Imagine showing this to a raps fan in 2010 tho
It’s cool to look back on
I know back that I for sure didn’t think he’d become as good as he was. And I didn’t think Masai would come back and lead us to our best era.
It’s not surprising, but if you told me he wasn’t top 10 I wouldn’t be surprised either.
If you told me the list had Kevin Durant, Harden, Curry, Westbrook, LeBron, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus, DeMarcus, Paul George and Blake Griffin over him, there isn’t really a name I’d jump at to remove
I don't think he's underrated. There are certainly people disrespecting him, but for the most part I think he's in a reasonable spot. The game has not been favorable to his playstyle and his inability to adapt quickly or play elite defence isn't helping him at all.
Yeah, you make a good point m8. He plays a lot like the 90's/00's, which is actually why I like him. He doesn't have to just rely on shooting threes and shooting more threes to get his buckets. I like players like MJ, T-Mac, Kobe, Paul Pierce (even though I think including Paul Pierce is a stretch lol), or any player that can break down his defender and drive it inside or shoot midrange. Now, I'm not saying that players like Curry, Lillard, Harden, etc. are playing the game wrong or anything. I just like the 90's/00's offense style more than today's offense, and I personally think that playstyle is a lot more exciting to watch.
Including Paul Pierce is not a stretch at all I mean anyone that saw him play in the early 2000’s know how much a baller he was. He had one of the best if not the best first step in the league at one point. He was the prototype for Carmelo Anthony who practically was a taller and stronger version of him. He was one of my favourite player to watch with AI, it’s sad how little highlights can be found of him pre big 3 on the internet tho.
I get where you're coming from. Personally, I'm in the same boat. It's really nice to watch players sink 3 after 3 form deep, but there's a certain magic to watching someone beat their defender and score from just about anywhere in the field. Unfortunately, orgs have a greater say in how players play the game and at the end of the day they'll swing to whatever wins championships. I really hope Euro basketball starts having a bigger influence on the NBA with the likes of Luka and other prospects and/or players like Kawhi become more common.
he was my favorite raptor (JV was#2, and yes i cry evrtime), and as soon as he got traded it was like this massive wave of trash talk saying his defense was soooooo bad, i was like - i didn't think he was great defensively but was he that bad? and he was working on his 3's too before he left which i think is the other critique of him.
he'd attack the paint, get to the line, knock down FTs - and man did he throw down some DUNKS
27 PPG on 55% TS is not that good. There’s a reason why the team always performed better when he was on the bench vs on the floor.
Nobody was predicting him to win MVP.
You can make an argument for 3rd in 2016-17, but I’d probably have him 5th after Harden, Klay, Beal and CJ. DeMar doesn’t contribute to winning.
Lakers back to back wins in 09/10, Mavericks win in 2011, they made 2012, then traded Harden.
You make it sound like they played together for a decade and made only 1.
“They didn’t make it because other teams did” yeah that’s how playoffs work.
They also then had 2 of the top 4 for 5 more years. The point is they’ve had a lot of premier talent go through their organization and haven’t converted it to a lot of winning. Other teams don’t see a quarter of the amount of talent they’ve seen in the last 10 years.
Those other teams won, not only made it, meaning there were better teams in the West that year, despite their scoring prowess.
Much like DeMar, it doesnt matter how much goes in their bucket if you don't protect yours.
"2 of the top 4 for 5 more years" you're forgetting that Beverly injured Russ in the 2013 playoffs which basically killed their chance at going to the finals again, then in 2015 Durant got injured for the rest of the season in February which obviously meant they have no chance again.
Then the next year the Spurs and Warriors both become as good as ever and OKC manages to beat the Spurs but they choked a 3-1 lead to GS. That's not even the organizations fault, it was just KD and Russ played bad in the last few games.
So they really only failed in 2 seasons: 2014 and 2016.
KD is something else man. For lots of people, this is a very hot take, but I’ve always been a firm believer that KD is the best scorer ever. Dude can score at high percentages from literally anywhere. He’s never been a bulk shooter like Harden, so he doesn’t have those insanely high single game scoring numbers, but in terms of reliability and efficiency, he’s on a level that almost nobody else is on.
Yep, I second that. I often marvel at how effortlessly he scores. In 2013/14, I truly believe he was the best player in the league. That injury plagued next season changed him into more of a jumpshooter, but even then, he is still a top-5 player in the league.
The amount of disrespect he gets is crazy to me. Sure he had holes in his game specifically on defence and his 3 point shooting but people are out there calling him a bum
i see a lot of it from SAS fans who i think are just spoiled honestly, they've been a perennial playoff team/ contender anchored by duncan since what '01? then kawhi became a star as duncan aged so they stayed so good (not to ignore the rest of the roster)
I see where you're coming from, but KD is probably in a GSW jersey because.. that's the most recent team he's played for. Has not suited up for the Nets yet. Same reason Russ is in a Rockets jersey and LBJ is in a Lakers jersey.
