Dallas-Mavs.com Forums - View Single Post

Budapest Maverick · 06-13-2012, 01:13 PM

I thought the article was pretty straightforward. Dirk mentions that KD was 21 when he won his first scoring title, and then he compares 21 year old Durant to his 21 year old self. KD was indeed better at 21, he scored 30 points per game, on .607%TS. That's crazy. Dirk was not that great at 21, he scored around 20 points, on 56%TS. It needs to mentioned though, that at 21 Dirk only started his second season in the NBA, whereas Durant started his 3rd.

So 21 years old Durant had more experience, and if you go by season, Dirk also cracked 60%TS in his third year. So yeah, Dirk is probably a little too humble here, he makes it look like he was some kind vastly inferior player, which is obviously not true. Also, KD was never shy of pulling the trigger... a lot. Dirk was always a little bit too smart with his shot selection.

Even in his biggest games (50 point games, 40+ point games) he rarely went over 30 shot attempts. He was never interested in making front pages like Kobe, or the likes of him, he was always only concerned about playing the game the right way. With a mentality like Kobe, Dirk would have been battling for the scoring title every year.

06-13-2012, 01:13 PM	#25
Budapest Maverick Platinum Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Budapest, Hungary Posts: 2,209	I thought the article was pretty straightforward. Dirk mentions that KD was 21 when he won his first scoring title, and then he compares 21 year old Durant to his 21 year old self. KD was indeed better at 21, he scored 30 points per game, on .607%TS. That's crazy. Dirk was not that great at 21, he scored around 20 points, on 56%TS. It needs to mentioned though, that at 21 Dirk only started his second season in the NBA, whereas Durant started his 3rd. So 21 years old Durant had more experience, and if you go by season, Dirk also cracked 60%TS in his third year. So yeah, Dirk is probably a little too humble here, he makes it look like he was some kind vastly inferior player, which is obviously not true. Also, KD was never shy of pulling the trigger... a lot. Dirk was always a little bit too smart with his shot selection. Even in his biggest games (50 point games, 40+ point games) he rarely went over 30 shot attempts. He was never interested in making front pages like Kobe, or the likes of him, he was always only concerned about playing the game the right way. With a mentality like Kobe, Dirk would have been battling for the scoring title every year. Last edited by Budapest Maverick; 06-13-2012 at 01:15 PM.