Kobe Bryant was asked who the toughest player for him to guard in the Western Conference on the John Thompson Show the other day. This was Kobe’s response: “Roy 365 days, seven days a week. Roy has no weaknesses in his game.” Link to Article
That doesn't mean Roy is better than Durant, it might just mean that nobody every asks him to guard Durant. In fact, this might be a slight on Roy, because these days, Artest is always put on the other team's best player...
Considering Artest has said Roy is the "best player [he's] played against" I think that argument is moot.
Kobe is such a homer. BTW - I am not surprised by this answer - a healthy Roy is a handful to guard because of his ability to change directions, change speed and his fantastic ball-handling and good decision making. Does not make Durant less valuable, or have a higher ceiling, or the guy to build around - but Kobe makes a lot of sense in this assessment. Roy is fantastic and playing a lot of Roy initiated ISO offense is a smart thing. He is that good.
Durant is his challenge to take his MVP. Of course Kobe is gonna promote the guy who doesn't enough props over him. However, this probably is a true statement. Durant doesn't have as good of ball handling skills and probably can't drive/create as well as Roy can.
He's really not usually. He doesn't guard the quicker guards unless it's a really important game. I don't even think he's that good at guarding quick guards anymore.
Gee, really? Here I was thinking that Kobe Bryant answering that Roy is the hardest player for him to defend somehow meant that Roy is also better than Durant. Thank you for answering this burning question! Please put me on double ignore. Also, wait until Kobe gets a load of the new and improved "off the ball" Roy. The one where Brandon is a poor-man's Rip Hamilton. He's unguardable!
Considering Kobe also plays the "poor-man's Rip Hamilton" role, he'll probably see it as a pretty legitimate weapon. Michael Jordan played it too, in his prime. Better players than Roy have aspired to be Rip Hamilton. They failed to be as good as Rip Hamilton, perhaps, but still became better players.
So would you trade Brandon Roy straight-up for Kevin Durant? I would have a very hard time saying "no" to that. Honestly, I think Kobe is full of it. I think he resents the attention Durant is getting, so he thought of a different WC player who's also quite good, but not considered in the "stratosphere" with Kobe. Yes, B-Roy is one of the 10 best players in the NBA, but Durant is among the three best, with LeBron and Kobe. And Durant is the youngest of all of them (Roy included).
If Durant had better ball handling skills I would do that. I personally don't really like having the best player on your team pretty much make everyone else stand around on offense because he doesn't create for them. Before anyone says Roy does that, he creates for his teammates a lot and doesn't hesitate to hit the open man if he is being doubled or doesn't have the greatest of shot. Having a Larger AI who passes less but defends better just doesn't appeal to me.
If I knew that Roy would have Kobe's durability - I would hesitate mightily trading Roy for Durant - as far as skills and the ability to build around - Roy is fantastic - he can take over games better than many players, Durant included. Of course, Durant is younger, has better physical tools, has more untapped upside than Roy and has less injury concerns - so almost anyone would trade Roy for Durant, but it is certainly not because of skills or how hard he is to guard. Kobe is 100% right there.
This definitely couldn't be because Kobe didn't guard Durant primarily when the Lakers played the Thunder... And FYI, the Laker who DID guard Durant (Ron-Ron), put Durant as a top-2 player in the league along with Kobe.