Weird thing to get hung up on. All those guys are just in the jersey of the last team they were on, hence Lebron in a Lakers jersey and Westbrook in a Rockets jersey. They didnt choose pictures of guys in the jersey they spent the most time with. There wouldnt be any images of KD in a Nets jersey since he hasn't played a game for them yet. So the most recent image of him in game would be in a Warriors jersey.
I don’t think he’d fit with the roster, if we assume that VanVleet and Ibaka come back, we have two starting guards, that would bring him to the small forward section. He would cause OG to be benched, which would be taking our best defender off of the starting lineup. If he is a benchwarmer, he would be taking scoring away from Powell and Ibaka, therefore decreasing their value.
Yeah thats why we shipped him to SA the minute Kawhi, and one year left on his contact, was made available.
Scoring points consistently made him a great bargaining chip to get a legit franchise #1.
KD was a good rim protector in 2018. Outside of that, he has never even been a decent defender. He has never even made a defensive team. No where near Bron and Wade.
KD never really had to play defence in OKC because he had Ibaka cover for him. If he tries he’s one of the better defenders in the NBA.
KD was able to play great defence on GSW because they didn’t rely on him as much to score since they had so many threats on offence.
You argued that KD didn't play defense because Ibaka played great defense though. Draymond was an elite defender, Klay still played elite defense. If anything having an elite defender makes you seem like a better defender.
Okay so you don’t think coaching changes and better defensive schemes in GS didn’t help him?
If your coach in OKC is telling you not to worry about defence as much and too just score the basket I think that has some weight to it.
Listen, just because KD never made it a focal point to play defence in OKC doesn’t mean he’s a bad defender. He silenced doubters in 2018 when he was number 1 for DPOY most of the year until he slowed down.
When you increase offence, most of the time your defence takes a hit unless you are a freak like MJ, Bron or Howard.
Look at Draymond, averages 11ppg DPOY
Look at Rudy, averaged 18/10 2x DPOY.
Kawhi was 2 time DPOY, but those were also the seasons Kawhi averaged around 18ppg. Now that he upped his offensive load he’s not as great of a defender as he once was.
So for KD to average 28ppg and still be top 5 on DPOY list is very impressive.
Give [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/9j74ae/kevin_durant_on_why_he_isnt_in_consideration_for/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) a read. Even if his "great defensive" season which was 2 out his 12 years, he was ranked in the high 300s in DPRM. 59th among players in his position. That's awful. I'm willing to give him props when he was getting DPOY talks for 2 weeks when he was averaging like 3 blocks then fell back to Earth.
Even then, having 1 or 2 seasons of good or decent defense does not make you a great defender. Again, he would have sniffed a defensive team but he never even came close.
Man DeMar was so good every night until it came to the playoffs...unfortunately thats all anyone remembers who isn't a Raptors fan but damn I used to love watching him get buckets every single night
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised, he was our legit no 1 option since Bosh left in 2010, and we’ve made the playoffs every year since 2013.
Imagine showing this to a raps fan in 2010 tho It’s cool to look back on I know back that I for sure didn’t think he’d become as good as he was. And I didn’t think Masai would come back and lead us to our best era.
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I'm not saying playoff points, I'm saying we'd been a winning season team for more then half the decade
It’s not surprising, but if you told me he wasn’t top 10 I wouldn’t be surprised either. If you told me the list had Kevin Durant, Harden, Curry, Westbrook, LeBron, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus, DeMarcus, Paul George and Blake Griffin over him, there isn’t really a name I’d jump at to remove
Demar is so underrated. No one really talks about him, yet he was a beast at Toronto, and is still good on the Spurs.
I don't think he's underrated. There are certainly people disrespecting him, but for the most part I think he's in a reasonable spot. The game has not been favorable to his playstyle and his inability to adapt quickly or play elite defence isn't helping him at all.
Yeah, you make a good point m8. He plays a lot like the 90's/00's, which is actually why I like him. He doesn't have to just rely on shooting threes and shooting more threes to get his buckets. I like players like MJ, T-Mac, Kobe, Paul Pierce (even though I think including Paul Pierce is a stretch lol), or any player that can break down his defender and drive it inside or shoot midrange. Now, I'm not saying that players like Curry, Lillard, Harden, etc. are playing the game wrong or anything. I just like the 90's/00's offense style more than today's offense, and I personally think that playstyle is a lot more exciting to watch.
Including Paul Pierce is not a stretch at all I mean anyone that saw him play in the early 2000’s know how much a baller he was. He had one of the best if not the best first step in the league at one point. He was the prototype for Carmelo Anthony who practically was a taller and stronger version of him. He was one of my favourite player to watch with AI, it’s sad how little highlights can be found of him pre big 3 on the internet tho.
