Udonis Haslem, a former Miami Heat player, recently retired. He had some odd ideas on who would defeat Kevin Durant in a shooting competition.
If there is one thing Phoenix Suns player Kevin Durant is good at, it’s scoring the ball. You may even argue that he is the greatest pure scorer in the game’s history. You can never stop him; all you can do is try to slow him down. This is due to his stature, handling, and flexibility on the court.
Durant has opinions on both sides of the G.O.A.T. controversy, but it’s clear that he can score with the best of them. The question of whether he belongs in the argument is another matter entirely. In a shot-making competition or H.O.R.S.E. game, he is most often the first player in the league chosen.
Which is why Udonis Haslem’s recent remarks regarding Durant’s shooting ability in relation to some other players are really perplexing.
During an interview on The OGs Show, Haslem and Mike Miller discussed the issue of shooters in the league. As Haslem emphasized before moving on, it’s not about basketball players; it’s just about shooting the ball. At that point, he revealed this surprising viewpoint about Durant and Duncan Robinson.
It may be one of the most absurd things a former professional has ever stated, but Haslem claims that Robinson is a better pure shooter than Durant. The fact that Haslem and Robinson were teammates for five of Robinson’s league seasons doesn’t help either, and it could appear like Haslem is defending a friend in this situation.
Haslem is undoubtedly aware that players will constantly be guarded and that shooting in the league doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Few draw the hardest assignment from their opponent more consistently than Durant. Robinson, on the other hand, not only gets to play with players like Jimmy Butler, but he was also completely out of the rotation not too long ago.
The cause of this? Robinson wasn’t getting enough shots to fall consistently, and he didn’t start playing for the Heat again until he changed up his offensive game. Though Durant deserves all the credit in the world for this, he hasn’t been benched for poor shooting since 2007.
In reality Durant has now started – yes started – over 1,100 NBA games between the regular season and postseason, while he has a lifetime average of 50 percent from the field in regular season matches. Robinson’s is a far more mediocre 43.3 percent, and this season, he is also struggling with 3-point shooting—the one area he theoretically excels at more than Durant.
Again, this is partially due to Robinson’s attempts to become more than just a long-range shooter, but Durant’s 46.4 percent, which is in the top five percentages in the league this season, is far superior to Robinson’s 41.1 percent. Consequently, if Durant can score in a real NBA game even with defenses focusing on him more frequently than Robinson, surely he could do it in a shoot-out as well?
Would you trust a Suns fan who put on a straight face and claimed that Grayson Allen was a better shooter than Durant? Of course not, and with a league-best 3-point shooting percentage of 49.1% this year, Allen is having the best season of his life.
Given that Allen and Robinson play comparable roles on their respective teams, Allen is also a far better comparison than Robinson. Grab as many of the opportunities as present themselves and pick the places of this team’s studs to assist them offensively. But, Duncan would not necessarily prevail in an argument about who was a better shooter between Allen and Robinson.
Thus, Haslem’s decision to pursue Durant at this particular time seems peculiar, in part because the 35-year-old is enjoying a fantastic individual season. It’s obvious that he still enjoys this game. Although this statistic has already been mentioned, it ought to be brought out as frequently as possible: he is averaging 29.6 points per game, which is more than he did in two of the four seasons he won the NBA scoring title.
Conversely, Robinson has averaged 11.4 points per game throughout his career; this season, he hit a career high of 13.7. Since the Bush administration, Durant has never finished a season with fewer than 20 points per game, which is an incredible record. He has also had to accomplish this while nearly always being the top player on his team. This one is a major loss for Haslem.
