Kevin Durant scored 31 points on Tuesday night in the Phoenix Suns’ victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. In doing so, he moved past Elvin Hayes into 11th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Durant is 79 points away from passing Moses Malone for the 10th spot.
KD is arguably the greatest scorer the game has seen. At his size, he is a three-level scoring threat and gets to the free throw line. Over the course of his career he’s missed about three-and-a-half seasons with injuries. If he didn’t miss most of the 2014-15 season (Jones fracture) and the entire 2019-20 season (Achilles tendon), would e be the league’s all-time leading scorer?
KD Is The Most Complete Scorer The Game Has Seen
LeBron James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer at 39,012 points and counting. But he has a four-year lead on KD, given their respective ages. Assume a modest 2,000 points a season and that’s an extra 8,000 on KD’s current total. He’d be somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 career points, which would be fourth all-time.
But injuries have really hurt one of the game’s greatest from piling up even more gaudy stats. In 2022, when he passed the 25,000-point mark he recognized the moment, but knew he should have had more at this stage.
“It’s pretty cool,” Durant said. “I should be at 30 [thousand] right now, to be honest. But it’s cool; it’s cool to reach that milestone and be amongst the greats and I just got to keep pushing and keep going and see where I end up.”
Injuries Have Cost Him More Accolades
Durant was robbed of two peak years due to injury. The 2014-15 season was the season after he won league MVP. The 2019-20 season was after his third straight trip to the NBA Finals with the Golden State Warriors. Had he not torn his Achilles in the Finals, he’d likely be a three-time champion and three-time Finals MVP.
In 2014-15, he finished with 686 points in 27 games. Assuming a modest 25 points per game (he averaged 32 the season before) at 70 games, that would be 1,075 total points. That would put him at 28,406 points, in ninth place behind Shaquille O’Neal.
The 2019-20 season, his first in Brooklyn, he was rehabbing the Achilles and didn’t play a single game. That was also the COVID-19 bubble season. Teams played 71 games that year, with a 20-week break that began in March.
Let’s assume, because of the break, Durant played in all 71 games. Not a stretch, since he played 78 the season prior. Assuming a modest 25 points per-game average, again he would’ve likely averaged near 30; that’s an additional 1,775 points. He would be at 30,181 total points, eighth all-time.
Durant’s been unlucky on the injury front the last three seasons: slipping on the court during his pre-game workout, twice in consecutive seasons having a player crash to the court and roll into his knee. But, that’s how it goes sometimes.
Despite the missed time, he’s still amassed an all-time great career and this season at age 35 is averaging 31 points, seven rebounds, and five assists on 53/50/87 shooting splits. Still a monster in EPM at +4.9, the 97th percentile.