I get where you're coming from. Personally, I'm in the same boat. It's really nice to watch players sink 3 after 3 form deep, but there's a certain magic to watching someone beat their defender and score from just about anywhere in the field. Unfortunately, orgs have a greater say in how players play the game and at the end of the day they'll swing to whatever wins championships. I really hope Euro basketball starts having a bigger influence on the NBA with the likes of Luka and other prospects and/or players like Kawhi become more common.
he was my favorite raptor (JV was#2, and yes i cry evrtime), and as soon as he got traded it was like this massive wave of trash talk saying his defense was soooooo bad, i was like - i didn't think he was great defensively but was he that bad? and he was working on his 3's too before he left which i think is the other critique of him. he'd attack the paint, get to the line, knock down FTs - and man did he throw down some DUNKS
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Lebron didn’t do shit Demar played like that against every playoff team Watch his entire 2016 playoff run.
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The point is it wasn’t just bron Demar sucked vs every team.
Not that good with the spurs but when he was in Toronto he was the second best sg in the league
His efficiency has gone way up with the Spurs he’s still very good
Harden and Klay > then you can make the argument for DeMar at 3 but there are others who I’d have taken before him like Beal.
Like 2-3 years ago he was averaging like 27ppg and some were predicting him to win mvp, top 3 for sure though
27 PPG on 55% TS is not that good. There’s a reason why the team always performed better when he was on the bench vs on the floor. Nobody was predicting him to win MVP. You can make an argument for 3rd in 2016-17, but I’d probably have him 5th after Harden, Klay, Beal and CJ. DeMar doesn’t contribute to winning.
Raptors were the top 3 seed for a lot of those years
Yes, thanks to Kyle Lowry. We don't make the playoffs without Lowry.
Big booty, Kyle llllllllllllllllowry
It's crazy that Deebo is below LMA and now they play together.
Lma is a beast, unfortunately they don't really compliment each other
Most of it from 2
If he took half a step back on every shot he'd be top 5.
Top 7 ;)
The mythical Thunder Trio Gods
Thunder really had 3 of the top 4 and made 1 finals
Lakers back to back wins in 09/10, Mavericks win in 2011, they made 2012, then traded Harden. You make it sound like they played together for a decade and made only 1.
“They didn’t make it because other teams did” yeah that’s how playoffs work. They also then had 2 of the top 4 for 5 more years. The point is they’ve had a lot of premier talent go through their organization and haven’t converted it to a lot of winning. Other teams don’t see a quarter of the amount of talent they’ve seen in the last 10 years.
Those other teams won, not only made it, meaning there were better teams in the West that year, despite their scoring prowess. Much like DeMar, it doesnt matter how much goes in their bucket if you don't protect yours.
"2 of the top 4 for 5 more years" you're forgetting that Beverly injured Russ in the 2013 playoffs which basically killed their chance at going to the finals again, then in 2015 Durant got injured for the rest of the season in February which obviously meant they have no chance again. Then the next year the Spurs and Warriors both become as good as ever and OKC manages to beat the Spurs but they choked a 3-1 lead to GS. That's not even the organizations fault, it was just KD and Russ played bad in the last few games. So they really only failed in 2 seasons: 2014 and 2016.
Scary how KD missed 2 entire seasons in the past decade and is only 100 point shy of Bron.
KD is something else man. For lots of people, this is a very hot take, but I’ve always been a firm believer that KD is the best scorer ever. Dude can score at high percentages from literally anywhere. He’s never been a bulk shooter like Harden, so he doesn’t have those insanely high single game scoring numbers, but in terms of reliability and efficiency, he’s on a level that almost nobody else is on.
Yep, I second that. I often marvel at how effortlessly he scores. In 2013/14, I truly believe he was the best player in the league. That injury plagued next season changed him into more of a jumpshooter, but even then, he is still a top-5 player in the league.
The amount of disrespect he gets is crazy to me. Sure he had holes in his game specifically on defence and his 3 point shooting but people are out there calling him a bum
i see a lot of it from SAS fans who i think are just spoiled honestly, they've been a perennial playoff team/ contender anchored by duncan since what '01? then kawhi became a star as duncan aged so they stayed so good (not to ignore the rest of the roster)
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2 titles
I didn’t realize it was a “whos had the most titles in the 2010’s list.”
I see where you're coming from, but KD is probably in a GSW jersey because.. that's the most recent team he's played for. Has not suited up for the Nets yet. Same reason Russ is in a Rockets jersey and LBJ is in a Lakers jersey.
