The Tape
Was Kevin Durant better than Jayson Tatum?
Kevin Durant, 2007-present, against Jayson Tatum, 2017-present. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Kevin Durant is the bigger scorer: 36.1 a game in 2013-14 against 29.9 for Jayson Tatum in 2022-23. That is a real gap of 6.2 points, not an era illusion — Kevin Durant's league averaged 101 and Jayson Tatum's averaged 114.7.
Away from scoring they are nearly the same player on paper: 7.4 and 8.8 rebounds, 5.5 and 4.6 assists. The separation is in what their teams asked of them, not what they could do.
Kevin Durant: A 7-footer with a guard's jump shot, and the most efficient high-volume scorer of his generation. Jayson Tatum: A title, 7 straight conference finals appearances, and a 3-point volume no forward of the 1990s could have imagined.
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