard. Giannis wouldn't be getting much more hate now except from Sixers fans. Because he won everything last year. And once you have a ring unless your in the goat conversation you get far less criticism for underpreforming. Kawhi got less criticism than KD after the bubble for a good comparison.
KD is slandered all the time, what are you talking about ? the media cares about lebron only, with 98% percent bronsexuals and 2% haters. the rest of the league barely gets any mention, and if KD is mentioned, they usually shit on him for the warriors move or the twitter beefs or the fact that he left the warriors.
This video aged like fine wine. Also, what I’m getting from this video is that because the narrative and hate behind KDs decision was that he was SUCH an amazing player, even a perfect player, joining an amazing team. Making it the most unfair move in sports. We somehow had to first convince ourselves that KD was a perfect player, so that we could justify the hate for him joining a perfect team. Because a better Carmelo Anthony joining the warriors would not be as villainous as what we got. And we never really let go of the idea that KD was a perfect player. Especially with how he stepped his gane while on the warriors. Something probably only made possible because of Stephs play making and gravity.
While I disagree with some of what you said here, I completely agree that KD does not get the same scrutiny others do. I mean everyone uses Russ as a scapegoat in OKC when KD was terrible at the end of that series too, very similar to right now actually.
THANK YOU!!! So many ppl cite KD as the best or the best scorer and I don’t get it. People say “he’s a 7 footer that can do everything” I hate talking about what people CAN do vs the production itself
I have Kobe over kd as scorers. (Pls read this Jacob I wonder if you agree :) KD has the efficiency shooting and all that but we never talk about the help he had to be efficient. Aside from his mvp season and Rookie year, we have never see kd without an elite playmaker, (russ,harden, Kyrie, green and curry). Let alone other scoring threat that turned out they don’t have elite playmakers like klay. Kobe for his career only had one elite playmaker, that was nash and he didn’t play for the whole season. The other ones who are close are Pau and shaq, no where close to the talent KD had. Yet Kobe has scoring games, weeks, months and even season that some would even say is the greatest of all time. But no he’s not in the convo cause “He nEvEr sHOt 50%”
You have to take into account the era he is playing. Kobe played in an era where scoring less than 80 points is not rare. The same can’t be said to KD. Also, there are multiple seasons (late 90s to mid 2000s) where the league TS% average was 50-51%. The fact that Kobe was shooting 56% in those times is actually great. That would be equivalent to a dude in 2022 shooting 61%TS. Kobe is underrated in efficiency.
@@GG-fy2bm You can argue that however I think it’s clear at least as a peak Kobe but still a Bears score when he was playing for OKC it was when 2014 and up where he was in the conversation to be better, which was also when russ got better if not became a superstar. Also don’t forget your team had depth too and some reliable role players every now and then, or good defense that allows them to be good on offense.
@@kingdinodragonite3470 thank you, people never want to bring up how difficult it was to score back then I personally believe the 2000s is the hardest era to score in. People forget who made three point era a thing, the 2000s started that. People also forget that we started the 1-4 or 5 guarding trend. Yet we still all time great bigs in the league and lack of spacing due to the adjustment.
KD gets a pass bc we still remember him from his OKC days where he was peerless as an *efficient* scorer; flash forward a decade and even benchers can be efficient low watt scorers. I will cop to Rustys point in this vid. I've never solidly believed he was the best, especially without contest, despite my fondness for his game. I will say now that the rest of his game is underrated. His passing has improved to the point he is average to above average as a passer. I won't put him in the company of Bron, CP3, or Jokic, et al. however he is an underrated passer, especially in light of his scoring prowess. Rebounding for players at his position (and in general) is always overlooked so I won't go there but he obviously can do it. His shotblocking lacks polish as does his ball thievery and man to man D but again many of his superstar ilk do. Bron has tampered down his D in recent years and has always been best as a team defender rather than man. No one else besides a locked in and healthy Kawhi, PG13, AD and Joel Embiid can even claim to have paired elite defense with A1 offense (Giannis included of course).
I'm not giving him a pass but he's also playing with a team that he has barely any reps with all season. Combine that with the Celtics focusing their entire game plan on shutting him down and you can see why it would end in Durant having one of his worst series ever.
thats a fair point however, most people dont care to remember that when it comes to other players, with Steph its he shoulda beat the box n 1 with Giannis he shoulda beat the wall the raptors put up, For Luka he should have hit threes at a higher clip regardless of the clippers. Its almost highly expected they figure out a way by it, or get ridiculed when they dont. Also lacks of reps is an unfortunate cause injuries and mix and match lineups
Pretty sure Kevin Durant has been one of the most hated figures in sports since 2016. I imagine that the reason he isn't be slandered as hard recently is cause alot of people have probably gotten bored of him tbh. I say this as someone who isn't much of a Durant fan. But I can at least agree that its incredibly unfair how guys like jokic are treated compared to Durant cause even when jokic does good people still find a way too discredit him and others that u mentioned
Some random notes I have: In terms of the big two networks, FS1 definitely gave him heat over the last two-three years. My theory is regionalism. FS1 is primarily in LA (with the exception of FTF, but those folks still share overall sentiments with the West). It's easier to pick at KD because he plays in NY, across the entire country. Vis versa with Lebron. Regional conference talk leads so much to basketball topics depending on which channel you're watching. Just a theory. Overall with KD, his lack of criticism is a telltale example of why is ISNT the top player. In simple terms, the more hate, the more great. I remember Giannis getting thrashed for his team's shortcomings in 2018-2020, Embiid too. Great Video Rusty!
I feel like the protection he (and Kyrie & Kawhi) receive is some weird form of mirror opposite hate (like for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction type shit) for Lebron James.
@@eftichismalandrakis sure he does, he’s just injured a lot, so that kinda blunts the regard for him. He’s actually the closest thing to Michael Jordan right now.
The only reasons i can think of for not scrutinizing KD is because he was in Golden State so he didnt need to do everything or even show out every single night and then after that he had an injury that ends 9 out of 10 careers so him still being top 5 just seems miraculous
Underrated Superstars: Lebron(at this point) Giannis Kawhi Luka Overrated superstars: KD Embiid Curry Jokic is weird because people either severely underrate him(Nick wright) or severely overrate him
People talked about KD the past 2 years the way they should be talking about Kawhi Leonard. He does everything KD does on the offensive end as an unstoppable midrange shooter but he's also too strong to get bothered by physicality or be pushed away from getting to their spots like KD has been all series, which has been Boston's entire strategy And he's not one-dimensional because he can completely swing a series on defense alone regardless, whether you need him to lock in against Luka or Giannis. The only time he's gotten beat by a defensive assignment was Jamal Murray after having carried PG and the Clippers for 12 prior games on a limping knee. For all the (somewhat deserved) Nuggets Game 7 slander he'd carried hard the whole playoffs before then while PG was being Pandemic P and the Clippers looked trash And somehow that plus aesthetic and narrative bias toward KD has had people crowning KD as the best player alive when Kawhi has been better the whole time. Even when KD got supposedly crowned as the best player alive last playoffs in the Bucks series, Kawhi was the best player in the playoffs last season before his injury (30ppg at Shaq efficiency while playing unbelievable defense on Luka)
Jokic does not get the same level of criticism as KD this is ridiculous. All the sports shows been cooking KD and they barely talk about the gsw series. All the talk has been about Jordan Poole and how good gsw been. Jokic about to win mvp and be swept. KD was called the softest player by skip Bayless. Nick wright cooks KD every year.
ITS the same with Jordan. He might be the goat, but what annoys me is that they act like there is a difference between him and nr 2 like there is a difference between shaq and brian scalabrini
I think Durant is at this point underrated as a passer and defender like comparing him to Embid and Gianni’s he is a comparable passer and he is definitely a b/bplus defender if c is average Also I think what makes Durant such a good scorer is his low usage he does not need to have the ball very long to score as well as he can bail out plays and can play offball
Are you kidding me why wouldn't anyone be talkin about Kevin Durant my favourite player is Kyrie Irving and honestly I blame him more because the team Dynamic and chemistry is completely way off honestly it's a little bit ridiculous the fact that we just expected them to just pick up everything and be ready for the finals they are not ready for the finals and I believe that they need a couple pieces that's what I believe
What I think y’all are missing is that he’s insanely tall and plays like a guard with massive handles and off the dribble shooting abilities. The video talked about how much they average scoring vs their true shoot percentages or something like that, but he didn’t mention that KD shot most of those from the middle range. Not in the paint. KD is the best tall player with a far past elite off the dribble scoring package. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve scrutiny but comparing him to Joel or Giannis or other middle range scores like melo, demar, booker, Lavine we not acknowledging he’s the best score on the planet at scoring at a distance from the hoop. And also that on the right team and good coaching he’s able to be unstoppable and unblock-able with shooting. So it’s not that he doesn’t face scrutiny on other parts of his game I remember he scrutinized for his defense on the thunder so started going for more blocks also Perkins and Stephen A just went off on him on espn so honestly I don’t see how he’s not being scrutinized….how????! That’s what made him join the warriors because of all the scrutiny he was facing to win a chip. That he was scrutinized for being a part of golden state. Also the guy just went to the finals 2 to 3 years ago he was in the finals and got hurt dude would have had 3 rings. Than last year he took Brooklyn to conference finals and almost beat Giannis and his whole team by himself by one inch. Also its should be understood outside of KD and Kyrie the Boston Celtics has the best duo of size and skill and youthful mixed with a defense coach and the best defense player of the year. Marcus smart who’ve always been a defense demon . He went from being the young guy to being the old buck with a bunch of youth on his team. So it’s understood Brooklyn isn’t facing a easy task, so why Blame KD when it takes a whole organization to be great . He’s definitely still the best scorer on the planet . So it’s not his scoring and he’s proved with the right coaching he’s unstoppable also he’s a true hooper so all that passing stuff he’s still gonna make the right play. Honestly this guy arguing is weak with no real hard evidence like how he claimed KD Supports to be. KD has a whole sports science video on his midrange scoring game. That should say enough. Also melo, demar and and Zach are not high efficiency shot takers and 3pt shooters. They all take tough shots. They don’t hold the same effortless scoring and Efficiency that KD has.
thank you Rusty, KD has never received criticism like other superstars. The only slander he has ever got was leaving to GS. Yet you still had people blaming Westbrook for that despite KEVIN DURANT who was at the time 100% thought to be the 2nd best player in WORLD shot 10-30 in not one but 2 STRAIGHT close out games (game 5 and 6) and yet Westbrook who arguably was the main reason they were up 3-1 in the first place caught ALL of the blame while no one talked about how KD who is supposed to be a top 2 player had 2 of his worst playoff games ever and shot that badly in 2 straight FINALS clinching games with some of the worst shots and turnovers in game 6 yet received zero criticism that other top 5 players at the time would have.
Imagine what Twitter and ESPN would look like if Giannis or Jokic shot 4-17 in a playoff game, I've never seen a star as protected as KD in the NBA before
Jokic? Nobody would care lol
@@jonevans1568 nick wright would
@@jonevans1568 People have roasted Jokic over his last 3 games, now theres some fairness in the slander but if Joker shot 4-17 he would definitely get killed
🧢Absolute🧢
I never understand these comments KD is getting cooked all over Twitter lmaooo
Honestly, this opened my eyes a bit, cause I think about the criticism people like, Demar Derozan, Devin Booker, Zach Lavine, Carmelo Anthony, man even James Harden, these guys get so much shit from the media about their one dimensional games, but it feels like KD doesn't the same treatment. Nothing but respect for KD tho, he didn't ask for people to see him like a god
The praise that sports casters and fans give Durant, would be warranted if he actually had some muscle on his body cause the way he's been his whole career he's been weak and frail and has a real hard time with a physic defense which is what the league is and will be returning too shortly and already in the process of doing.
Giannis didn't rest on his laurels at any point in his whole career, now he's widely considered the best player in the league.
If Durant would've put on half the muscle that Giannis did, Durant would have like 9 championship
If Giannis and Durant meet again this post season, Giannis is going to humiliate him.
@@hihihihihello Could've put that all in one comment
I also think this series has shattered the narrative that "Durant is just gonna do his thing regardless of whatever defensive scheme the opposition plays"
That isn’t true for any player in nba history. He’s also a lot older and lacks a first step
@@Van_ax that was the narrative before this playoffs
It's one of the funniest things to me as a basketball fan that KD was considered the best player on the planet ''no debate'' until last friday when you think about all that was talked about him these past years.
KD going to the warriors was ''the weakest move ever by a superstar'', because he couldn't get past the Warriors, much less Lebron. People were saying at the time those rings didn't count because the team was too stacked. Give it a few years and the narrative completely changed to ''The Warriors needed KD and pleaded with him to come to the Bay''. The warriors now are doubted even thought their team is great because ''Now they don't have KD''
With KD out, Lebron won his fourth ring. ''Wait until KD comes back in Brooklyn''. Then KD came back, Bucks defeated the Nets, Giannis became Finals MVP, and right in the next season... ''KD is still the best player in the world and there isn't even a debate.''
KD never won a ring before and squandered a 3-1 lead. Steph won a ring before and squandered a 3-1 too. Guess who is the player who is ''undoubtely the best in the planet''? It's WILD to me that it looks to most people that they got into their subconscious that KD is the best player on the planet with so many people ahead of him in the race.
Amen you better preach this is exactly how I feel about him he’s WEAK I hope Celtics win this series and have another terrible game tonight as well
First of all the best player in the world is not so much about acomplishments as it is stats and play of you look at Kevin Durant vs steph, kd is leading in every single stat minus steals, better defender, better scorer, better rebounder, better all around game, also before his Achilles injury Kevin Durant was a legitimate 2 way player who played b+ defense and a+ offense that is why, because in the conversation of all around players Kevin Durant is better, also nobody ever said Kevin Durant was better than lebron until after he was old
Kd got that title to a lot of people because of skip and sas dumb ass narratives
@@mysermann but then right as kd was “better than bron” Gianni’s was better than him at everything except shooting so argument still doesn’t make sense
Sorry, I've never thought KD was the best player, no debate.
I've argued that since Lebron left Cleveland, he slid and there were a group of 3 players - Steph, KD and later Giannis who were are the top.
I count defense and rebounding though.
There’s more to offense than scoring. i think Luka Lebron Steph Giannis Jokic are all better offensively than kd because they are better playmakers than KD
I see what you're saying but in reality if u can score like kd can nothing other than scoring matters on offense. Think about it why pass when kd is the best option everytime no matter what, offensive rebound? Kd not likely to miss in an iso situation anyway, setting picks cutting to the basket? Why when kd can just get the ball and score in any way he wants. If kd was 6'7 you would be right but buddy is a full 7 feet tall that's all the difference imo.
@@gabrielcurry457 KD is playing into Celtics’ defense hands by over dribbling to get a shot off and it’s bad shots he’s taking too. If he was an elite playmaker that would counter Celtics physical defense on him and he needs to change the way he scores because his normal scoring style isn’t working in this series.
A great example is Lebron. Lebron can miss a game winner in December and people will act like he lost a game seven. Jokic in Denver is about to be swept while putting up great numbers and is STILL getting blamed. Durant tho? Nope.
