NBA: 5 biggest overreactions from the second round of the playoffs
LeBron is no longer the best player in the world
One of the biggest stories from the regular season was the fact that LeBron missed the playoffs for the first time since 2005. And that seemed to open the floodgates for people to speculate who’s going to take the throne from the king this year as the best player in the league. And while the superhuman that is LeBron may come back next year and put everyone back in their place, for the time being, there are three guys that seem to be competing for that elusive individual honour.
Giannis Antetoknoumpo seems like the obvious choice given that he had his true coming out party this year, is likely going to win the MVP and led the Bucks to the most wins in the league. That being said, he hasn’t elevated his level of play in the 2019 NBA playoffs as much as the other two on this shortlist, making him third in my opinion.
So now it comes down to Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard, both of which have made as convincing a case as any as to why they should be considered the league’s best and here’s what I think about each…
The term scoring machine now seems like an understatement with Kevin Durant as he is currently in the midst of one of the best scoring runs in playoff history. He’s unguardable from virtually everywhere on the court and has been the clear best player on the stacked Warriors.
Kawhi may not be as explosive of a scorer but he’s been almost as good this year in the playoffs, averaging over 32 a game on almost unheard of efficiency and while KD has established himself as a top defender in the league in recent years, Kawhi is just on another level on that end and it is that, along with the fact that Kawhi has a lot less help from his supporting cast why I have him as the best player in the world right now.
What would be ideal, is if Golden State and Toronto can each make it to the NBA finals where we’ll really get to see, first hand, who’s more deserving of the “best player” label.
Next. Golden State Warriors: The end of a dynasty is nearly here. dark
*Remember to check out the Around the Arc podcast where I talk about this and a whole lot more NBA goodness (link below)!
Listen to “Overreacting to the NBA Playoffs + Top 10 Smoothest Scorers in the League” on Spreaker.