LeBron James, you officially have company.
James might be the best basketball player on the planet, but so far this season, someone else has been better by almost any measure.
And his name is Kevin Wayne Durant.
James led the NBA in player efficiency rating for most of the season by a wide margin and generally hasn't been challenged in that metric for years. But Durant, in his age-25 season, has finally closed the gap and eclipsed James' rate after a ridiculous weekend of hooping. Durant torched the Minnesota Timberwolves for 48 points and seven assists in a narrow victory on Saturday and then put up 21 and eight assists in just 27 minutes of action during a blowout win the very next day against the visiting Boston Celtics. Pity the Utah Jazz, who face Durant's wrath Tuesday.
Glance at the PER leaderboard and you'll see that Durant is now king with a 29.1 rating, which currently betters James' rate of 29.0. Remember, PER is a per-minute metric that adjusts for playing time, so the fact that Durant has played an extra game doesn't affect the standings. WARP, the all-in-one metric of my Per Diem colleague Kevin Pelton, also puts Durant in the lead with a 9.0 rating. Win shares, found at Basketball-Reference.com, point to Durant as the season's best as well.
Traditional numbers also gush about Durant's campaign. So far, Durant has been the NBA's scoring leader by far with 29.0 points per game (only Kevin Love is within striking distance, at 26.4), but he's shooting 49.6 percent from the floor, 42 percent from downtown and 88.4 percent from the free throw line. Not only that, Durant continues to expand his game in other areas, pulling down rebounds (12 percent of all available boards) and dishing out assists (assisting an estimated 23.4 percent of his teammates' baskets while on the floor) at career-high rates.
Put it all together and you have the NBA's finest player thus far, even better than James, whose shooting efficiency is still at an all-time rate but the rest of his numbers are down. Looking at the big picture, the Thunder remain the class of a loaded Western Conference with a sparkling 27-7 record and haven't missed a step without Russell Westbrook, who has missed OKC's last six games after getting his right knee scoped Dec. 27. Since the bad news on Westbrook, the Thunder have gone 4-2 with narrow defeats at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers and the Brooklyn Nets.
And here's the thing about the Westbrook injury: The numbers say Durant hasn't missed his co-pilot at all. In fact, Durant's been playing at superhuman levels without his star point guard. In the past six games, Durant is averaging 32.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists on 51.9 percent shooting from the floor and 40.5 percent shooting from downtown. This follows a fascinating trend that has been true all season: Durant has played much better with Westbrook on the bench.
Get this: According to NBA's StatsCube database, Durant has put up a 35.4 PER in the 488 minutes with Westbrook riding pine.
I repeat, 35.4 PER.
Durant Without Westbrook
Here are Durant's per-36-minutes numbers this season as well as his PER, usage rate and true shooting percentage depending on whether Westbrook is in or out of the game.
Mins Pts Reb Ast PER USG% TS%
Westbrook off 488 31.1 9.4 4.6 35.4 33.7 65.1
Westbrook on 789 25.7 7.0 4.8 25.4 28.3 61.6
The highest PER figure of all-time, by the way, is 31.8, set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962-63, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Durant has exceeded that and then some with Westbrook sidelined.
In those situations, Durant has become more prolific and more deadly with his shot, posting a LeBron-like 65.1 true shooting percentage (a shooting percentage that incorporates free throw shooting and the added value of 3-pointers) and a 33.7 percent usage rate, which would lead the league. His rebounding numbers jump to 9.4 boards per 36 minutes, which make sense given that Westbrook is an elite rebounder at his position.
So what happens to that number when Westbrook checks into the game? Durant's numbers slide pretty much across the board.
Durant's PER drops to a 25.4 figure, which would rank eighth in the league. His true shooting percentage has drops from 65.1 percent to a less-ridiculous-but-still-really good 61.6 percent. His rebounding numbers fall to just seven boards every 36 minutes and his usage rate drops to 28.3 as he shares the ball with Westbrook, who actually has the highest usage rate in the NBA at 31.9 percent.
But the big thing here is that the Thunder, as a team, have been able to weather the storm without Westbrook. Durant's numbers are way up, but more importantly, the Thunder's offense looks nothing like the overwhelmed squad that the Memphis Grizzlies mauled in the playoffs last season.
In the Western Conference semifinals, the Thunder put up just 95.4 points per 100 possessions in the 4-1 defeat and generally looked overwhelmed by the Griz. Sure, Durant and company got away with simple stuff against the Houston Rockets in the first round, but against an elite defense with the benefit of playoff prep, the Westbrook-less Thunder got smoked.
This season's a different story. The Thunder are scoring 108.1 points per 100 possessions with Durant on the floor and Westbrook off of it, which is actually slightly better than their offensive efficiency with the two playing together (107.0).
Why no dropoff?
For one, Westbrook wasn't sharp immediately upon arrival this season, so even with Westbrook the Thunder weren't exactly running on all cylinders. Secondly, the Thunder have had an entire offseason to adjust to the hypothetical of a world without Westbrook, unlike the postseason run. Preparation is kind of a big deal.
Together, the salaries of Jackson, Lamb and Adams combine for less than what the Timberwolves are paying Martin this season. That's how you build a roster on a tight budget.
Lastly and most importantly, the development from third-year point guard Reggie Jackson, who has been one of the league's most improved players this season, has changed the game. No longer can opposing defenses constantly throw four players onto Durant and expect to live to tell the story. Jackson's outing on Sunday, when he scored a career-high 27 points, wasn't a fluke; Jackson has been brilliant on both ends so far playing off of Durant and vice versa.
Multiple times in Sunday's game, even Avery Bradley looked helpless trying to stay in front of Jackson as the rest of the C's defense kept its eyes on Durant. With three treys on Sunday, Jackson has raised his 3-point conversion rate to a solid 33 percent and has already made more three-balls than he did all of last season in 129 fewer minutes.
Jackson isn't the only member of Durant's supporting cast that has kept defenses more honest. Rookie Steven Adams, who was drafted using Houston's pick in the James Harden deal, has also given Scott Brooks even more reason not to play Kendrick Perkins, though the veteran still inexplicably starts for an elite team. Jeremy Lamb, the Kevin Martin successor, is scoring 17 points per 36 minutes and drilling 40 percent of his 3s.
Together, the salaries of Jackson, Lamb and Adams combine for less than what the Timberwolves are paying Martin this season. That's how you build a roster on a tight budget.
In the end, Durant has taken the lead in the MVP race thanks in no small part to the improvement of his teammates. They allow him to do his MVP-caliber work even without Westbrook. A rising tide raises all ships in basketball as well. Though the Thunder will need Westbrook for the title run, the ever-growing talents of Durant have kept Oklahoma City afloat. If things hold, Durant won't finish second behind James in the MVP vote yet again. For now, Durant has James beaten with better numbers and, with Westbrook out, a better story.