Jokic is in the MVP convo, and is most likely gonna win the MVP this year. Why he’s held to such a high standard. People are just ripping on him since “how can he be the MVP if he’s about to get swept.” I believe that he still does need to prove himself as mvp throughout these playoffs, but he’s still my MVP even if he does get swept. People needa learn that MVP is a regular season award for a reason
@@xavierrey1 the playoffs are a different beast. Teams literally focus all of their scouting and practices towards one team for 4-7 games. Every player has a weakness. Not many ppl believe Jokic is a better player than KD. Plus the nuggets are missing their 2nd and 3rd best players. We just have to admit KD is protected. He was in mvp convo before he was injured so being the mvp race is no excuse
@@JGRG07 KD really isn’t that protected. He has bad games so rarely that it wouldn’t be fair to dig on him when he has a bad game. This playoff series is the worst stretch of games hes since he blew the 3-1 lead to the warriors, and he’s definitely not getting cut some slack. People don’t take into account that he played almost 40 minutes every game since he came back from his injury, so he definitely has some excuses for his current play. Basically all media outlets are having a field day with KD, and I see why. Also, it’s completely debatable on if Jokic is better than KD. Every team can use a KD, but not every team can use a Jokic.
Lebron is in the goat conversation. KD isn't. As a result any comparison in the level of criticism they face is stupid.
Jokic doesn't have a ring KD does.
@@s1.m511 SO explain Giannis criticism then compared to KD's. Imagine Giannis doing that type of series what would ppl say?
Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless also deserve alot of the blame for the special treatment that KD receives. They both push false narratives that they know are not true because they want someone other than LeBron or Giannis to be recognized as the best player in the world.
They literally the reason he is overrated crazy how strong they voice is
@@boonebeasley9622 Fr
I can’t believe he didn’t get killed last year when he went 0-6 in that bucks overtime and they lost that series. Giannis still gets killed for the wall raptors built years ago when that was blown out of proportion.
Not only he went 0-6 but he missed the game winning shot! But a lot of people in the media said “he was tired “
Cap Nick Wright, Shannon and many ppl on twitter criticize him for that
@@RevanDarkStar he was tired but then again they don’t give Lebron tht excuse.
@@RevanDarkStar KD played the most minutes in the series out of everyone, and on two occasions, at least that I remember, played every single minute of the game. One of those occasions was game 7. Also, way to just ignore that KD was the only guy on his team that could create a shot, and he had to do that consistently against one of the best defenses in the league in the bucks who had 2 first team all defense from that season. KD talked about it himself on the JJ redick podcast a couple weeks ago about how he was absolutely exhausted during the end of that game from carrying a team with no other shot creators almost past the eventual champs. If you watched, you would remember all the times KD sat there with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath whenever there was a break in the game because he played every second. That’s why people were saying he was tired; it was obvious if you watched. KD also came up way short on his final shot. Let me guess, you are gonna act like he just shoots like that all the time, and it wasn’t him being exhausted after playing 53 straight minutes of playoff level basketball in game 7 of an intense series?
He had 48 points playing 52 minutes in a game 7?
The celtics have their entire defensive gameplan built around locking up KD, and he's not punishing them with passing, and he's getting knocked off balance quite a bit because of his slender frame compared to the freight trains Boston is putting out there.
It's almost like Boston noticed his game was one-dimensional and are exploiting it very successfully.
If their superstar is only good at scoring, and he can't score then suddenly he is no big deal.
To be fair, it does open up Kyrie and the role players when the defense is so fixated on stopping KD. It's like 2019 Raptors vs. Bucks except the other Nets are stepping up unlike Giannis' teammates back then.
@@harmonicarchipelgo9351 What's crazy is that it's still not enough for the Nets to win games right now too. It's like they needed Kyrie to play like game 1 every game too, where the Celtics still stole the win
Celtics aren’t even doing anything exceptional vs him the Nets are just really mediocre on offense and defense. Idek why anyone had this team even as a contender or the winner of this series, they’re 7th for a reason.
@@HDRookie That's because, unlike Giannis, KD isn't much of a passer or playmaker so whenever he gets the ball he'll often just attempt difficult shots instead of finding the open man.
The Celtics are putting on a masterclass on how to shut down the Nets on Defense. If they were also an elite offense, the games would all be blowouts.
Idiots said that he is the most skilled on offense, when all he does is one dribble move and shoot over smaller defenders. Boston exposed his handles and passing
Kevin Durant is now facing the same defense that Curry has faced his entire career. That speaks to the difference in the levels of players that they are.
Durant can’t shoot like curry or move off ball like curry though.
During his time in GS, they'd still double Curry over KD.
Mason Valentine nope Kevin Durant is being fouled left and rogbta and Boston reds are doing nothing about it
@@darnellwilliams8783 and good defense
Almost every professional NBA player that is known for his defence has said that the toughest player to defend is KD.
I think the reason why he's so soft towards criticism and acts like everyone hates him whenever someone points out something that is negative about him even if it's something minimal, is because of what you said, the media barely talks bad about him compared to the other top players in the league.
I think it’s more accurate to say NBA media wont bring it up because most fans don’t understand the difference between offensive capability vs offensive efficiency, and if fans aren’t talking about it, NBA media doesn’t have a clue it even happened.
As far as KDs attitude goes w criticism, I think it’s really dependent on the source of the criticism (in my opinion, shouldn’t matter but it usually does for stars)
The reason why media has been positive with KD is because he came back from Achilles tear.
People has started to appreciate his crazy skill more after his return. Even it’s logical to say he is not the best player in the league anymore. Intense Criticism to jokic should not be applicable to Durant because you simply don’t expect this high level of production if the guy is not Durant or Dominik Wilkins. Simple
@@artie8561 Kevin Durant started playing in 2007 not 2021 after his injury.
I’ve always been confused when I’ve heard people use overall skill set to judge scoring ability over production and efficiency. As if Tmac is a better scorer than Shaq
@Disgruntled Simp Mod lmao
@Disgruntled Simp Mod I hope ur joking
@Disgruntled Simp Mod lol T-mac had one of the greatest scoring seasons of all-time top comment trippin
@Disgruntled Simp Mod He is and it's weird how much he gets disrespected at his peak 02-04 he was an MVP candidate and one of the best in league
T Mac is not a better scorer then shaq
I was surprised to see not many people in the mainstream media blame him, more people blamed Kyrie and Nash even though KD wanted Nash, big reason why Harden wanted out
Open ESPN
Its because Kyries says *"We Don't need a Coach"*
Nash sucks but the reason Harden left was Kyrie. No doubt about it.
Most people will call you insane if you say Giannis/Jokic/Embiid are on the same level as KD at scoring...but the numbers speak for themselves.
I think it's because of how KD scores. It's way more difficult. He shoots mostly jumpers whereas those players make most of their points close to the basket. Make those players take the same shots KD does, they wouldn't average above 20. Only Embiid might have a chance.
KD (and everybody else in the league) would love to be able to make so many shots close to the basket. They just can’t…
@@spankstar Because these players are from a rare breed who came back in the league and that is called... BIG MEN, yes big men scored around the basket and are more efficient than other positions
Plus these modern bigs can pass, shoot and dribble despite their size, frame and weight .
People nowadays are not used to these "big men" anymore so I understand your point about "big men doing big men shit" is not that great
@@spankstar BS
I think there’s definitely an element of diminishing the achievements of the warriors by overstating how good Durant is to go with this narrative.
Yup people have the audacity to say a 73 win Warriors team "needed" KD to be the driving force of their championship teams
Both the Warriors and KD mutually benefitted from each other, but I think it's fair to say that he needed the Warriors more than the Warriors needed him. I think the Spurs and Warriors have shown over the years that a well-run organization will always trump an all-time great player, whether that player is playing for them or against them. NBA discourse in general needs to move in the direction of giving organizations more credit instead of individuals.
