Kevin Durant vs. Jayson Tatum Full Comparison 2023-24

Over the last two months, we have been paying close attention to the way things have been unfolding during the 2023-24 season. We have been comparing various elite players at certain positions and declaring one of them superior. Using 11 different attributes and skills, it is time to compare two of the best forwards in today’s NBA, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.

Both Durant and Tatum are at two completely different stages of their careers in the 2023-24 season. Durant is at the tail end of his prime, still performing at an elite level as he chases his third NBA championship. Tatum has officially entered his prime looking to finally get Boston over the hump and claim his first NBA championship. While they may be at different points in their career, the two are undoubtedly two of the best at their positions in 2023-24. 

Now it is time to compare and decide who is better between Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum for the 2023-24 season.

Scoring – Kevin Durant

While everyone expects a decline in offensive production from Kevin Durant as he gets older and his body begins to betray him a bit more, he keeps on defying the odds and performing as one of the best scoring forwards in the NBA. After an extremely efficient 2022-23 season in which he averaged 29.9 points per game on 55/40/90 shooting splits, Durant has started 2023-24 similarly.

Through 18 games so far this season with the Suns, Durant is averaging 31.0 points per game on 51/49/89 shooting splits. He is scoring at will for the Suns and is currently ranked third in the NBA in scoring average. His 49.4% shooting from three ranks third in the NBA which continues his claim as one of the most efficient high-volume scorers in NBA history.

While Jayson Tatum may be a “lesser” scorer than Durant, he remains elite in many ways. Tatum is currently averaging 27.6 points per game which ranks ninth in the NBA. His shooting splits are also considerably lower than Durant’s which makes awarding scoring to Durant one of the easier decisions in today’s comparison.

Shooting – Kevin Durant

As one of the greatest mid-range shooters in NBA history, Kevin Durant continues to pick apart defenses with his ability to create jump shots and knock them down from pretty much anywhere on the court. Durant is currently shooting 49.4% from three in 2023-24 on 4.5 attempts per game as well while Jayson Tatum is shooting 35.7% on double the attempts. Although there is a significant difference in three-point shots between the two, Durant has the upper hand from beyond the arc.

The same goes for their shooting from within the three-point line. Durant is currently shooting 51.4% from 3-10 feet and 48.6% from 10-16 feet, continuing his dominance from the mid-range level. As for Tatum, he is shooting 50.0% from both 3-10 feet and from 10-16 feet on the season.

As if we needed any more evidence that Durant is the superior shooter, then we get to their foul line percentages. Durant is shooting 89.6% from the free-throw line while Tatum is knocking down just 79.2% of his free-throw attempts. This puts Durant’s true shooting percentage at 63.6% and Tatum’s at 61.9% through 20 games.

Athleticism – Jayson Tatum

Now, I am never one to knock a player for their age and durability, especially when it comes to the likes of Kevin Durant. For the athleticism conversation, I am willing to make an exception given the circumstances. Durant has lost an extra step, relying far more on creating from the mid-range and perimeter than getting to the rim and finishing. His injuries are a concern over the last few seasons leading me to believe he has completely adapted to what his body is telling him to do.

On the contrary, Jayson Tatum is at his athletic peak at just 25 years old. He is the faster, stronger, and overall more athletic player. Not only is that evident from watching games but it also happens to be basic science and the way the human body works. Unless, of course, LeBron James was a part of the conversation.

While this may have been a closer category when both were in their primes, it is an easy category win for Tatum in 2023-24.

Defense – Jayson Tatum

When it comes to the defensive category, both Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum are highly underrated. Tatum is a much-improved on-ball defender whose length and lateral quickness are his greatest assets on that side of the ball. Tatum has been able to lower his defensive rating to 107.7 so far this season which is better than last season’s 109.4 rating. He is also averaging 1.1 steals and 0.4 blocks per game through 20 games this season.

When it comes to Kevin Durant, he has always been an underrated defender for the majority of his career. He is a talented challenger away from the ball and collects his fair share of blocks and altered shots. Unfortunately, in 2023-24, his defensive rating has ballooned to 114.5 giving Tatum a significant advantage in that category. Despite the fall of his defensive rating, he is currently averaging 0.8 steals and 1.2 clocks per game through 18 games.

While the basic numbers favor Durant, the advanced defensive stats favor Tatum considerably, giving him a slight advantage on defense.

Handles – Kevin Durant

As I have discussed at length in past comparisons, I like to think of handles as a bit more advanced than most. While I do not consider either of these players among the greatest ball-handlers ever, they do each possess handles that serve a higher purpose on the basketball court.

Kevin Durant’s ability to handle the ball on a string at nearly seven feet tall is an amazing feat in itself. In 2023-24, you can see that Durant has had zero issues in getting to his spots and using his height advantage over other wing players to get his shots off. That all starts with his ability to handle the ball and control every movement he makes.

Tatum takes a much more aggressive approach with the ball in his hands. His first thought is to get to the rim by any means necessary, especially if he is struggling with his jumper. While his handles look a tad cleaner than Durant’s, the results are strikingly similar as far as impact goes. For this category, I had to go with Durant for his advantage in how his handles serve his offensive game as opposed to Tatum’s.

Clutch – Kevin Durant

For the clutch category, it is hard to judge this category based on a very minimal sample size in 2023-24. To give a more thorough decision, we have to take a look at recent seasons as well to come to a fair conclusion.

