Consider the following:

  1. KG averaged under 20 PPG career

  2. KG never averaged 25 PPG for a season

  3. KG’s career FG% is under .500, and his 2PT% is only .504. He is 234th all-time in career 2PT% and has none of the 250 best seasons of 2PT%

  4. KG’s TS% was only .546, and he never shot 59% TS%.He does NOT rank in the Top 250 in career T5%, nor does he have any of the 250 best seasons by TS

  5. KG wasn’t a great spacer. His career 3 PT% was under 30%, he averaged far less than one 3PM a game, and never made more than 50 3s in a season

  6. KG wasn’t elite at finishing from close. Many other 4s and 5s converted a higher percentage of close shots than he, and on higher volume as well

  7. KG wasn’t a creator. Over two-thirds of his field goals came off of assists.

I could go on, but I think those seven points establish why KG is NOT an elite scorer or shooter. Compared to other forwards, KG is far outstripped on scoring not only by fellas like KG, LeBron and Kawhi, but even by somebody like AD, who a) had higher volume in his prime, b) does better from the inside, and c) does better from the outside.

  • yungtoni@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    1. Adjust this to today’s pace.

    2. isn’t even a thing. 3 point spacing wasn’t a thing bigs needed to do in the 2000s. his long midrange was “spacing”.

    3. This is fine if you mention how good KG was at creating for others as a big. 6 seasons with 5+ assists was elite for a big back then, in again, one of the slowest eras of ball.

    • ShowerMartini@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Adjust KG’s minutes to today’s levels tho.

      Adjust KG playing in the ISO heavy era to today’s more team oriented era.

      People simplify it too much. Guys back then played huge minutes and got to ISO like crazy. Nowadays you see MVPs like Giannis play 30 minutes a game. Some dudes (Luka, Trae, etc) control the offense at insane levels, but the average star is part of a very team oriented offense.

      • Alternative_Lov@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        You realize these things make it easier, right?

        Possessions is what matters. If KG played 40 minutes a night in the 00s but only played about 90 possessions, that’s not different than him playing 30 minutes a night today and playing 90 possessions. The 30 minutes will be better though because he’ll be more rested throughout the game