@@devjames2532 I mean if the 73 win team can't win a chip and KD ends up fmvp, how can u deny that lol
@@alexp8785 That same 73 win team won the championship the year prior tho
@@devjames2532 yeah against lebron and timofey mozgov
KD underperforming is a big issue for the Nets but in reality this is what happens when a team doesn't really have a structured offense. Nets are kind of just KD and Kyrie freelancing which is cool until a smart defensive team simply chooses to focus on the 2 stars and force the rest of the team to beat them. Funny enough the team KD left doesn't have this problem at all. Warriors have 4 selfless guys in a structured offense each capable of putting up 25+ on any given night. Makes KD look even worse for leaving honestly, he left to play a more selfish style of basketball while have less success.
KD has been getting constantly slandered on Twitter or by general NBA fans. Not saying it’s not justified, it most certainly is but to say he’s barely getting any hate is simply not true
It’s not tht he don’t get hate it’s tht he doesn’t get hate for the right reasons.
I am seriously not getting the whole hate for right or wrong reason , what is going on. Why is everything so personal
@@utkarshpandey6424 not necessarily hate I just said tht in the context of the guy above, personally I criticize kd for his weaknesses mainly bc he hasn’t really improved them like player such as steph, kawhi, Giannis and lebron all of them have improved in crunch time, all of them improved their offense game nd all of them improve their mentality, Kd never really had to improve offensively bc he was already great on tht end Tht made him complacent in okc, then he never won so he left nd marginally improved his defense but not to all defensive standards, he’s gotten better in the clutch but not as good as the other guys nd Ik steph nd lebron don’t have the greatest history but they’ve improved immensely nd Thts the thing kd hasn’t really improved his playmaking isn’t better either he’s average at best nd when he does try to do what steph nd lebron nd Giannis does his turnovers go up and his pts nd efficiency go down, nd Ik kawhi ain’t the best player maker but his hustle nd defense makes up for tht nd he passes at the right moments he doesn’t force shots at least not like kd.
The media doesn’t slander him at all they protect him
The media and their narratives though just say “he’s just having a bad night”
I smashed that like button cause it only took one second and made a massive difference and really helps the algorithm out
How long did it take? Did it make a difference?
@@randallalton6310 ONE SECOND AND IT MADE A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE
This man never faces criticism apart from his goldenstate move and that was deserved and expected
Faced criticism for not winning with Russ in OKC, faced criticism for leaving, faced criticism for the way he left Golden state, faced criticism for his play early in Brooklyn coming off injury, faced criticism for coming up short in the playoffs against the bucks, is facing criticism now for his lackluster performance against the Celtics, and I could go on
@@jonevans1568 nobody blamed kd against the bucks
@@jonevans1568 he was praised for almost beating the bucks but the rest is true
@@jonevans1568 more of the blame was on Russ for them not winning as years past and the way he left golden state okc and all that shit was not abt his ability to play basketball like the videos talking abt and he didn’t face any crriticism for his play in Brooklyn this year or last year did you watch the video that’s what it’s abt 💀
@@happysad7768 the shoe size jokes? The dumb turnaround J? Airballing twice to seal the game? I call cap
I always have like KD’s game but its kind of clear cut that if you’re going to be the best player in the nba, you need to have that all around game or as close as you can possibly get to it. This is why from 2008-2018 in most peoples eyes LeBron simply held that title because he was the best player in the league at nearly every aspect of basketball that you can get to (2013 LeBron or 2014 LeBron to me were his best two years). I never really saw KD as the best player in the league always top five for sure but never the best because of a few main things to me. As a scorer, dont get me wrong, KD is and might very well be the best making something out of nothing bucket getter in nba history, but as for the rest of his game I dont think its really as good and whenever I have friends say hes the best player in basketball, I have a few things. KD historically isn’t a top tier playmaker. He’s nothing close to lebron or jokic level in terms of that or even steph either. In terms of his defense, a fully locked in Kawhi, Giannis, Lebron, Embiid, and Jokic this season all are better defenders than KD is. Now this is in part because in Brooklyn he really has to do more but even still if you want to be the best player in the league you need both sides of the basketball. Even picking a part his offense, KD has always been an elite scorer, but a player whose also been an elite scorer who people say cant be the best player is Steph Curry, why because he doesn’t play good enough defense to be so. With this logic then, KD shouldn’t be able to be the unanimous best player in basketball either. Also both Steph and KD imo have very similar levels of gravity when it comes to how defenses want to defend them, just curry is a better user of his gravity to be a playmaker and set up his teammates. And then when it comes to being that best player, every single one of these guys would get ripped apart if they shot 4-17. If Curry shot 4-17 it would be oh he cant carry a team, if jokic did that everyone would say oh where are you’re advanced stats now? If giannis did that it would become oh no jump shot no makes, if LeBron did that it would be LeChoke. But kd its more of oh ok he did bad but we put it to the side where as we would rip other superstars apart. It really feels like we put KD on this pedestal of what the best all around basketball player is like when really hes all time great in one thing but not everything else is up to par with how good his scoring is. I know that this is all highly opinionated and also when youre getting into the likes of who the true best player in the league is, it all can be decided by such a small negligible difference. In my opinion, if you say from Jokic, Giannis, Joel, KD, Steph, LeBron, that one of these guys are best in the league, its really coming down to splitting the difference and with some bias too. Like for me, last season Steph Curry was the best player in the league because his offense was otherworldly that season even if his defense is not that great. I’m not gong to be mad if you pick KD, but it’s simply not a unanimous race of who the best player in the league is especially now with how stacked each position is right now. there have been to me only very few instances where it was clearly one player was the best in the nba and those to me are: 2013 or 2014 LeBron, 2016 Steph in the regular season, MJ from 1991-1993, Shaq in 2000
Goat 🐐 opinion
Lebron was never the best at every aspect. He probably had the best rank if you were to assign ranks at how well he Defended, Play maked, scored, rebounded, and stole the ball. Which is what they mean by overall.
But lebron has never been the best rebounder in any season or even top 5. His steal were also never the best or top 5.
His defense was top 10 for a long time and even top 3 for some years in my opinion but never the best.
So saying he was the best at every aspect is a lie. Collectively in those aspects he was probably the best.
@@Christopher._M he was elite in a lot of categories tho and lebron is the most complete
@@asherjohnson6678 respect the opinion, definitely worded it weird but you actually worded it how i wanted it to sound, yes absolutely LeBron wasnt the clear best at absolutely everything but he was so well rounded and such a Swiss Army knife of a player that it’s hard to find something close to a 2013 LeBron in nba history
@Disgruntled Simp Mod Kobe was 03-10. Bron was 11-19. Don't know who told him Bron was the best in 08. He was the best for longer than kobe for sure, but not at that time.
5 points got Durant to this level of a pedestal (which I've been arguing against for about a year now). 1. People's misunderstanding of the value of his two Finals MVPs with the Warriors. 2. Always this idea that he was the natural successor to LeBron in the "best player in the world" discussion, only LeBron never fell off enough for it to actually happen and now there's an idea that Durant "deserves" it. 3. That the Warriors lost to Toronto in the 2019 Finals (despite finishing off Houston and wrecking Portland without KD). Had Golden State won, Durant would have certainly been saddled by the media about his decision to join Golden State and how they didn't need him at all (devaluing his two championship rings from a historical sense). But because Golden State lost, the narrative turned into Golden State and Curry couldn't do it without KD (which is illogical to put so much weight there, but that's how it played out), 4. he somewhat got bailed out with excuses in 2021 with the Irving/Harden injuries. 5. The "best player in the world" title became disputed. I've of the opinion that it was LeBron James from '12 through '18, Leonard in '19, James again in '20 and then Giannis in '21 (arguments for a different time). But as you mentioned, the make-up of the league is that the top player in the league is unclear for a multitude of reasons. That uncertainty paired with point #2 gave Durant a status he never quite earned. Injuries to LeBron, Leonard and Curry (who's usually been in my top 3 each year except 2020) made it easy to slide Durant into that spot (and forced Giannis to kick everyone's ass in 2021 to prove a point).
