Friday night against Denver, Kevin Durant entered the prestigious Top 10 of the most prolific scorers in NBA history. The opportunity to ask the following question: how high can KD climb?
With 27,423 points on the clock since his arrival in the NBA in 2007, Kevin Durant has just overtaken Moses Malone to take tenth place in the rankings. And given the level of play that he still has at the age of 35, we can already say that he will not stop there. Carmelo Anthony and Shaquille O’Neal, respectively ninth and eighth in the rankings, should quickly give up their place to Easy Money.
10) Kevin Durant : 27 423 points
9) Carmelo Anthony : 28 289 points (+ 866)
8) Shaquille O’Neal : 28 596 points (+ 1 173)
7) Wilt Chamberlain : 31 419 points (+ 3 996)
6) Dirk Nowitzki : 31 560 points (+ 4 137)
5) Michael Jordan : 32 292 points (+ 4 869)
4) Kobe Bryant : 33 643 points (+ 6 220)
3) Karl Malone : 36 928 points (+ 9 505)
2) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar : 38 387 points (+ 10 964)
1) LeBron James* : 39 124 points (+11 701)
*still in operation
Averaging 31 points this season, Kevin Durant will add 1,950 points to his personal tally this season if he stays on a similar pace over the remaining 63 games, obviously assuming he avoids injuries. Given his history (he has not played more than 55 games since the 2018-19 season) and his age, we can nevertheless imagine that he will miss a few games, which will limit his points total. But even taking this into account, KD has the capacity to reach the 29,000 points mark (1,577 more than his current total, or 51 games at 31 points on average) at the end of the 2023-24 regular season.
29,000 points would put Kevin Durant in eighth place behind Wilt Chamberlain. Easy Money would then have a little way to go to get closer to the trio Wilt / Dirk / Jordan, all above 31,000 units and who are tied at 873 points. But the Top 5 does not seem out of reach for KD. Because when we see his current production, the Suns sniper seems to still have several high-level seasons in his hands. The real question remains his durability but as soon as he is on the field, it’s 30 pawns or not far with his eyes closed.
KEVIN DURANT ENTERS THE TOP-10 IN ALL-TIME NBA SCORING ????
EASY MONEY ???? pic.twitter.com/20k6jknJ0m
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 2, 2023
If we had to predict?
Frankly, Kevin Durant must still have 5,000 points in stock, maybe more. This would place him in fifth place among the best scorers in history, with Kobe Bryant in his sights. The podium seems more difficult to achieve given Karl Malone’s big total, but be careful not to minimize the Slim Reaper’s chances.
We remind you that Kevin Durant is still in the Top 5 in NBA history in terms of points scored per game (27.34), and that he is the player with the fewest career games played (1,003) among the Top 10 scorers he has just joined.
All this to say that as long as he plays at a superstar level, anything seems possible… except perhaps catching up with the untouchable LeBron James.
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Source stats : Basket-Reference
2023-12-02 13:42:00
#ranking #scorers
