Austin Rivers: Analytics have Negatively Shifted the View of Rockets' Kevin Durant

Earlier in the month, Houston Rockets superstar forward Kevin Durant exchanged unpleasantries with a basketball fan on social media, after it was pointed out that Durant hasn't led his team in shots since 2018.

Granted, Durant would exchange unpleasantries on social media irrespective of the topic, because it's become one of his pastimes, as he's oftentimes made a sport out of being a troll.

In fact, in many respects, he may be as good of an internet troll as he is a basketball player. In one instance, he challenged a fan to a one-on-one game and told him to bet his life savings on the matchup. 

In another, he told a fan to send him footage of him playing in a recreational league so Durant could dissect and evaluate the footage of his game.

Again, this is all-world stuff. Truly legendary. 

Former Rockets guard Austin Rivers took to his podcast, Off Guard with Austin Rivers to defend Durant's low field goal attempts, which have been used against him in the conversation regarding the NBA's all-time greatest scorers.

Even though Durant has led his team in field goals in the postseason virtually every year. Certainly more often than not.

"My only problem with that is that the evolution of the game has brought up the importance of analytics and percentages. 

Our whole game now is predicated off numbers. Whereas before, it was an eye test thing. People didn't care that Iverson had 30 on 30 shots.

Social media has forced players to be more efficient, is the reason."

Rivers mentioning Allen Iverson drives his point home, as Iverson didn't selectively take the best shots. Although he never averaged 30 field goal attempts, he was a very inefficient player by today's standards.

He averaged 26.7 points on 21.8 field goal attempts and he never came close to 60 percent true shooting. But he didn't play in an era where that even existed.

Or mattered.

Durant, however, was at his peak just as the advanced analytical movement began to take effect. And he's consistently been one of the most efficient players, even though he values the mid-range shot -- one of the more inefficient shots in today's game.

He's performed at 60 percent true shooting or better every season, dating back to 2011-12. In fact, he came eerily close to 70 percent true shooting in 2022-23, but finished at 67.7 percent (although he only played 47 games).

All told, the conversation about Durant's field goal attempts seems fruitless because he's still regarded as one of the game's greatest scorers by every metric.