Excellent take !
True, I've absolutely never bought that the Warriors needed him myself. Klay Thompson also went down in 2019 and he was on fire, had that not happened the Warriors still probably win without him.
If Golden State wins the championship this year which i think is realistic then I think Durant's legacy will be destroyed
Bro if not for Kyrie and harden injury Giannis won’t even have a ring what are you talking about
@@oscarbebo1 injuries play a part in almost every NBA title, this one is no different.
It's crazy how obvious Giannis became the best player in the league and were people thinking KD was the best player because of that series agaisnt the Bucks. If i remember well, even Giannis in a press conference gave him the props, but he was being modest. You didnt mention that full recovering from the injury and playing like he played in OKC made the people believe also he was the best player in the league again.
I’m a Bucks fan and Lebron is the best
My biggest problem with KD is that people don't hold him to the same standard as Lebron James
LeBron is his own entity. Nobody will be held to his standards
But people keep saying he’s the best player in the world. I’ve been saying for years he’s not even close to lebron greatness. He’s not built like that
He aint bron anybody should be able to see that lol he shouldnt be at the same standards.
Or Steph
He ain’t bron or stehpy
I think one forgotten element was when Durant won the MVP in 2014, every media personality used it as a means to attack Lebron at a time when Lebron and the Heat were clearly falling apart. It was a way almost to congratulate themselves for caring about "the right things"; complimenting Durant on his humility, his willingness to play for small market OKC without complaint, how he credited his mother with his accomplishments, etc. etc. etc, in absolute contrast to the egotistical, self-promoting Lebron of "The Decision" who was crashing and burning. It also was a means of absolving a great many of them for how they handled Lebron and his tenure in Miami when it became quite apparent it wasn't the celebratory story they were originally portraying it as.
And I think that never went away. Durant's got that unique quality that if you like his game and find it superior to all others, you're a fan of "pure basketball" and "pure fandom" untainted by hype and pretense.
I think it's definitely most to do with the perception of what skill is to that type of fan. Shooting and the ability to create the shot for yourself you want is held in the highest regard of "skill" for some. It's very similar to how Kobe fans treat him. Neither Kobe nor Durant have a glaring or noticeable weakness skill wise or athletically like how LeBron and Giannis its shooting /free throws, or Jokic and Luka its noticeable that they are slower and makes them look worse on defense etc.. Durant and Kobe have had just as many if not more sub par games in the playoffs than other best in the world contenders , but they make missing look pretty. So it just looks like to fans of theirs "the shot just didn't fall today" .
🎯🎯🎯
Love your "well their shot just wasn't falling" point. I see it with Harden and Steph too, and Russ likes to use it as a defence when his chucking isn't working.
If your shot isn't falling then you should be looking at the other 4 guys on the court with you and not just forcing it over and over.
The Bucks won the championship in part because Giannis became better at figuring out when things weren't working for him and used his team mates more.
That's the difference between the Raptors using the Giannis wall to stop the Bucks dead and Giannis being able to take the Bucks to a whole new level
Are you a pastor sir? because that was the good gospel facts 😭🤣
Don’t bring Kobe into this. The dude proved himself many times over.
Gospel
My problem is kd always had a luxury of having a another star/all-star level player with an soild bench help.
And defenses normally just play him 1v1 but teams like grit grind grizz and now Celtics show different way of defeating him.
Having a good team/needing another good player to make a deep playoff runs is a dumb as fuck criticism.
I miss the grit n grind grizz. They really made it hard for KD to score.
@@garrettwilson9664 I wasn’t saying it as a bad thing I was saying teams can’t double or focus all the attention solely on him so he not getting consistent pressure but when teams figure something out that stops him or focus solely on him sometimes.
This is the difference between someone like KD and Lebron. He’s held to a lower standard and is often protected. Is he great? Yea, and one of the greatest talents to play the game and first ballot HOF player but he’s never been in that all time great stratosphere of players like MJ, Bron or Kareem
Or curry im gonna argue
Lebron fans still mad about those back to back Finals MVP’s on his head lol
@@philipmeisterl I would add curry and Kawhi to that
@@Thanosdidtherighthing no, not really but go look at what KD had on his squads and compare to Lebron.
@@charleswilson4526 i wouldnt add kawhi i personally think hes overrated he got to an alltime great team and won with them and then left to another amazing team where yes he won hes a great two way player ut after not having the perfect tram around him he rarely plays good on his own (which is ok i would also go to a team where i fit in perfectly)
Just to rub it in the bulls in game three versus the bucks scored 66 points in 43 minutes while the woarriors in game two versus the nuggets scored 70 points in 19 minutes.
Thank you for saying Jordan was a better scorer than KD. Cause he was. I'm tired of hearing KD is a better scorer than Jordan. Jordan scored more points on similar efficiency in an era with 0 spacing on a team that was defensive oriented and depended on him for the scoring. KD has played now on two teams with ridiculously good spacing and offensive heavy talent...and still averages less points per game on similar efficiency to Jordan.
I never cared much for KD, but then again there was a time from 2014 to 2018 I didn’t have a favorite player. I respect KD’s game in OKC, however, I didn’t like his move to the GSW. I’ve been a huge fan of Giannis since he started his climb to the top. He’s stuck with his team and has taken them all the way, and I honestly can’t say KD has ever done that. He went to a championship caliber team to all but solidify his chances at a ring and he got it. The Warriors won without him and continue to do so post 2018 and I’m damn sure of it. I’d rather watch the Bucks lose to Golden State than watch them lose to the Nets. Even then as an Eastern Conference guy I’d rather see Curry get 4 than KD get 3.
Holy fukin cringe. You fuckers couldnt wait to come flyin to the comments when KD has a bad series.
Nobody cares about giannis "sticking with his team" all the way to the too
I don’t care if u switch teams in free agency but it is really refreshing seeing somebody win a chip without just signing a super star
@Meh lebron and wade created a superteam kd joined one that beat him a month prior
@@showtimej2582 Kevin Durant never joined a superteam, he joined a very good team that won a ring in 2015 against an injured Cavs with no Kyrie or K Love. Also the same team who blew a 3-1 lead against the Cavs with kyrie and K love. So how could you say they were a superteam before he got there?
Keep the opinions up and on point like this. You’re objectivity (hope I used that right) is much needed
What gets me the most is the media narrative that a 73 win Warriors team "needed" KD to lead them to championships. They won a championship before him and are a contender again without him
I feel like KD on the Warriors was Insurance for whenever the other Allstars were getting low on gas. It was a Free Ring for KD just as much as the Warriors but i agree, They never "Needed" him.
Durant listening in on this video right now getting ready for an insane performance tonight :D
He's gonna drop a 40 bomb
Oh I can feel it coming
Really an insane performance from KD.
@@shamsielshahar120 I couldn't believe how passive he was. I really thought he was going to come out guns blazing. The Nets are just so outmatched right now.
@@exemplify6593 Yeah Bruce Brown needs some help out there
Westbrook gets all the blame for okc losing in 2016 while kd played like garbage
I think thats a mental thing, Cause once KD feels like he isnt gonna win. i think he puts himself on "autopilot mode". where hes playing but hes not playing to win. i know that sounds like im a KD stan. But im not, i think all High level players have the same thing.
2014 aswell
I still believe that KD's rise to the top in media/fans minds is entirely predicated on being a thorn/opposition to Lebron. He'd be viewed the same as PG on that superstar potential level. But bc he was on the team that stopped Lebron from winning his 4th/5th ring people act like he's the best in the world. Even at his best he was never higher than 2nd or 3rd for even 1 series.
