Ask NBA fans to name the best scorers in the league in its recent history and two names that will almost certainly come up are Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. We are talking about two incredibly gifted individuals here who are capable of putting the ball in the hoop in every possible way and they have both led the league in scoring at a point in their careers.
Trying to pick between them in their primes isn’t an easy task but that was the question posed to Draymond Green, who went with Carmelo.
In their prime, who was the better scorer: @carmeloanthony or @KDTrey5?@Money23Green gives his take: https://t.co/9Crbjd3bY8 pic.twitter.com/Bp8DE6R8b0
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) August 11, 2022
“I’m going to go with Melo. The reason I’m going to go with Melo is actually this. We were playing against him at the Garden, it had to be my first or second year in the league. And Melo caught the ball in the post, he faced up on me, put his shoulder to my chest, I may have fouled him a little bit maybe not, and he went through my chest and I got the stop (as) he missed. I may be fouled him, maybe not. He turned around to the referee ‘Call the f****n foul’, we go back down the court (and) we come back down, he did the exact same move the next play and made the referee call the foul.”
“And the reason why that is such a big deal to me is because as a scorer you go into slumps, you have bad shooting nights and the one thing that breaks scorer’s slumps can be a free throw and just knowing that Melo can get to the free throw line like that, that’s why I am gonna pick Melo. But man that’s a pick ’em for real. Can you go wrong with either one? I don’t think so.”
That is an interesting way to look at it and while you could consider that as a factor to determine who’s better, the numbers don’t back up Green’s assessment. Durant has had three seasons where he attempted over 9 free throws per game while Melo has never had a season like that, so he isn’t exactly better when it comes to that aspect of the game.
KD has responded to Green’s comments regarding him in the past and he might do so again here if he feels he has been slighted. Still, as Draymond added later, you can’t really go wrong with either one here as they are two of the best ever to do it.
