Durant Has High Praise for Young Scoring Specialist

Being a score-first, offense-only player doesn’t have the same value as it used to. In the past, if you were a scoring machine, teams valued you very highly. However, in today’s NBA, things are a bit more complicated. 

Do you create offense for others with your scoring? Can you play defense? What do the advanced analytics say about your impact on winning? 

All of these are questions teams are asking when they analyze a player. Simply scoring a lot just isn’t that impressive anymore. 

Cam Thomas is exactly the type of player that would have been valued much more in the NBA of the past than today. 

Future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant believes Thomas might be overlooked. 

“I feel like Cam has a bright future. It just takes somebody to believe in his talent and his skill. Scorers and guys that score the basketball at a high rate, they get taken for granted in this league a bit. We’re so used to loving defenders, playmakers, and guys that can be connectors. Sometimes scorers get taken for granted. Hopefully, somebody takes a chance on Cam and gives him what he deserves, and puts the ball in his hands and builds around him and lets him grow into a player. What is he 24? He’s still got a lot of time in this league to keep getting better. Hopefully, a team puts some trust in him.”

Durant is always going to have the back of other elite scorers. After all, it’s how he’s made a name for himself in the league. The main difference, though, is that Durant has always done it on winning teams. So far, Thomas has been a good stats, bad team guy. Until he starts proving he can score in a winning system, he will continue to be overlooked.