Me and you might be the only ones who see it lol been thing this for years
Thinking*
Ever since I saw Paul pierce crown KD as the best after that first chip I was like “yeah this is definitely in spite of Lebron”
I honestly believe that KD’s decision made his 2016 3-1 blunder more scrutinized, not less. I remember people ripping into him for leaving after they blew that lead and him going like 12/30 in games 5 and 6 was all over ESPN
Kevin Durant is the biggest example of the aesthetic bias. He’s not that much better than Giannis, if anything Giannis scores just as efficiently with better defense. But KD is treated as beyond him
Uh
Giannis is def better LOL
Well, you gotta thank SAS and Skip for talking about him as if he is a god among men.
I would hope that if most of your points are coming from the paint that you’re more efficient😂
Aesthetic, but otherwise you are completely right. The irony is that Steph benefits from this as much as KD himself, whereas players like Lebron and Giannis and Kawhi are penalized. Kawhi in particular: this man averaged 30 in the last playoffs with a TS% of 67.9, significantly better than both KD and Giannis, being the fourth year where he has averaged around 30. But no one mentions him as the best player and we have to listen to content creators saying how Steph is the best player when he had not even been able to make the playoffs at all that year.
@@davidng8870 Kawhi's issue is he's always injured. But he's always been above KD in my book and if he were consistently healthy he might actually be the best player in the game. That choke job against Denver gotta count against him though
I'm glad Buckets laid this out so objectively. Well done video
I agree I don’t know why this the case, well until you explained this
I just started watching the peer to peer podcast and watched the episode with Rusty Buckets. Your different Rusty😭😭
I hope he never wins another championship, when he was with golden state, I felt like he thought the warriors needed him more then he needed curry, green, klay. Now he can see how hard it is, Go Dubs
Yeah KD is the best version of himself in GSW because of Steph's gravity which game him open looks most of the time and Draymond's being a defensive anchor which made him a defensive monster.
@@jeffchua2228 Ong
Steph, LeBron, Jokic, and Harden are the only players that receive top tier scrutiny and criticism when they fail
Giannis is probably the biggest example in recent memory. Dude played sub-par for a few games in the bubble and everyone was calling him trash.
@@bigsmall2842 bro do you remember how everyone talked about Giannis last year after the Nets led 2-0 against the Bucks ?
That was craaaazy.
Even tho Giannis was averaging like 26, 11 on 55%
@@yvans. he’ll shoot slightly less efficiently with a couple less points and everyone will think it’s the end of the world. It’s crazy
Rusty i usually agree with your takes but i’ve always felt you’ve been wrong about KD, everyone outside of Stephen A criticizes him a good amount the thing with him compared to the rest of the league is he hasn’t had much opportunity to criticize him over the last 5 years, He did what he had to in golden state and would’ve won a 3rd ring cuz he was going crazy til he got injured in 2019, he missed the whole entire bubble szn so what is anyone gon say about him, than last year he dealt with injuries all reg szn and still put up historically efficient numbers, then against the bucks we were watching him almost pull off what shouldn’t have been possible which is solo handedly beating the bucks and as much as people don’t wanna hear it he really was an inch away from accomplishing that, the over time was bad but dam he couldn’t really get in shape the whole year so fatigue really was a factor and he still got slandered like crazy but somehow the narrative that he gets a pass for every underperformance which isn’t true at all, than this year he played amazing when he actually played until these playoffs where he is getting slandered more than any other player but people spend more time on wanting to see him get slandered than actually acknowledging that he has been getting slandered, also to say that he is a B- playmaker and defender is crazy especially since he got to GSW, When compared to everyone in the league he has the least weaknesses while being the best scorer so it’s not hard to understand why people think he’s the best in the league,
LeBron isn't even in the playoffs and he's been more criticized than KD who's been horrible. Both LeBron and KD tried to make a super team trio and both failed, but everyone ignores KDs failed super team. Even though KD is considered the best player on the planet and should have the highest standards of any player. The criticism around LeBron going into year 20 runs circles compared to KD
@@CarlosGutierrez-qw6pr there's been more criticism regarding LeBron tweets than whatever the fk durant been doin all season
KD is not criticized like LeBron or Steph. Stop it. KD is the NBA's golden child. He literally joined the best team in nba history. LeBron joined a fringe playoff team and still gets hell for it. Teams were built to beat LeBron and he gets knocked for not being good enough. KD lost 3-1 lead and Russ gets the blame for it. LeBron has one bad finals series and gets hell for it. LeBron gets knocked for losing to the Warriors in the finals with his 2nd and 3rd best players were hurt. "If you're the best in the world you should be able to win" is what ppl said about Bron but we haven't heard that yet for KD. LeBron lost in the first round last year with is co-star out and ppl said he was washed up. Lets see how many ppl say KD is washed up after he gets swept
KD has been a below average defender since his Achilles tear. He gives no effort and isn't quick enough to utilize his length anymore. Gets burnt on cuts all the time and hardly protects the rim anymore which was his main attribute as a defender. Y'all want him to be the dude he was on golden state so bad and he keeps showing you he isn't.
@@CarlosGutierrez-qw6pr "LeBron isn't even in the playoffs and he's been more criticized than KD"
That is because LeBron failed even harder.
Couldn't even make the play-in...
The funny thing is even in OKC Kevin Durant wasn't very highly criticized. He was pretty young there for a lot of that but that young core was expected to get a championship. Imagine what the narrative about Giannis would be if he didn't get one or what it will be around Devin Booker if he doesn't get one.
Kd been slandered heavily especially on twitter wym
and did we forget how much shit he got for not being a winner when he was in okc
Not by the mainstream… only by a small population of people on twitter
@@legendary2553 that narrative came from the mainstream. To the point where they were calling him the taller version of melo in like 2014-2016
@@legendary2553 Lebron fanboys in the mainstream media were crying for years when Kd won those back to back finals mvps
@@Thanosdidtherighthing u the one crying now lmaoo. I’m not even a Lebron fan. U in every reply crying.
Yo Rusty, wanted to say that I appreciate your insight and the time you put into these topics. As a Blazers fan (yes, I know), I have disagreed plenty with you in the past, but your dedication to making your videos better and better and to researching these topics is awesome to see. I am sure that you have your fair share of haters being so outspoken, but I wanted to say that I appreciate you, and the way you go about it. Love your videos dawg (hopefully this doesn't sound backhanded, not meant to be whatsoever).
Keep up the good shit rusty
Bro it's like I been saying this exact thing for YEARS thank you for this video bro
I used to hate on players due to the media but now I think it’s weird and corny
Ok cool devin
Also It’s not hating when you’re pointing out a pattern
Have you not opened social media? This man is under fire by almost every page
I knew you were gonna bring up Stephen A lol His entire reasoning behind KD being the best player is simply that he’s 7 feet tall and can pull up from 40 😆
And if sas doesn’t say nice things about KD, Durants mom will yell at him lol
And got exposed 2015, 2016 and this year
@@okeythegoat2332 He was hurt in 2015. Played like 25 games.
Watching this video after the warriors tied the series 2-2. Steph Curry gets absolutely slandered day in day out for not “showing up” in the 4th quarter despite putting the Warriors on his back the entire finals.
People underestimated his lack of speed since the injury because he’s so skilled but just like every great player he has spots and the Celtics are long fast and strong enough to take his spots
No he has been underperforming since 2015 bruh.
Rusty is disregarding a key point on the one dimensional scorer archetype KD falls into. The big difference KD has with Lavine, Melo, Harden, Demar, etc. is that he is able to consistently turn up or at least continue scoring like the best in the world during the playoffs. The other guys get exposed for the lack of other abilities and get shut down but KD is still just as affective because of how versatile his scoring is.
this was the same guy who said timberwolves in 7 over the grizzlies 🤣
Timberwofls still have chance if Karl steps up his game who is going to stop hom
@@jamarnabors9393 he’s a baby. he’s soft as a bunny. Jimmy Butler exposed him years ago. He ain’t doing a damn thing
At least the Timberwolves have won a game.
