We asked 5 NBA greats what makes Kevin Durant a special scorer. Here's what they said

We asked 5 NBA greats what makes Kevin Durant a special scorer. Here’s what they said

Posted by author February 11, 2025 NBA

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With the Phoenix Suns superstar just 26 points shy of elite company; Dirk Nowitzki, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dominique Wilkins, Steph Curry and Dame Lillard explain why Kevin Durant is such a special scorer.

Top 7 all-time:
1. LeBron James 41,623.
2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387.
3. Karl Malone 36,928.
4. Kobe Bryant 33,643.
5. Michael Jordan 32,292.
6. Dirk Nowitzki 31,560
7. Wilt Chamberlain 31,419.
Kevin Durant is sixth all-time in scoring average at 27.2 a game. Only Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid and Elgin Baylor have averaged more.

With Kevin Durant 26 points shy of reaching 30,000 NBA career points heading into Tuesday night’s game against Memphis, The Arizona Republic reached out to several former and current players who scored at least 20,000 for their thoughts on what makes the Phoenix Suns‘ superstar such a special scorer.

Five answered the call: Dirk Nowitzki, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dominique Wilkins, Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard.

Let’s start with the Hall of Famer from Germany who is in that rare 30K club along with all-time leading scorer LeBron James (41,623), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419).

Dirk Nowitzki

Career points: 31,560 (6^th all-time).

Nowitzki helped usher in the new power forward who had size and could score off the dribble, post up and knock down 3s while playing his entire 21-year career with the Dallas Mavericks.

Durant took that blueprint to an even greater level.

“He’s 7 feet and he plays like a two guard,” Nowitzki said. “That’s basically what it comes down to. He’s got the handles, he’s got the deep shot, he’s got the in between game. He’s also good at driving and finishing. To me, he’s probably one of the purest scorers this game has ever seen. That’s how good he is. He’s got the touch, he’s got the length. Even though you think you’re guarding him well, he’ll rise up and shoot right over the top of basically anyone.”

‘Looks super easy for him’

Nowitzki became known for his one-legged fadeaway jump shot that was impossible to block.

Durant has one just as lethal.

“He’s just a little more athletic,” Nowitzki said. “His looks a little smoother. Mine at times was little more of a piece of work, but he’s so skilled and so athletic that it just looks super easy, super efficient for him, but that’s like his whole game. Everything seems and looks super easy for him. That’s just how talented he is.”

OKC Durant ‘was a force’

Nowitzki was in his 10th season when Durant came into the NBA as the second overall pick in 2007 out of Texas.

So, he saw the early stages of Durant’s career that began in Seattle as a rookie and continued in Oklahoma City when the franchise relocated the following season. Durant scored 17,555 of his 29,972 points (as of Tuesday) in his nine seasons with the franchise.

“He was a super lanky kid, but super skilled already,” Nowitzki said. “Had a good shot for that size. In OKC, he was already growing into more of a player and just the experience from a few years in league. He was a force. With a guy that size and that skilled, you just try to force him into a position and hopefully make him take a tough shot. That’s what we tried when he was at OKC, but the thing is, he’s so long and so skilled, he makes a living off tough shots.”

Hakeem Olajuwon

Career points: 26,946 (13^th all-time).

Olajuwon was ahead of his time in terms of being a 7-footer who dominated the post, but could also face up the defender, put the ball on the floor and score within 15 feet.

Durant is the evolution of that in being a tall, perimeter player with handles who can score on all three levels.

‘Anytime he wants’

“First of all, you have to look at the physique,” Olajuwon said. “It’s light. A guy that size and the ball handling skills, he has that ball handling skills to go with the length and with the fundamentals. He has fundamentals where he can go right, he can go left. He can get you off balance, he can drive, he can shoot. When you have a scorer like that, he’s capable of whatever the opponent gives him. He’s getting what he wants anytime he wants it.”

Olajuwon had counters to keep defenders off balance. He sees the same quality in Durant.

“You have to respect every move,” Olajuwon said. “If he’s going right, he can cross you over. When he’s coming down, he just pulls up. He catches you on the ground. You can jump at that point. He can play as long as he wants to play. Fundamentals. The game comes to him so easily. You see some guys struggling for points. He can get a bucket anytime he wants to. He can take advantage of almost whatever is available to him. He’s a complete player.”

Dominique Wilkins

Career points: 26,668 (16^th all-time).

