There's no such thing as a '30-point' scorer

How do teammates influence each other on the court? Does a player's stats change because of who he is playing with? What about their overall value? This video looks at Kevin Durant as an example of how a player's stats and value are based on his own capacity, and who else is around him. Durant's Warriors give us key insight into these effects, along with the impact of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Russell Westbrook and more.

Twitter: @elgee35

Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.

Stats courtesy:
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.

Music: Imperfect Place

#ThinkingBasketball

[eternalboss]

Lol at making fun of Stephen A Smith. His level of deep analysis is "the brutha can pull up from 30 but he gotta get the chip!"

[ThePartarar]

Thank you for your contributions to the game. You’ve changed how I work on the court, and how I watch it when I’m not.

[Sotanathq]

Bosh comes to mind as one of the highest bandwidth guys I can remember. Played his tertiary star role in Miami and had some monster games when Wade + Lebron sat.

[ashamael]

The TS% increase for Durant while playing with Curry on the floor is just another testament to the greatness of Curry. The fact that KD was so effective no matter the load is another testament to why he's one of the greatest to ever do it. And Klay's effectiveness being the third wheel, the splash brother, or the main focus is why he's so underrated in the history of the sport. He's such an incredible compliment player and would be my first pick to be the tertiary star on any squad because of that, despite their being 8 or 10 guys who are probably (or at least seen as) better.

I'd want all three of them on my all-time team. It was such a pleasure getting to witness that piece of NBA history.

[En_Gho]

From this day forward, Russell Westbrook will forever be known as Lord of the Triple Double and Prince of High Usage. Thanks @ Thinking Basketball

[MindfulSeduction]

You're the type of channel that deserves some Chinese food, coca cola, and a blunt in hand after a long day. I'll be back to give you a proper viewing

[pedromdcc]

Great to see you back. But, because I want you back even more frequently, I'd like to know if the 5 thoughts would be back for this season or is it retired to the hall of fame of youtube basketball content?

[charl_lee]

Yesss, my brain needs more hardcore basketball insight🤖 If all basketball fans watched this channel, it would insanely advance the general thinking of basketball culture

[antonioleon]

Amazing intuition in that last point (expanding capacity, reducing the tradeoff, free lunch, no opportunity cost). Thank you for these videos, please keep it up!

[tonj]

Cant wait for a complete many hour long warriors documentary starting from and finish with the curry era. People act like his career started in 15 but there was a lot of interesting stuff going on there since he was drafted. I’d love to hear from people who were there what went on during the curry and Ellis years. Then the 13 and 14 seasons were interesting as well. Anyways, we can revisit this in 30 years when it comes out. Title prediction: the golden era

[TheLionheartYT]

It’s crazy I remember three or four years ago a famous clip of Kerr talking to curry during a shooting slump and talking about how tilted he has the floor and how he has his value there

[ualreadyknoK]

Can you make a rookie analysis like what you did for the rookies in 2018-19 season; Luka, Trae, MB2, JJJ

[magic_magic]

The way you put how curry can improve his team’s offense at no opportunity cost really opened my eyes to his impact on court.

[aesir]

Honestly same thing happens with Giannis as Steph. His offensive load right now is crazy high but it's even higher that what the stat would show because of how consistently threatening his existence on the court is. Double teams and help defense are the only way to stop him sometimes which gives his teammates free looks constantly. That's something that is often not fully considered with some stars, how much attention do opposing teams need to give them and how does that affect their teamates?

[malachilopez]

The more you talk about Steph the enigmatic he seems do you think that we can actually create a stat that can accurately define his offensive value

[coledorillo]

I was going to be productive and study but you don’t skip a thinking basketball video 😤

[jaedynstjuste]

Durant imo has always been the most EFFICIENT VOLUME SCORER EVER. He can get you 30 while also staying in the flow of the Offense while other High Volume Scorers kinda warp the Offense to fit them ANY OFFENSE can fit around KD while he gets his 30 and plays All Star Level Defense

[Michael-eqth]

Ben's assessment of Steph Curry is spot on. It is also the same way in which he undervalues Dennis Rodman.

[mangyangghos]

I haven't watched it yet, but I love that you made this video. This is a topic I've discussed with friends countless times. Can't wait to see your analytics.

[lucascarman]

I think anyone with any basketball knowledge and common sense could come to this conclusion on their own, but I'm glad you make this to create undeniable statistics. If you know basketball, you know that multiple stars on a team will lower slashline stats, but probably increase efficiency. And then the reverse is also true.