He also said it could legit go either way with that series
@@RealBlueony Well it's tied 2-2, so it really can go either way.
This might be the best video I’ve ever seen Rusty do, respect
Steph > KD all time. Been saying it for years now.
Around the same
So why did KD get those back to back Finals MVPS ?
@@Thanosdidtherighthing Steph took more defensive attention giving KD more open looks.
@@Ultra-BLV kd doesn't need open looks lol 😆
@@alxfonso4924 what happen in game 2 lol 😂
Lol great timing on the video and straight facts you spitting there
Minimal? LMaoooo, people are slandering him so badly that they're saying LeBron beat this team, even though that's dumb and it isnt the same, but he is absolutely being slandered, and it is not minimal
That’s not slander bron did beat this team lol what are you taking about
@@showtimej2582 You do realize when Lebron beat them Tatum was a Rookie and average 14ppg???????
@@willgreig4077 Tatum wasn’t the only player on that team sir and you do realize bron lead his team in everything in that whole playoffs right
As a nets fan I never expected to overcome the Celtics this year, but game three really showed all the problems our team had this year. Literally there were two possessions where KD and Kyrie miscommunicated leading to a turnover which just shows how little time the two had playing together.
I thought I was the only one with this opinion. But ppl act like I'm saying he's trash or something
Love this take Rusty. They really tried to say KD was better than Giannis after last year cos he put up a few more points less efficiently and lost the series, people just overhype scorers and specifically 'skilled' jump shooters that can make difficult shots.
Ok but russelll Westbrook averaged a triple double thoooo 🤯🤯🤯
10 turnovers 10 fouls 10 airballs!!!
Man of culture
Wrong channel ☠
These are the real takes I subscribed for 💯
I swear, if I hear one more “he’s 7 feet tall and shoots like a guard” that people say to justify their opinion that KD beats the 96 bulls in a 1 on 5
No disrespect to KD ofc, one of the best to ever play the game, but my god his fanboys always jump to that to argue why KD is literally perfect and invincible
Appreciate you bro
I despite how KD has been shooting... we can all admit the refs let them manhandled each other through the first game and a half only to switch it up midway through the last game right? As a basketball player, that throws your rhythm off and watching his career. He's clearly a rhythm player
The thing with Jokic slander is that, to have a team literally run circles around you and nearly sweep your team, and yet be a 2 time consecutive MVP, it’s just a bad look. To not give him any blame, and just say he has no one around him, as true as it is would be dismissing his underperformance
The Warriors overhyped him, any superstar at that point any player with that caliber would a won with the Warriors. It's obvious and dude can't pull him through the series against the celtics, I'm not even a big lebron fan but if this was lebron or gainis they would have killed him
Plus he made the warriors ofens pretty shit for how it could have been if he didn't play iso ball that's why poole klay and curry could be better offensively
And would be if klay and curry can be fully healthy
We will see how poole will be against better defens and then I will have my answers
Lebron is in the goat conversation of course he's going to be held to a higher standard.
Giannis wouldn't be getting much more hate now except from Sixers fans. Because he won everything last year. And once you have a ring unless your in the goat conversation you get far less criticism for underpreforming.
Kawhi got less criticism than KD after the bubble for a good comparison.
Enjoying the content, been here since before 50k
KD is slandered all the time, what are you talking about ?
the media cares about lebron only, with 98% percent bronsexuals and 2% haters.
the rest of the league barely gets any mention, and if KD is mentioned, they usually shit on him for the warriors move or the twitter beefs or the fact that he left the warriors.
Na
I like rusty’s voice. He’s on a shortlist of youtubers I can listen in the background
This video aged so well. god damn. sheeeshh!!!
This video aged like fine wine. Also, what I’m getting from this video is that because the narrative and hate behind KDs decision was that he was SUCH an amazing player, even a perfect player, joining an amazing team. Making it the most unfair move in sports. We somehow had to first convince ourselves that KD was a perfect player, so that we could justify the hate for him joining a perfect team. Because a better Carmelo Anthony joining the warriors would not be as villainous as what we got. And we never really let go of the idea that KD was a perfect player. Especially with how he stepped his gane while on the warriors. Something probably only made possible because of Stephs play making and gravity.
While I disagree with some of what you said here, I completely agree that KD does not get the same scrutiny others do. I mean everyone uses Russ as a scapegoat in OKC when KD was terrible at the end of that series too, very similar to right now actually.
THANK YOU!!! So many ppl cite KD as the best or the best scorer and I don’t get it. People say “he’s a 7 footer that can do everything” I hate talking about what people CAN do vs the production itself
I have Kobe over kd as scorers. (Pls read this Jacob I wonder if you agree :)
KD has the efficiency shooting and all that but we never talk about the help he had to be efficient.
Aside from his mvp season and Rookie year, we have never see kd without an elite playmaker, (russ,harden, Kyrie, green and curry). Let alone other scoring threat that turned out they don’t have elite playmakers like klay.
Kobe for his career only had one elite playmaker, that was nash and he didn’t play for the whole season.
The other ones who are close are Pau and shaq, no where close to the talent KD had.
Yet Kobe has scoring games, weeks, months and even season that some would even say is the greatest of all time.
But no he’s not in the convo cause “He nEvEr sHOt 50%”
When KD was in okc he had to create most of his buckets by himself. He didn’t really benefit from Russ’s playmaking
You have to take into account the era he is playing. Kobe played in an era where scoring less than 80 points is not rare. The same can’t be said to KD. Also, there are multiple seasons (late 90s to mid 2000s) where the league TS% average was 50-51%. The fact that Kobe was shooting 56% in those times is actually great. That would be equivalent to a dude in 2022 shooting 61%TS. Kobe is underrated in efficiency.
@@GG-fy2bm You can argue that however I think it’s clear at least as a peak Kobe but still a Bears score when he was playing for OKC it was when 2014 and up where he was in the conversation to be better, which was also when russ got better if not became a superstar.
Also don’t forget your team had depth too and some reliable role players every now and then, or good defense that allows them to be good on offense.
@@kingdinodragonite3470 thank you, people never want to bring up how difficult it was to score back then I personally believe the 2000s is the hardest era to score in.
People forget who made three point era a thing, the 2000s started that.
People also forget that we started the 1-4 or 5 guarding trend.
Yet we still all time great bigs in the league and lack of spacing due to the adjustment.
Durant is facing a fraction of physicality that players felt in the 80s and 90s and is thrown off his game.
Bro the other players can have a great game and still get shit for it💀”oh but…” yet KD is having a horrendous series so far: gets no shit for it😂
Great vid watched whole thing
Let’s be honest Kd is going to get his criticism after the 🧹
This series has showns us if players play good defense anyone can be stopped
Who's here after Nets down 0-3?
KD gets a pass bc we still remember him from his OKC days where he was peerless as an *efficient* scorer; flash forward a decade and even benchers can be efficient low watt scorers.
I will cop to Rustys point in this vid. I've never solidly believed he was the best, especially without contest, despite my fondness for his game.
I will say now that the rest of his game is underrated. His passing has improved to the point he is average to above average as a passer. I won't put him in the company of Bron, CP3, or Jokic, et al. however he is an underrated passer, especially in light of his scoring prowess. Rebounding for players at his position (and in general) is always overlooked so I won't go there but he obviously can do it.
His shotblocking lacks polish as does his ball thievery and man to man D but again many of his superstar ilk do. Bron has tampered down his D in recent years and has always been best as a team defender rather than man. No one else besides a locked in and healthy Kawhi, PG13, AD and Joel Embiid can even claim to have paired elite defense with A1 offense (Giannis included of course).
