The best Kevin Durant defenders in the NBA and what they tell us about the league
As the NBA has changes, different scorers come to represent the way the league works and how drastically teams must alter their defensive game plans. Today, that player is Kevin Durant.
In the early 2000s, Michael Jordan’s legacy begat a generation of scorers dedicated to an inefficient, glamorous style of isolation basketball. The Lakers traded Shaquille O’Neal to Miami in 2004 to make room for the most prolific representative of the iso era, Kobe Bryant. For years, NBA teams developed game plans specifically crafted around defending Bryant or others like him (Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade, etc.).
There is a chapter in Chris Ballard’s book The Art of a Beautiful Game in which he interviews former Rockets and Heat stopper Shane Battier about how he plays defense. A good portion of their conversation centers around Bryant. Battier mentions all sorts of great little tricks, like when he goes up to contest Bryant’s jumpers and bops the 5-time champion’s bald head. Yet the league was altogether unsuccessful guarding Bryant, and his era produced some of the most productive scorers ever to play.
As advanced metrics started to alter thinking in front offices toward the end of Bryant’s career, the stretch four took on a whole new level of value. The value of players like Rashard Lewis and Kevin Love jumped overnight, and again the league was forced to respond defensively.
In 2011, Dirk Nowitzki won his first championship, thanks to a historic playoff scoring run. For a couple years in the beginning of this decade, Nowitzki was the guy everyone scrambled to find an answer for. The defender would have to have the quickness to scurry out to Nowitzki behind the arc but enough size and strength to hold their ground when he went to the post.
By that point, Kawhi Leonard and Durant himself drew the Nowitzki matchup, to mostly no avail. The tail-end of Nowitzki’s prime was beautifully efficient, culminating with that championship season, in which he shot 52 percent from the field and 39 percent from behind the arc.
The change most representative of the NBA’s 3-point revolution is the willingness by most coaches to play their wings up a position. Point guard and center are static, but the other three positions are now completely interchangeable. Finding players who can defend multiple positions — opponents both bigger and smaller than them — is paramount.
The smartest coaches today are the ones who can manipulate these versatile lineups most successfully. Steve Kerr’s Warriors are the best example, able to throw out dozens of different lineups filled with players more or less the same size.
Golden State signed Durant in 2016 and took their versatility to another level. He is perhaps the most valuable two-way player in the NBA, considering the combination of size and skill he possesses offensively. On defense, he is the best rim-protecting small forward in the league and is able to guard four positions. He was MVP in 2014 and is a perennial contender to take home another.
The way Durant has added to his game to become so effective on both ends and unlock an even higher ceiling in Golden State makes him the clear next guy in this lineage of unguardable monsters. Durant’s Warriors teammates may muddle his value some, but broadly speaking he is the best version of the thing the entire league is working to protect against.
That being said, the defenders most equipped to handle Durant today could be thought of as some of the absolute most valuable defenders in the league. They can put out fires that otherwise stymie opponents.
Big men remain the most important individual components of a team defense, and ideally you’d like to have multiple wing stoppers around a good rim protector to craft a truly elite defense. But looking at who the prototypical Durant stoppers are can give a good indication of their team’s defensive potential, as well as their overall value and the direction NBA teams are going when they look for defensive talent.
This list skews young, to get a better picture of how we’re already seeing this adjustment to defensive value across the league.
Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs
This isn’t debatable: Leonard is the best one-on-one defender in the NBA, a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate and probably the most intimidating guy to try and score against. He is the exact perfect size of a guy you’d want battling Durant, and he is the basis for the way everyone on this list plays defense against Durant and other top wing scorers.
He has and always will be the most exciting and terrifying defender in the league.
Paul George, Oklahoma City Thunder
In an effort to replace Durant (who, let’s get this out of the way immediately, is so ridiculously talented that he is also one of the best defensive wings in the league and might top this list if it were done any other way), the Thunder found a defender who could guard him.
His backcourt mate Andre Roberson carries a lofty defensive reputation as well, but Roberson has regressed defensively, and the case could be made that he is no longer a positive part of his team’s success. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Thunder defense is slightly worse with him on the court, despite his reputation and physical gifts.
Yet George has been elite forcing turnovers the ball all year, turning into the most valuable cog on the wing in Oklahoma City’s defensive machine. This is the second point in his career that we’ve seen what he can do as a defender next to an impact rim protector (first Roy Hibbert and now Steven Adams). When he’s in a LeBron James-type free safety role, which he’s been allowed to do more often with the Thunder, he’s deadly, rotating a step ahead of the defense and closing gaps instantaneously.
George swallows scorers.
Brandon Ingram, Los Angeles Lakers
If we’re really thinking about the future of the league, Ingram is the most intriguing guy to consider. His length would have made him a prospect to watch in any era, and his offense is progressing. But defensively, his potential is massive.
As Ingram’s feel for the game has matured in his second season, so has his defense. The Lakers are likely headed to the lottery once again this year, but it is not because of their defense. Ingram has helped Los Angeles take their next step by taking exhausting matchups on a nightly basis. He is still prone to mental errors common for young players, but he fills space with his length, contesting every shot or pass.
Ingram was (unfairly) compared to Durant coming out of Duke, but could one day live up to that hype on defense. At his best, he looks that good.
Robert Covington, Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers finally have a full armada of NBA-level talent, and their team is starting to bloom. One of the biggest developments has been Covington turning into one of the most impactful defenders in the league.
He is one of only a handful of players with a steal and block percentage above 2.0 this season, and continues to be a key cog in the Sixers’ defense. He routinely handles star scorers like Durant and James Harden, despite a heavier load on offense than most defensive studs. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Sixers defense is 12.3 points better per 100 possessions when Covington is on the court compared to when he sits.
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Covington works hard. His wingspan doesn’t leap out at you like Ingram’s or Durant’s because he’s not as tall, yet he is constantly in position to make plays on the ball. Covington pursues his man relentlessly, and takes advantage of the fact that he is slightly smaller. He is listed at 225 pounds, heavier than George and just lighter than Durant, who is taller than most team’s starting center.
Covington is probably the closest thing we have in the league today to a peak Andre Iguodala on defense, tirelessly bothering elite scorers on a nightly basis.
Those are my guys. With respect to Otto Porter, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Al-Farouq Aminu and a variety of older players, these four players are the ones I’m putting out there if I want to control Durant over the next several years. And they’re who I want going forward, the guys I’m most confident will be elite against the types of back-breaking versatile lineups NBA teams will continue to use.