Kevin Durant vs Carmelo Anthony (Rashidi vs 2K)

Lately there has been a lot of chatter that Durant hasn't been getting his due in the ratings department. This is somewhat true - he is right behind Carmelo Anthony in scoring, has a similar styled game. Up until yesterday, Durant trailed Melo by 5 overall (86 to 91). The 2K Insider boosted Durant to an 88 overall in the most recent 2K update, and I'm here to check out whether or not these changes were warranted.

Kevin Durant
Offense 91 (+1)
Defense 74 (+1)
Rebound 80 (+3)

ATTRIBUTES
Overall 88 (+2)
Inside 95
Close 89
Medium 82 (+2)
3PT 80 (+5)
LowPost 86
FreeThrow 87
Layup 80
Dunk 82
StandDunk 55
OffDribble 86
InTraffic 83
Handle 77
OffHand 71
Security 82
Pass 52
Block 50
Steal 76
Hands 96 (+3)
BallDef 63
OffReb 60
DefReb 78 (+4)
OffPost 79
DefPost 56
OffAwr 99 (+2)
DefAwr 78 (+3)
OffClutch 70 (+10)
DefClutch 25
Consistency 99
Stamina 91
Speed 78
Quickness 75
Strength 30
Vertical 73
Hustle 80
Durability 80
Potential 97
Emotion 60

While this might appease some, I'm not so easily fooled. I'll get to that in a minute - for now, let's compare Durant to Carmelo Anthony.

Carmelo Anthony (differences between Durant in parenthasize)
Offense 97 (+6)
Defense 84 (+10)
Rebound 70 (-10)

ATTRIBUTES
Overall 91 (+3)
Inside 91 (-4)
Close 88 (-1)
Medium 83 (+1)
3PT 78 (-2)
LowPost 94 (+8)
FreeThrow 78 (-9)
Layup 86 (+6)
Dunk 79 (-3)
StandDunk 55
OffDribble 85 (-1)
InTraffic 82 (-1)
Handle 80 (+3)
OffHand 76 (+5)
Security 77 (-5)
Pass 55 (+5)
Block 35 (-15)
Steal 70 (-6)
Hands 99 (+3)
BallDef 69 (+6)
OffReb 56 (-4)
DefReb 70 (-8)
OffPost 90 (+11)
DefPost 67 (+11)
OffAwr 99
DefAwr 75 (-3)
OffClutch 85 (+15)
DefClutch 40 (+15)
Consistency 99
Stamina 95 (+4)
Speed 82 (+4)
Quickness 85 (+10)
Strength 78 (+48)
Vertical 85 (+12)
Hustle 94 (+14)
Durability 85 (+5)
Potential 95 (-2)
Emotion 60

I highlighted what I consider the significant differences.

Durant and Melo have similar shot ratings, and Durant actually has the edge here. What seperates he and Melo is their post games, and I don't think any Durant fan can put much into that argument. At only 21 years old and little bulk, Durant can't hope to compare to Melo on the low block. Melo also has the slight edge in ball-handling (though Durant does have better ball security).

However, it's a bit curious to me how the lighter Durant is actually slower than Melo, and nowhere near as quick. He also has a better on-ball defense rating than Durant which I don't think many would agree with.

It's not all roses for Durant however - why in god's name is his rebounding so much better than Melo's?

We now need to move on to a statistical comp of the players just to see how badly 2K screwed this up.

Kevin Durant
25.3 PER
.608 TS%
3.4 ORB%
17.2 DRB%
14.6 AST%
1.8 STL%
1.6 BLK%
13.5 TO%
32.0 USG%
115 ORTG (Team: 106.4)
102 DRTG (Team: 103.3)

Carmelo Anthony
24.5 PER
.568 TS%
6.8 ORB%
13.3 DRB%
16.8 AST%
1.8 STL%
0.7 BLK%
10.7 TO%
34.2 USG%
113 ORTG (Team: 111.6)
108 DRTG (Team: 106.3)

Durant has most of the edges but let's break each one down individually.

PER - Durant's is slightly better, but what's really scary is he is 4 years younger than Melo, and this is easily Melo's best season.

TS% - Melo is taking 10 FTA per game, and connecting on 86% of them (both are easily career bests). And despite that, Melo is still well behind Durant. The biggest difference between them? Durant is hitting 68% from Inside, while Melo is hitting only 58% Inside. While both are actually somewhat overrated (LeBron is rated 95 and is hitting 71%), Melo is clearly the more overrated of the two (frankly, he shouldn't even be within 10 points of LeBron right now).

ORB% - Melo is twice the offensive rebounder is, yet Durant boasts an OffReb rating 4 points higher. The 2K Insider fails hardcore once again. And no, the solution ain't raising Melo - it's dropping Durant 20 points (which will surely decrease his rating, oh no!).