I'm not giving him a pass but he's also playing with a team that he has barely any reps with all season. Combine that with the Celtics focusing their entire game plan on shutting him down and you can see why it would end in Durant having one of his worst series ever.
thats a fair point however, most people dont care to remember that when it comes to other players, with Steph its he shoulda beat the box n 1 with Giannis he shoulda beat the wall the raptors put up, For Luka he should have hit threes at a higher clip regardless of the clippers. Its almost highly expected they figure out a way by it, or get ridiculed when they dont. Also lacks of reps is an unfortunate cause injuries and mix and match lineups
"Most unguardable player"
" how do you stop him" 😂🤣🤣🤣
"I am not giving him a pass" followed by excuses made to give him a pass...
Pretty sure Kevin Durant has been one of the most hated figures in sports since 2016. I imagine that the reason he isn't be slandered as hard recently is cause alot of people have probably gotten bored of him tbh. I say this as someone who isn't much of a Durant fan. But I can at least agree that its incredibly unfair how guys like jokic are treated compared to Durant cause even when jokic does good people still find a way too discredit him and others that u mentioned
Kyrie being great in the first game takes ppl attention away from how GOD AWFUL he was
Some random notes I have: In terms of the big two networks, FS1 definitely gave him heat over the last two-three years. My theory is regionalism. FS1 is primarily in LA (with the exception of FTF, but those folks still share overall sentiments with the West). It's easier to pick at KD because he plays in NY, across the entire country. Vis versa with Lebron. Regional conference talk leads so much to basketball topics depending on which channel you're watching. Just a theory. Overall with KD, his lack of criticism is a telltale example of why is ISNT the top player. In simple terms, the more hate, the more great. I remember Giannis getting thrashed for his team's shortcomings in 2018-2020, Embiid too.
Great Video Rusty!
I feel like the protection he (and Kyrie & Kawhi) receive is some weird form of mirror opposite hate (like for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction type shit) for Lebron James.
I don't even understand what kind of protection you see that Kawhi gets (talking about his on court performance).
Kawhi gets no love from the media
@@eftichismalandrakis sure he does, he’s just injured a lot, so that kinda blunts the regard for him. He’s actually the closest thing to Michael Jordan right now.
The only reasons i can think of for not scrutinizing KD is because he was in Golden State so he didnt need to do everything or even show out every single night and then after that he had an injury that ends 9 out of 10 careers so him still being top 5 just seems miraculous
Underrated Superstars:
Lebron(at this point)
Giannis
Kawhi
Luka
Overrated superstars:
KD
Embiid
Curry
Jokic is weird because people either severely underrate him(Nick wright) or severely overrate him
Lebrons overrated as of rn this is his worst year in ages unless your looking at pure box scores
Curry come on? At least he made the playoffs along with the Dubs unlike KD
People talked about KD the past 2 years the way they should be talking about Kawhi Leonard. He does everything KD does on the offensive end as an unstoppable midrange shooter but he's also too strong to get bothered by physicality or be pushed away from getting to their spots like KD has been all series, which has been Boston's entire strategy
And he's not one-dimensional because he can completely swing a series on defense alone regardless, whether you need him to lock in against Luka or Giannis. The only time he's gotten beat by a defensive assignment was Jamal Murray after having carried PG and the Clippers for 12 prior games on a limping knee. For all the (somewhat deserved) Nuggets Game 7 slander he'd carried hard the whole playoffs before then while PG was being Pandemic P and the Clippers looked trash
And somehow that plus aesthetic and narrative bias toward KD has had people crowning KD as the best player alive when Kawhi has been better the whole time. Even when KD got supposedly crowned as the best player alive last playoffs in the Bucks series, Kawhi was the best player in the playoffs last season before his injury (30ppg at Shaq efficiency while playing unbelievable defense on Luka)
Jokic does not get the same level of criticism as KD this is ridiculous. All the sports shows been cooking KD and they barely talk about the gsw series. All the talk has been about Jordan Poole and how good gsw been. Jokic about to win mvp and be swept. KD was called the softest player by skip Bayless. Nick wright cooks KD every year.
Who is the other Jokic?
ITS the same with Jordan.
He might be the goat, but what annoys me is that they act like there is a difference between him and nr 2 like there is a difference between shaq and brian scalabrini
I think Durant is at this point underrated as a passer and defender like comparing him to Embid and Gianni’s he is a comparable passer and he is definitely a b/bplus defender if c is average
Also I think what makes Durant such a good scorer is his low usage he does not need to have the ball very long to score as well as he can bail out plays and can play offball
5:47 I've seen that loads of times based on the premise that he's "the only superstar that does it on both ends."
Are you kidding me why wouldn't anyone be talkin about Kevin Durant my favourite player is Kyrie Irving and honestly I blame him more because the team Dynamic and chemistry is completely way off honestly it's a little bit ridiculous the fact that we just expected them to just pick up everything and be ready for the finals they are not ready for the finals and I believe that they need a couple pieces that's what I believe
What I think y’all are missing is that he’s insanely tall and plays like a guard with massive handles and off the dribble shooting abilities. The video talked about how much they average scoring vs their true shoot percentages or something like that, but he didn’t mention that KD shot most of those from the middle range. Not in the paint. KD is the best tall player with a far past elite off the dribble scoring package. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve scrutiny but comparing him to Joel or Giannis or other middle range scores like melo, demar, booker, Lavine we not acknowledging he’s the best score on the planet at scoring at a distance from the hoop. And also that on the right team and good coaching he’s able to be unstoppable and unblock-able with shooting. So it’s not that he doesn’t face scrutiny on other parts of his game I remember he scrutinized for his defense on the thunder so started going for more blocks also Perkins and Stephen A just went off on him on espn so honestly I don’t see how he’s not being scrutinized….how????! That’s what made him join the warriors because of all the scrutiny he was facing to win a chip. That he was scrutinized for being a part of golden state. Also the guy just went to the finals 2 to 3 years ago he was in the finals and got hurt dude would have had 3 rings. Than last year he took Brooklyn to conference finals and almost beat Giannis and his whole team by himself by one inch. Also its should be understood outside of KD and Kyrie the Boston Celtics has the best duo of size and skill and youthful mixed with a defense coach and the best defense player of the year. Marcus smart who’ve always been a defense demon . He went from being the young guy to being the old buck with a bunch of youth on his team. So it’s understood Brooklyn isn’t facing a easy task, so why Blame KD when it takes a whole organization to be great . He’s definitely still the best scorer on the planet . So it’s not his scoring and he’s proved with the right coaching he’s unstoppable also he’s a true hooper so all that passing stuff he’s still gonna make the right play. Honestly this guy arguing is weak with no real hard evidence like how he claimed KD Supports to be. KD has a whole sports science video on his midrange scoring game. That should say enough. Also melo, demar and and Zach are not high efficiency shot takers and 3pt shooters. They all take tough shots. They don’t hold the same effortless scoring and Efficiency that KD has.
He’s soft and everyone coddles him since everyone knows how fragile he is so they don’t make a big fuss about it or a burner account would pop up.
That part 💯 and in 2017 up until recently I was the big KD hater this dudes just a big ass baby that happens to one able to play basketball.
Facts
thank you Rusty, KD has never received criticism like other superstars. The only slander he has ever got was leaving to GS. Yet you still had people blaming Westbrook for that despite KEVIN DURANT who was at the time 100% thought to be the 2nd best player in WORLD shot 10-30 in not one but 2 STRAIGHT close out games (game 5 and 6) and yet Westbrook who arguably was the main reason they were up 3-1 in the first place caught ALL of the blame while no one talked about how KD who is supposed to be a top 2 player had 2 of his worst playoff games ever and shot that badly in 2 straight FINALS clinching games with some of the worst shots and turnovers in game 6 yet received zero criticism that other top 5 players at the time would have.
Thank you. Too many people forget about kd’s last few playoff runs in okc