Which is why it will be interesting to see how Carter and Hedo fare in Orlando and Toronto, respectively.

Hedo does a lot of ball facilitating for the Magic. Several to most of their plays start with him. So I agree that a knee-jerk swap of Hedo and Kevin starting game 1 of the playoffs this year would hurt the Magic.

However, Durant is a much better overall player than Hedo. So in a full season’s time, the Magic adjusts their playbook to Durant’s skills, or Durant adjusts to the playbook. Probably a combination of both.

But this is all hypothetical, so you can’t really ever tell. You can’t just look at head to head stats, or Durant wins everything all day long. Would Durant have been able to shoot 42% from 3 if he were required to take twice as many? Their position is the same, but their style of play isn’t.

8. James Harden
Pac-10 Player of the Year (20.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.2 apg) and first team All-American played his way into the No. 3 Draft slot, where he’s expected to start from Day One in Oklahoma City. Before struggling in the NCAA Tournament, Harden led his conference in scoring and steals (1.6 spg), and drew a ton of Paul Pierce and Brandon Roy comparisons.

Looking at this list of small forwards and Dime’s…. well, it’s different. I’m betting KD is the second best in the league next year. Carmelo is OVERRATED BIGTIME. He scores points, but at a very low percentage clip… compare with KD. Turk is overrated also. I think next year only Lebron is better.

I’m going to say it again, and it probably won’t go over well, but I don’t think KD is a Lebron/Duncan/Shaq/Jordan kind of superstar. I think he’s more of a Kobe, Pippen (top 25 all time, overshadowed by number 1), or Wade kind of superstar. He can carry a team with scoring, he can shred a defense and would be a terror in the postseason. But, he doesn’t make his teammates take it to another level. He can’t win with a bad team, but he can easily be an MVP and “best in the league” kind of player with good teammates.

I vehemently disagree with you on two fronts. First of all, and I know that this a Thunder blog, but are you really going to throw Kobe in with Pippen on the second tier of superstars? Look back at the 2006 and 2007 Laker teams that Kobe lugged into the playoffs. When your starting lineup includes Smush Parker, Brian Cook, and Kwame Brown and you make it into the playoffs, your making your teammates better. Secondly, are we going to put restrictions on a guy that can average 25 ppg at the age of 20? The Thunder for last year were in serious discussion for being the worst team in the history of the NBA, and that is because the talent level was really low. We were starting Johan Petro at the beginning of the season and he couldn’t even get garbage time minutes with the Nuggets. Somehow that team won 23 games and lost by 4 or fewer in like 18 others. No one wins anything in the NBA with no talent around him, but if KD gets to the playoffs this year he could take that step into the league’s elite.

As much as we love KD, it was based on last year, not on his potential to be a “best ever” sort of player. He didn’t play much defense and wasn’t a good/smart passer. I expect this year he’ll be fighting Melo for the 2 spot, but that’s this year.

I’m going to say it again, and it probably won’t go over well, but I don’t think KD is a Lebron/Duncan/Shaq/Jordan kind of superstar. I think he’s more of a Kobe, Pippen (top 25 all time, overshadowed by number 1), or Wade kind of superstar. He can carry a team with scoring, he can shred a defense and would be a terror in the postseason. But, he doesn’t make his teammates take it to another level. He can’t win with a bad team, but he can easily be an MVP and “best in the league” kind of player with good teammates.

And yeah, they’re wrong about that. They use some kind of disclaimer saying it’s not a “best” list but who had the most impact on a season last year. Still, KD shouldn’t be five there.