Austin Rivers: LeBron Isn't Half the Offensive Player as Rockets' Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant and LeBron James have arguably been the best small forwards of the last two decades. Come to think about it, it's not really much of an argument.

Not to say that there haven't been other elite small forwards because there have been. 

Kawhi Leonard and Carmelo Anthony come to mind. Jayson Tatum also, although he's still relatively early in his career. James and Durant are two of the league's best scorers of all time. James is the NBA's all-time scoring leader and Durant ranks eighth. 

It remains to be seen whether Durant will ever surpass James, but James has over 11,000 more points than Durant, as James has 42,184 points while Durant has 30,571 points. 

That's a tall task.

But just because James is the league's all-time scorer and could very well finish his career with more points than Durant doesn't make him undoubtedly a better scorer than the Houston Rockets forward.

In fact, a lot of people view James as more of a floor general than a pure bucket. 

Former Rockets guard Austin Rivers took a stab at answering the question, taking to Off Guard with Austin Rivers, his podcast, but had to note the difficulty of the James vs. Durant conversation.

"The all-time leading scorer is complicated, because he's not a guy who's a three-level scorer. He can be, at times.

But he's not a guy that's gonna stop on a dime and hit you with a pull-up two. KD is a perfect three-level scorer.

LeBron's number one, but his game doesn't match a prototypical scorer. But it's also not sexy.

Bron's game is built on force. Sheer will. Dedication. His mind, his IQ. The way he's able to dissect and control the game.

Power, above anything else. He wills himself to the basket.

His game has never been a sexy scorer. When you think of that, you think of the fadeaway. You think of the post up. Being able to get to a spot on the floor and hitting a game-winner."

Here's where Rivers perhaps took it too far.

"LeBron has scored more points than Kevin, but Kevin can score in a much more variety of ways than LeBron. LeBron doesn't have half the offensive bag that Kevin does."

He tried to retract a bit, but you can never put the toothpaste back in the tube.

"He hasn't needed it. He's been a freight train his whole entire career.

LeBron was more great at a couple of things that couldn't be stopped. Kevin is more of a well-rounded scorer."

Rivers added that Durant is a three-level scorer and explained that he evaluates scoring by evaluating scoring averages, scoring totals, the amount of scoring spots a player has on the floor, and the degree of difficulty of defending said player.

The reality is that both Durant and Janes are two of the most difficult players to stop. And James has become a very good jump shooter and long-range shooter, although he previously was known as more of a slasher.

It's also questionable to state that James doesn't have half the offensive bag as Durant, because James is much more well-rounded offensively, in ways other than scoring. 

Durant isn't nearly the passer as James. Not many players have ever been, especially at his size (other than Magic Johnson, who isn't nearly the scorer of either player).

Sometimes it's just best to give both players their flowers, rather than compare them against one another.