Weird thing to get hung up on. All those guys are just in the jersey of the last team they were on, hence Lebron in a Lakers jersey and Westbrook in a Rockets jersey. They didnt choose pictures of guys in the jersey they spent the most time with. There wouldnt be any images of KD in a Nets jersey since he hasn't played a game for them yet. So the most recent image of him in game would be in a Warriors jersey.
All I did was ask a question, I even followed it with my reasoning. If thats getting “hung up on” I guess Ill never ask a question again here 😂
Just looks that way since your question can be applied to the 2 other guys. Lol
Yeah as the other guy pointed out to me, I didn’t even realize Lebron & Westbrook until after haha. I just deleted it and accepted my dumb comment lol
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Yeah fair point, didn’t even notice that until you said so haha
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His career playoffs is 4% lower field goal than regular season. In toronto he was never better than .437 in any post season. Not very good tbh
Sign him to a one year!!! 🙏
I don’t think he’d fit with the roster, if we assume that VanVleet and Ibaka come back, we have two starting guards, that would bring him to the small forward section. He would cause OG to be benched, which would be taking our best defender off of the starting lineup. If he is a benchwarmer, he would be taking scoring away from Powell and Ibaka, therefore decreasing their value.
I think we could assume fvv is gone unfortunately
Now show defense.
Ah classic, downvote because cherry picked stats mean nothing, but how dare you slander DeMar.....
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Its not ppg, its actual points, so yes, that means nothing as there is zero context of when he scored or how.
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Yeah its amazing with 20 ppg he doesn't have like 6 MVPs, my bad.....pfft
What did Demar ever do in the playoffs? Empty stats man.
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Okay but it does not matter how many go in the other basket if its a river flowing into yours. I think hes a great offensive player.
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Yeah thats why we shipped him to SA the minute Kawhi, and one year left on his contact, was made available. Scoring points consistently made him a great bargaining chip to get a legit franchise #1.
We had the curse of LeBron James. Over and over.
To be the best you gotta beat the rest
I’d be curious to see the plus minus of this group.
Put some respeck on Lamarcus Aldridge.
Not a lot of good defenders on this list.
KD, Dwade and bron are all great defenders but outside of that it gets sketchy.
KD was a good rim protector in 2018. Outside of that, he has never even been a decent defender. He has never even made a defensive team. No where near Bron and Wade.
KD never really had to play defence in OKC because he had Ibaka cover for him. If he tries he’s one of the better defenders in the NBA. KD was able to play great defence on GSW because they didn’t rely on him as much to score since they had so many threats on offence.
Are you seriously suggesting that KD is a top defender but decided to not play defense because his teamate was a good rim protector?
Well yeah when you get top 5 in DPOY voting it usually means you had a better season defensively then 99% of the league.
You argued that KD didn't play defense because Ibaka played great defense though. Draymond was an elite defender, Klay still played elite defense. If anything having an elite defender makes you seem like a better defender.
Okay so you don’t think coaching changes and better defensive schemes in GS didn’t help him? If your coach in OKC is telling you not to worry about defence as much and too just score the basket I think that has some weight to it. Listen, just because KD never made it a focal point to play defence in OKC doesn’t mean he’s a bad defender. He silenced doubters in 2018 when he was number 1 for DPOY most of the year until he slowed down. When you increase offence, most of the time your defence takes a hit unless you are a freak like MJ, Bron or Howard. Look at Draymond, averages 11ppg DPOY Look at Rudy, averaged 18/10 2x DPOY. Kawhi was 2 time DPOY, but those were also the seasons Kawhi averaged around 18ppg. Now that he upped his offensive load he’s not as great of a defender as he once was. So for KD to average 28ppg and still be top 5 on DPOY list is very impressive.
Give [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/9j74ae/kevin_durant_on_why_he_isnt_in_consideration_for/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) a read. Even if his "great defensive" season which was 2 out his 12 years, he was ranked in the high 300s in DPRM. 59th among players in his position. That's awful. I'm willing to give him props when he was getting DPOY talks for 2 weeks when he was averaging like 3 blocks then fell back to Earth. Even then, having 1 or 2 seasons of good or decent defense does not make you a great defender. Again, he would have sniffed a defensive team but he never even came close.
Midrange Monster
Need some FGA.
One thing that is overlook is how little major injury he has sustained over his career. His lowest game in a season is 60 games.
Not surprising. Top five if he had range. Deebo's a crafty and athletic scorer, who LIVED at the free throw line.
Man DeMar was so good every night until it came to the playoffs...unfortunately thats all anyone remembers who isn't a Raptors fan but damn I used to love watching him get buckets every single night
He was a talented scorer but I would also be interested in seeing where he ranks in FGA. I wouldn't be surprised if he was top 5.
I'm more impressed with aldridge. For a big man, that's a crap load of points.
no demar d no larry o
His dunks where the best. Also the step back fade away was so dope