RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Back in 2014, LeBron James famously tweeted that UConn point guard Shabazz Napier was his " favorite player in the draft ," doubling down on the tweet he'd fired out a few months earlier, as Napier was leading Connecticut to a national title, saying there's "no way you take another point guard in the draft before Napier."
At the time, LeBron hadn't announced his decision to leave Miami to go back to Cleveland, and the Heat , likely as an effort to convince LeBron to stay, traded for Napier on draft night to give LeBron his guy. LeBron took off back to Cleveland anyway.
But that's not really the point here. The point is that great players do not make great general managers. They all believe they know best what makes a great player, and by extension, a great team. But LeBron (who was also a driving force behind the failed experiment that was Russell Westbrook to the Lakers ) falling in love with Napier (who wound up starting 55 games over six forgettable NBA seasons before washing out to Europe) is one of the more memorable examples of why you should always take a great player's talent evaluations with a grain of salt.
Which brings us to Kevin Durant . The current Rockets star recently, hilariously , lumped the 2026-27 Philadelphia 76ers into the same talent tier as his 2016-17 Golden State Warriors . There was more than one ridiculous part of Durant's assertion, in fact. We'll get to them both. Let's dive in.
It all started when Durant was asked this month whether the 76ers, who of course just added Jaylen Brown and LeBron to go alongside Tyrese Maxey , Joel Embiid and V.J. Edgecombe, should be considered a championship contender. To which he responded: "For sure. ... Hell yeah, I think they're going to be a contender."
This is not a controversial statement. Anyone with a functional pair of basketball eyes should be able to see this. It doesn't mean they're going to win the title. They probably won't. But they're a contender. They're stacked. No question about it.
Where Durant loses credibility is in his rationale for labeling the Sixers a contender. "Last time they put three 20-point scorers on a team, they said it was unfair, which was the team I was on. [The 76ers] got four 25-point scorers."
Kevin Durant on LeBron James’s 76ers: “The last time they put three 20-point scorers on a team, they said it was unfair, which was the [Warriors] team I was on. They have got four 25-point scorers on this team. So, hell yeah, I think they’re going to be a contender.” pic.twitter.com/aFcSyDoEq1
Durant was referring to the 2016-17 Warriors when he said "the last time they put three 20-point scorers on a team they said it was unfair," which is funny because Durant has been on two teams since those Warriors that included three 20-point scorers.
The most recent was the 2023-24 Phoenix Suns with Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal . Before that, it was the Brooklyn Nets with Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden . Nobody was calling those teams unfair. The Suns never got past the first round with Durant. The Nets -- though we never got to see them collectively healthy in the playoffs, to be fair -- never made it past the second round.
That's largely because you cannot judge the collective merit of a basketball team by the sum of its individual scoring parts. Durant mentions nothing about defense. Or versatility. Or depth. Or passing. Or rebounding. Or offensive fit. Only that the 76ers have a bunch of great scorers, just as his Suns did.
It's not the first time that Durant has proclaimed scoring to be disproportionately more valuable than any other skill in basketball. In Netflix's Starting 5 , Durant flat-out said anyone can play defense, calling moving your feet left and right "easy," but it's "making shots" that wins championships.
Kevin Durant believes offense wins Championships “You have to score baskets if you want to win a championship… Playing defense, we can get any of y’all in here to bend your legs… that’s easy.” (Via @netflixsports , h/t @OmerOsman200 ) pic.twitter.com/4SYgkeGVTH
Durant is hilariously wrong about this. Of course, scoring matters. And having multiple scorers, particularly those who can self-create, obviously gives you a leg up. But there are diminishing returns on scoring alone. The Sixers will definitely suffer from this fact if they don't figure out all the other things Durant fails to mention.
This is why putting these 76ers in the same historic breath as the dynastic Warriors, who had a bunch of great scorers who fit together inside a system designed for the betterment of the team in addition to an elite defense, great depth and top-end coaching, is ridiculous. But Durant apparently believes basketball is as simple as the individual talent a team comprises (his time with the Suns apparently taught him nothing), and he believes -- again, ridiculously -- that these 76ers have more talent than his Warriors.
As the clip of Durant comparing these Sixers to his Warriors made the social media rounds, a fan wrote in the comment section: "Ain't close." Durant fired back with the following response.
"Ain't close lmao," Durant wrote. "Joel [Embiid], MVP recently. Jaylen Brown, recent Finals MVP. Tyrese Maxey, All-Star the last three years. We all know what [Le]Bron does. Klay Thompson , never a MVP candidate in nothing, 22 [points per game]. Draymond [Green], 14 PPG, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. Steph [Curry] a MVP just like Joel was. I don't get how the Warriors team is better on paper."
Again, there is so much nonsense in this comment that it's hard to single out any one thing. But we'll start with the "never a MVP candidate in nothing" Klay Thompson stray. For Durant to reduce his former teammate, who without question will be going into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, down to a mere 22 PPG scorer, with no mention whatsoever of his elite defense, movement, or the fact that those 22 points were scored without his needing to control the ball, is an absolute ins...
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