A lot has been made of Miami Heat forward LeBron James’ recent quotes about Oklahoma City Thunder point-producer Kevin Durant. One pertaining to KD’s recent shooting sprees, however, has garnered particular attention.
“I get jealous sometimes when I look over at KD and he’s like 16-for-32 [from the field] and then 14-for-34,” James told Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com. “I’m not much of a forced-shot guy … but there are games where I have it going, and then at the end of the game, I’m like, d—, I shot just 12-for-16? Why don’t I get up at least six or seven more? I definitely notice it.”
Of course, sports media took this quote, plastered it everywhere and blew it out of proportion.
As a matter of fact, Durant seemed to be the only one who let the comment go in one ear and out the other. When asked if he had seen James’ comment, Durant simply put the chaos to rest, and credited James for the talent that he is.
“How can I not see it?” Durant said. “It’s been on CNN. It’s been on ABC, FOX Sports. Man, it’s been everywhere. Ya’ll blowing that out of proportion, man. I mean, I’m pretty sure, matter of fact, I’m 100 percent sure LeBron can do whatever he wants.”
Despite Durant’s lack of interest in the comment, the sports world has begun a debate that has risen to the national scale. The debate, simply put, is this: if LeBron got to take as many shots as KD, would he produce similar to the Thunder phenom?
This is an untraditional sports opinion article in that I am simply here to provide statistics, both actual and theoretical, so that you may make up your own mind.
Thus far this season, Durant is 467/915 shooting from the field, resulting in a .510 field goal percentage. Drastically different is James, whose 421/726 shooting from the field has earned him a .580 percentage.
One immediate observation is that the statement was factually true – overwhelmingly, Durant has more field goal attempts than LeBron this season so far. Another is that while James has significantly less attempts, his efficiency is much higher than Durant’s, a statistic that will come into play shortly.
From beyond the arc, KD is 102/243 with a .420 percentage, while King James is 58/157 with a .369 percentage. This statistic, paired with the 88 percent to 76 percent free-throw advantage for Durant, is not as brow raising – as few hold James a better long-range shooter than Durant.
Now I present the experiment. Using Durant’s bountiful attempts paired with James’ efficient percentage, I have developed a “theoretical LeBron” to examine the legitimacy of his claims as best I could.
The discrepancy between Durant’s 915 field goal attempts and LeBron’s was 189 attempts. Combining that difference with LeBron’s .580 field goal percentage, you arrive at 110 additional theoretical makes, resulting in 531 total field goals for the imaginary LeBron, 64 more sunk than Durant.
The difference between KD’s 243 3-point attempts and James’ was 86 attempts. Pairing that discrepancy with LeBron’s .369 3-point percentage, you get 32 additional threes, resulting in 90 total 3-pointers drained for theoretical LeBron, 12 shy of Durant’s actual total.
While initially these numbers do not seem too shocking, they actually make a drastic difference.
Durant, this season, is averaging 31.3 points per game, with 1,441 total points this season. James is averaging 26.2 points per game, with 1,153 total.
To put things into perspective, per my highly theoretical and assumptive experiment, if LeBron had as many attempts as KD from the field, with his existing percentages, theoretically LeBron would be averaging 36 points per game with 1,585 total points thus far.
Accordingly, LeBron would be averaging almost five points per game more than Durant, and would have already racked-up 144 more points. The thought of that is phenomenal.
So does LeBron have a good point? Possibly.
One statistic that serves as possibly the truest representation of the situation at hand is LeBron’s 43 more assists than Durant this season. To register an assist, there must first be a pass, but it must also be followed by a bucket from a teammate.
LeBron has several capable hands around him in Miami, whereas Durant lost his most capable to injury earlier in the year. Actually, I would contend that Durant is slightly jealous of LeBron as well for not having to shoulder the full load of a team, something that KD understandably struggles with.
“I’m not doing enough to help them,” Durant told Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. “I’m shooting too much. I’m shooting too many threes. I’m not helping them out at all. So it’s not on them.”
Is LeBron or KD the better scorer? I do not know. Is the grass always greener on the other side? Possibly so.
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