Kevin Durant has established himself as one of the league’s best players, but will he win a regular season award next season?
Kevin Durant has won the NBA Finals MVP award in each of the last two seasons, but he hasn’t been a serious contender for the regular season MVP since his move to Golden State finishing outside the top three in voting each year.
There are a lot of factors that have prevented KD from getting much consideration for his second regular season MVP award.
He obviously shares the credit with fellow MVP Steph Curry when people discuss the Warriors’ success over the past two seasons.
Golden State has also had two other All-Stars on the roster with Steph and KD, which takes away from the notion that Durant carries a huge weight on his shoulders.
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There may also be some media bias involved in the MVP voting as KD’s decision to join the Warriors was not very popular among people around the NBA. Those types of narratives are extremely important in determining the MVP award, and the media coverage surrounding Durant has not been very positive.
KD’s numbers have been pretty impressive during his time in Golden State averaging 25.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game with a true shooting percentage of 64.5% in two seasons with the Warriors.
However, those aren’t in the same ballpark as his ridiculous MVP season with the Thunder in 2013-14 where he dropped 32 points per game with 7.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists and a true shooting percentage of 63.5%.
Durant had a usage percentage of 33% in his MVP year, whereas his usage percentage has only been 29.2% in Golden State.
I don’t think KD will ever get that MVP-level usage again with the Warriors, and I believe he’ll get a decent amount of rest during the regular season moving forward.
Durant has turned his focus to winning Finals MVP’s, and he has a much better chance at winning more of those in the future rather than the coveted regular season award.
Here are our other predictions on whether Warriors can win some awards next year: