Kevin Durant won the first MVP award of his career, after spending six seasons in the NBA. He deserved the award 100 percent and even his strongest rival in this race, LeBron James, admitted that. KD recorded a marvelous season, putting up huge performances, especially during the time that Russell Westbrook was out with an injury. Nonetheless, in the end, the Oklahoma City Thunder failed to even make it to the NBA Finals. In fact, during the postseason, Durant was not as great as he was during the regular season. So is he the real MVP? Or did LeBron once again prove his supremacy? Maybe even Tony Parker and Tim Duncan were better than Durant during the Western Conference Finals?
Durant’s numbers during the regular season were spectacular. In 81 games, the megastar forward recorded 32.0 points per contest, 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 47.9 field goal percentage and 39.1 percent from beyond the three – point arc. Durant had by far the best numbers than LeBron and the race for the MVP of the regular season was not even close. Most analysts and people around the NBA widely expected KD to be named the MVP of the 2013 – 2014 regular season.
Now, have a look at his numbers during the playoffs and I am sure you will easily spot the difference. 29.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 46.0 percent shooting from the field and 34.4 from three – point range. Whilst those numbers are still great, they are not as good as the ones Durant recorded in the regular season. In fact, in some games, Durant failed to be productive, especially in clutch situation and an OKC local newspaper nicknamed him “Mr. Unreliable”.
It became obvious that Durant and the OKC Thunder just didn’t have enough to top the extremely well shaped San Antonio Spurs, but hey, this elimination was not just Durant’s fault.
In a way, Kevin Durant took it as far as he could during the playoffs. From there, his fellow superstar Russell Westbrook and the rest of the Thunder team should have responded. Westbrook recorded a great postseason and he even made a few big plays. However, he didn’t seem to have the team spirit needed for a team to make it to the top.
So, when it comes to the true MVP of the 2013 – 2014 season, yes Durant was the best player in the NBA during the regular season. In the playoffs, though, when things get serious, Durant was not nearly as good as LeBron James or even Tony Parker. In fact, Parker made his impact felt in a bigger scale than Durant, even if he suffered an ankle injury.
Durant deeply knows that no matter how many MVP titles he wins during the next years, they will hardly have that much of an essence if he fails to win a championship ring. Kevin Durant has to become the true MVP, he has to be at his best when the moment that he and his team were fighting for, arrives. He has to be better during the playoffs. That’s the only way for him to oust LeBron from the top.
Ron Leyba is the content manager of Fantasy Basketball Money Leagues – premier source of fantasy basketball updates, rankings and rumors. For more of his fantasy basketball updates, follow Fantasy Basketball Money Leagues Google+ account.