It goes without saying that Durant's shocking move to Golden State this summer shakes up the NBA landscape significantly, and uniquely affects each of the West's three top MVP candidates: Durant, his new teammate Stephen Curry, and his ex-teammate Russell Westbrook. Speaking strictly in terms of the MVP race, the move helps KD's chances in that he is now on the best team in basketball, but it could hurt him if he's not even the best player on his own team.
In his final year with Oklahoma City, Durant had another amazing season: 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 1 steal per game on 50.5/38.8/89.8 shooting splits while staying relatively healthy and playing 72 games in 2015-16, after his season-ending injury from the year prior to that forced him to play no more than 27 games. The stat line from this past season was good for a PER of 28.25 -- second-best in the entire league, only to a 31.56 mark, posted by none other than Stephen Curry.
See, this is the fundamental problem with KD's MVP chances this season. While him and Steph will likely cooperate as co-alpha dogs, Durant is nonetheless the newcomer -- the Warriors remain Curry's team. If there's only one player who can be deemed as the leader of this team, barring a surprising slump from Curry or KD playing at an absolutely divine level, it's probably going to be Steph. This makes Durant's MVP chances, despite being a top-three player and playing on basketball's best squad, slim.
In his final year with Oklahoma City, Durant had another amazing season: 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 1 steal per game on 50.5/38.8/89.8 shooting splits while staying relatively healthy and playing 72 games in 2015-16, after his season-ending injury from the year prior to that forced him to play no more than 27 games. The stat line from this past season was good for a PER of 28.25 -- second-best in the entire league, only to a 31.56 mark, posted by none other than Stephen Curry.
See, this is the fundamental problem with KD's MVP chances this season. While him and Steph will likely cooperate as co-alpha dogs, Durant is nonetheless the newcomer -- the Warriors remain Curry's team. If there's only one player who can be deemed as the leader of this team, barring a surprising slump from Curry or KD playing at an absolutely divine level, it's probably going to be Steph. This makes Durant's MVP chances, despite being a top-three player and playing on basketball's best squad, slim.
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