DRB% - Durant is a better defensive rebounder than Melo and boasts an 8 point edge that I won't argue with. That's not the problem. The problem is Melo is 20 points overrated. Which means Durant is 20 points overrated too.

AST% - Melo has a 2.2% edge and 5 point edge in the ratings dept. Fine.

STL% - They are both tied at 1.8%, yet Durant has a 6 point edge. Hmm.

BLK% - Durant is obviously the better shot blocker and holds a 15 point edge, no complaints here.

TO% and USG% - Melo has cut his turnovers despite a raise to his USG% (Translation: Fewer turnovers despite greater offensive responsibility). Tough to argue with Melo's handle edge, but Durant's ball security is especialy high for a SF that doesn't do a good job of protecting the ball. According to 82games, Durant has committed 91 ball handling turnovers, which is simply terrible when compared to other star swing men (Melo's 50, LeBron's 55, Kobe's 60, Roy's 39, etc).

ORTG - Largely due to the TS%, Durant is the more valuable offensive player and significantly more important to his team than Melo has been this season.

DRTG - Defensively, it's not even close. Durant is the leader of a team that ranks 6th defensively. Melo is below hiw own team's average, as the Nuggets 12th ranked defense owes it's success to the frontcourt trio of Birdman, Nene, and K-Mart.


We've discovered three things from this exercise.
1. Kevin Durant deserves to be at least on par with Carmelo Anthony.
2. Kevin Durant is bigtime overrated in a few areas.
3. Carmelo Anthony is overrated, period.


With all of the above knowledge in hand, it's time to apply it. Here are the rating changes I've come up with for Durant and Melo.

Kevin Durant
Offense 92 (up from 91)
Defense 80 (up from 74)
Rebound 60 (down from 80)

ATTRIBUTES
Overall 87 (down from 88)
Inside 89 (down from 95)
Close 89
Medium 80 (down from 82)
3PT 80
LowPost 86
FreeThrow 88 (up from 87)
Layup 80
Dunk 84 (up from 82)
StandDunk 55
OffDribble 74 (down from 86)
InTraffic 78 (down from 83)
Handle 77
OffHand 73 (up from 71)
Security 62 (down from 82)
Pass 55 (up from 52)
Block 47 (down from 50)
Steal 70 (down from 76)
Hands 96
BallDef 75 (up from 63)
OffReb 40 (down from 60)
DefReb 65 (down from 78)
OffPost 79
DefPost 56
OffAwr 96 (down from 99)
DefAwr 78
OffClutch 50 (down from 70)
DefClutch 25
Consistency 99
Stamina 91
Speed 86 (up from 78)
Quickness 85 (up from 75)
Strength 40 (up from 30)
Vertical 73
Hustle 85 (up from 80) (70)
Durability 85 (up from 80) (70)
Potential 97
Emotion 60

As you can see right up top, my Durant is better offensively and defensively, while having accurate rebound ratings.


Carmelo Anthony
Offense 96 (down from 97)
Defense 82 (down from 84)
Rebound 58 (down from 70)

ATTRIBUTES
Overall 87 (down from 91)
Inside 83 (down from 91)
Close 87 (down from 88)
Medium 79 (down from 83)
3PT 78
LowPost 92 (down from 94)
FreeThrow 86 (up from 78)
Layup 86
Dunk 79
StandDunk 55
OffDribble 75 (down from 85)
InTraffic 77 (down from 82)
Handle 80
OffHand 76
Security 77
Pass 60 (up from 55)
Block 35
Steal 70
Hands 99
BallDef 69
OffReb 56
DefReb 50 (down from 70)
OffPost 90
DefPost 67
OffAwr 96 (down from 99)
DefAwr 69 (down from 75)
OffClutch 85
DefClutch 25 (down from 40)
Consistency 99
Stamina 91 (down from 95)
Speed 84 (up from 82)
Quickness 85
Strength 78
Vertical 85
Hustle 89 (down from 94)
Durability 78 (down from 85)
Potential 95
Emotion 60

2K actually rates Melo the 5th best player in the league, trailing only LeBron, Kobe, Wade, and Paul. I have Melo tied for 8th with Durant, Howard, Bosh, and Roy - a far more fitting placement for a player that isn't much beyond a scorer.

So if you're reading this, please don't beg the 2K Insider to raise Kevin Durant to the 90s. That would just make things worse. Instead, demand that Melo see a drop. While we're at it, tell him to stop giving stars jacked up rebound ratings. You can get away with using Durant/Melo/LeBron at center the way the Insider is rating these guys.

(Or just make things simple, and use my roster instead.)