Durant vs Lebron

 Lebron James 3 time MVP. Kevin Durant 3 time scoring champion. Players like these are hard to find. But sometimes, debating which one is better can be even harder. Today I will be debating who I would rather own on my team: Durant or Lebron. I will separate each individual category, to decide which one I would rather have. The categories are: Scoring, Defense, Passing, Rebounding, and the Finale. Feel free to comment in a proper manner. Follow me on twitter @CJ_H_12. Thank you and enjoy.

          Scoring: This one has a proven winner. The winner is Kevin Durant. He has won the scoring title 3 years in a row and he doesn’t look like he’s going to give it up anytime soon. Kevin Durant might be the winner of this round but Lebron James is no weakling in this category. Lebron James has scored at least 27 PPG since the 2005 season. In fact he even won the scoring title in the 2007-08 season. However, Kevin Durant has scored at least 27.5 PPG for 3 straight seasons and won the scoring title in those 3 seasons. In the past 3 seasons he has beat out Lebron too.

Advantage: Durant

          Defense: This one is not very challenging. Although the stats might make this decision look close, it’s not. Lebron has been selected to the NBA All Defensive First Team 4 years in a row while Durant has never been selected to the second team. Lebron even got the most votes for the leagues All Defensive Team!  As Durant gets older and stronger I’m sure we will see his defense become stronger. For now though, Lebron is the better defender (and possibly the best perimeter defender   in the league).

Advantage: Lebron

Passing: When I say passing I mean which one is the better distributer not the one who can make the pin point pass (Although pin point passes is a small part of going into the decision making for a lot of positions.) The statistics speak for themselves in this situation. Durant has averaged only 3 assists per game for five seasons. Lebron James has averaged 6 to 7 assists since his first season (BTW Lebron outscored Durant in his first season compared to Durant’s first season too). Lebron has also played alongside less talented players, for the exception of the last two seasons. Lebron played with Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao while Durant has played with scorers like James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Yet, Lebron still averaged more assists than Durant. One last thing for this round: Let’s not forget that Lebron has proven he can throw the pin point pass. EX: Lebron threw a no look pass through the OKC Defense to DWade in game 4.

Advantage: Lebron

          Rebounding: This one is closer than most people think. Kevin Durant actually outrebounded Lebron James in the 2012 season in RPG and total rebounds: Durant: 8.0 RPG/527. Lebron: 7.9/492. Durant doesn’t get enough credit for his rebounding. He’s averaged at least 6.8 RPG for 3 years in a row. I decided to compare these two athletes rebounding skills by looking at how they did against each other (Notice these are the total rebounds in each game):

Game 1: Durant:8 Lebron:9      Game 2: Durant:3 Lebron:8

Game 3: Durant:6 Lebron:14    Game 4: Durant:2 Lebron:9

Game 5: Durant:11 Lebron:11  Total: Durant: 30 Lebron:51

RPG: Durant:6.0 Lebron:10.2

As you can see Lebron destroyed Durant in 3 out of the 5 games. In Game 1 Lebron still beat Durant in total rebounds and they tied in game 5. The RPG over the last seasons has been too close to compare. I have to give Lebron the advantage because he has outrebounded Durant but this category isn’t a landslide. I wouldn’t be surprised if Durant takes this category in future years. 

Advantage: Lebron

          Finale: In the finale I will be comparing the smaller categories like minutes per game/games per season, shooting efficiency, and how clutch they are. First we have MPG/GPS. For this I will not be using the 2012 season for GPS due to the lockout. Lebron over the last 8 seasons (not counting lockout season) has averaged 78 games per season. Durant has averaged 78 too. This can be a little biased however for Lebron has played 9 seasons compared to Durant’s 5. Lebron over his 9 seasons has averaged 39.85 MPG while Durant has averaged 38.12 MPG. For this category I’m going to call it a tie. The score is 3-1 still with Lebron winning. Next is shooting efficiency. Lebron has a better FG% for his career and over the last 3 seasons he has averaged 51.4% from the field. That’s outstanding. Durant still has never shot 50% or higher. When it comes to 3 point percentage, Durant wins, although Lebron has been steady at 33% to 35%. Last is free throw percentage. The statistics speak for themselves: Lebron has a 74.6% career free throw percentage while Durant has an 87.8%. The score is now 3-2. The last one has been messed with for the last 2 years. Anywhere you go you could hear a Lebron isn’t clutch joke. Lebron however has proved all the haters wrong in the past year. Lebron put on one of the most clutch performances ever. In game 6 facing elimination Lebron scored 45 points in 45 minutes! In game 7 Lebron scores 31 points in 48 minutes! And of course we all know what he did in the NBA finals. Durant however has also been clutch being nicknamed kid clutch by many people. Durant has always taken the last shot. For example against Dallas hitting the game winner with 1 second left. This one has to be a tie. However, if Lebron does what he did for the next couple of years he will be ahead of Durant. The final score is 3-2. I would take Lebron over Durant any day. For the fact that he can score at an average of 27 PPG, he is the best perimeter defender in the league, he’s a great passer and distributor, and can put up 7 rebounds per game. Thank you for reading and feel free to comment.

Winner: Lebron King James