Rockets' Kevin Durant Listed as NBA's 11th-Best Player Entering 2025-26 Season

Kevin Durant is easily one of the NBA's all-time greatest players, without a doubt. Even if you're a fan of a team that he bailed on, you'd be forced to admit that.

He instantly becomes the greatest closer in Houston Rockets history and is one of the greatest scoring wings to ever suit up for the franchise. Even at age 36, he's still highly productive, as evident by his 2024-25 campaign --26.6 points, 6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 52.7 percent from the field, 43 percent from long-range, 83.9 percent from the foul line, and 64.2 percent true shooting.

His legacy is cemented, although he'd certainly like to add a few more titles to his basketball resume. But where does he rank among the game's greatest players today? According to Jason Timpf, he ranks 11th-best, as told on Timpf's Hoops Tonight, presented by The Volume.

"The shotmaking from KD is completely outrageous. KD was the best jumpshooter in the entire NBA last season.

He shot over 50 percent on all jumpshots. Even if you weight it for threes, he got 1.21 points per attempt. That ranks number one out of the 58 players who took at least 500 jumpshots."

Timpf continued.

"KD was the best iso player in the NBA last year by a mile. There were 22 players that shot out of iso at least 200 times. KD's 1.16 points per possession was far and away number one.

He's just the best to ever do it. When you need a bucket, there's never been a better guy to give the ball to....Kevin Durant is the best I've ever seen at scoring the basketball in the flow of an offense.

Meaning doing so without disrupting the rhythm of his teammates. This is what makes him so easy to fit in any basketball situation. "

Timpf noted that he expects Durant to thrive with the Rockets, because of his ability to fit in essentially anywhere. Timpf attributes this to Durant not being a ballstopper and being predictable and decisive when the ball is in his hands, making it easy for his teammates to know when to cut and how to play alongside him.

He also mentioned Durant's underrated defensive strengths, as a shot-blocker and as one of the league's best isolation defenders.

He cited Durant's lack of playmaking ability and dip in defensive rebounding as reasons to have him out of the top 10, while noting that an argument could be made for placing him inside of the top-five.