Durant has been one of the more clutch players in the game over the last five seasons. Whether big performances were needed in the regular season or the right play needed to be made, Durant has been there to get it done in most instances. Contrarily, Tatum has fallen apart more often than not in the clutch. It can be argued that Tatum’s lack of a clutch ability cost the Celtics a championship in 2022 and last season as they fell to Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Also helping Durant take this category is the fact he is currently ranked as the most clutch player in the NBA while Tatum ranks 13th. Either way, I wouldn’t mind either of them having the ball in their hands at the end of games.

Leadership – Jayson Tatum

I always find myself having an issue with judging leadership based on what we see on television rather than being behind the scenes at this point. However, when it comes to Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant, the decision seems to be extremely clear.

Let’s make something clear when it comes to leadership. Being the best player on a team does not automatically make that player the leader on the court. During Durant’s time in Oklahoma City, Westbrook stood out to me as the team leader. In Golden State, it was Curry. In 2023-24, while Durant has been the Suns’ best player, this is until clearly a team led by Devin Booker who was in Phoenix his entire career before Durant arrived. The only time I could ever see Durant as a leader was in Brooklyn and that stint turned out to be a massive failure on historical fronts.

It definitely feels like the opposite for Jayson Tatum in Boston. Numerous players over the years have come out and said that the Celtics are Tatum’s team, and that seems to be a recipe for success given how much further the team has gone than any of Durant’s teams since 2019. If this is how we are going to judge leadership, I do not see a reason to not give the category to Jayson Tatum.

Basketball IQ – Kevin Durant

This is another category in this comparison that seemingly could go either way. Judging a player’s understanding of the game is extremely difficult but it can be done if the one comparing them pays close enough attention to how each player operates on the court.

This is precisely why I have chosen to go with Kevin Durant in this category. Ever since he arrived in Phoenix, Durant has shown the ability to continuously adapt to situations that spontaneously arise. When Booker is healthy and performing well, Durant knows to take a step back and let him go to work. If Booker is injured or struggling, Durant can turn it on at any moment and take over. This shows an extremely high level of basketball intelligence as well as the ability to be a team player.

I am not saying that Jayson Tatum’s understanding of the game is far lesser than Durant’s but I see way more basic mistakes coming from him at this point in his career. Costly turnovers, poor shot selection, and being unwilling to go beyond what is being asked sometimes hinder both Tatum’s and his team’s performance. It isn’t something he does often but it is glaringly obvious when he does, making Kevin Durant the slightly more intelligent basketball player right now.

Impact – Jayson Tatum

If Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum were at their peaks, this wouldn’t even be a conversation. In his prime, Durant was arguably the most impactful player in the NBA not named LeBron James for some time during the 2010s. As time moves on, that becomes less and less the case with how much impact he has had on a championship-level team.

While Durant has failed to play well enough to get his team past the second round of the NBA playoffs, Tatum has continuously been able to lead his Celtics to the Conference or NBA Finals. That speaks volumes about which player has displayed the highest level of continuity and impact from a purely basketball standpoint.

Efficiency – Kevin Durant

Along with scoring and shooting, efficiency is probably the easiest category to decide on in this comparison. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t much that is inefficient about Jayson Tatum’s game but when compared to Kevin Durant, it isn’t particularly close.

Kevin Durant is having another historically efficient season through 18 games in 2023-24 for the Phoenix Suns. Currently, he is averaging 31.0 points per game on exquisite 51/49/89 shooting splits. Tatum is currently averaging just over 27.0 points per game on 45/39/79 shooting splits, showing a significant dropoff in efficiency as far as shooting goes.

Durant even holds the advantage when it comes to advanced stats. Currently, Durant has a 25.1 PER compared to Tatum’s 21.5 PER so far this season. Durant is also committing fewer turnovers per game which is an important part of efficiency as well.

1-On-1 Game – Kevin Durant

Even as Durant enters the twilight years of his career and Jayson Tatum is entering his, I would never be dumb enough to go against Durant in a 1-on-1 situation. Durant is one of the few players I have 100% complete confidence in to get a bucket in isolation situations due to his ability to break down defenses, get to his spots, and routinely knock down his shots.

There have been a few too many instances in which I have seen Jayson Tatum fail to create anything for himself in a 1-on-1 situation. This doesn’t mean I lack confidence in him whatsoever but it does mean I am more inclined to go with Durant in this category. Now, if they were in a 1-on-1 situation against each other, that is another situation in which I am putting all of my money on Durant as well.

Final Result

Kevin Durant vs. Jayson Tatum 7-4

While the results seem to favor Kevin Durant in this comparison, do not let them fool you into thinking the gap between him and Jayson Tatum is too large. While Durant is currently the player to come out on top between the two, Jayson Tatum is one of the premier players in the league who will help usher it into a new era.

For now, Durant remains the better scorer, shooter, ball-handler, and more efficient player. However, the margin of victory in those categories is extremely slim with Tatum trending upwards across the board. At just 25 years old, Tatum is heading in a direction that will take him firmly past Kevin Durant as far as their abilities go. Of course, I do not mean this as it pertains to the entirety of their careers.

Through 20 games in the 2023-24 season, Kevin Durant is the better player as it currently stands. With 62 games remaining, that can change in the blink of an eye and we will all be tuned in to see how it unfolds.