Like Durant, Wilkins led the NBA in scoring with a 30-point average at 30.3 in 1985-86 with the Atlanta Hawks.

Durant did that twice at OKC in 2009-10 at 30.1 points a game and 2013-14 at 32 points a game.

‘Master of the mid-range’

“The first thing, he’s almost 7-foot with the type of shooting range and consistency as some of the best shooters that’s ever played this game,” Wilkins said. “He’s one of the most beautiful scorers to ever play. I remember people trying to discredit the mid-range game. Kevin Durant is the master of the mid-range game. Him, guys like (DeMar) DeRozan, Kawhi (Leonard). He’s scored all these points, it’s not on just all 3s. Probably 80% of his points are inside the line.”

Exactly 79.4% of Durant’s 10,331 career field goals have been 2s. His shot of highest frequency this season is the pullup 2 at 39.3%.

Wilkins and Durant both returned from Achilles injuries to play at an elite level. Wilkins ruptured his right Achilles tendon on Jan. 28, 1992 against the Philadelphia 76ers.

He returned nine months later and averaged 29.9 points in finishing fifth in the MVP voting.

‘He put in that work’

Durant missed the entire 2019-20 season after suffering the same injury in the 2019 finals against Toronto. He came back and averaged 26.9 points in 2020-21.

“It may have taken him a little longer, but he put in that work, and when he came back, it was like he didn’t miss a beat,” Wilkins said. “The thing I told guys who reached out to me about that injury, I said man, you got to stay focused. That’s the first thing and you’ve got to believe that you’re coming back and be what you once were. It’s going to take putting in extra work. You can tell with Durant, he definitely did that. He put in the extra work to get back to be at a All-Star level.”

Stephen Curry

Career points: 24,694 (27^th all-time).

Durant and Curry were teammates for three seasons (2016-19), winning back-to-back NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors. Curry saw firsthand the qualities that make Durant such an elite scorer.

‘Work ethic, confidence and relentless effort’

“Blessed with a certain skill set, but that blessing can only take you so far,” Curry said about Durant, who averaged 25.8 points in his three seasons with the Warriors.

“You have to be able to apply a work ethic, confidence and relentless effort to get better and polish it. Physical gifts matched that work ethic is why he’s where he’s at and who he is. It was cool to see it up close and personal on a day-to-day for those three years, this summer with Team USA.”

Durant and Curry won Olympic gold together last summer in Paris. Before being his teammate, Curry recalls working out with Durant when he was coming out of college in 2009. Durant had just finished his second NBA season.

Curry saw then the moves Durant has since perfected.

‘He’s 7 foot’

“Hit you with the left-to-right crossover, getting downhill,” said Curry when asked about Durant’s go-to moves. “Hit you with the dribble up, ball in his left hand pull up 3, we saw that in the finals. You just get him on the block, he’s going to figure out a way to get a shot off. It’s just a matter of make or miss. It’s hard to deter anything he does because he’s got such a high release. He won’t admit it, but he’s 7-foot. It is amazing to watch just how effortlessly he can make it look.”

Damian Lillard

Career points: 22,284 (37^th all-time).

The Milwaukee Bucks All-Star fully understands why Durant is primary known for his scoring, but he also recognizes there’s more to his game than that ability.

“I feel like he’s been scoring 30 a game since he came into the league,” Lillard said. “Once he went to Golden State, they don’t give him credit for how great he’s been and how long he’s been great. It’s been almost 20 years and this dude just been scoring 30 a night, but his ability to block shots. He’s a better defender than he gets credit for. He’s more of a competitor than he gets credit for, but I think the most impressive thing is how he’s sustained how great he is over all these years.”

The next Durant?

Does the new generation have anyone like Durant coming up?

“I don’t know how many Kevin Durants are out there,” Lillard said.

After giving it some thought, Lillard named two who are “Kevin Durant-ish” – San Antonio Spurs 7-foot-3 phenom Victor Wembanyama and Thunder big Chet Holmgren.

“Wemby kind of has some shades of Kevin Durant,” Lillard said. “He doesn’t play on the inside a lot. He has a little bit of Kevin Durant and so does Chet Holmgren. Both of those guys are kind of Kevin Durant-ish, but KD had more speed and more twitch than even those guys, but I would say those two kind of, but it’s hard to find somebody and say, that’s a Kevin Durant-type player.”

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrakin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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