Rockets' Kevin Durant is willing to give fans something they desperately want

The Houston Rockets know they landed one of the best scorers in the NBA in Kevin Durant. It seems Durant would be willing to prove that status in a showcase every NBA fan would like to see. On the Draymond Green show, Durant said he'd be open to participating in a one-on-one tournament during All-Star weekend.

"Yeah, I'll play, I just need to know what type of ones we would play in, man"

-Kevin Durant on The Draymond Green Show

This could be extremely interesting. Any NBA fan knows that All-Star weekend can be underwhelming. The league has been looking for ways to fix it, but they've come up empty. This could be a spectale that fans would love to see.

How would Durant fare?

Rockets' Kevin Durant one of the league's best one-on-one players

Quite well. That's not the question. The question is whether Durant could win it all.

To his credit, he listed some guys who might give him trouble. Durant named Jayston Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving as his chief competition. Each would pose Durant a unique challenge.

Ultimately, you've got to like his odds against Irving. The height difference would favor Durant too significantly. Conversley, Embiid may win the whole thing by way of dominating opponents on the low block. Otherwise, Gilgeous-Alexander and Tatum would both make tight matchups for Durant.

It's hard to quantify his odds. Isolation stats won't tell the whole story. If you sort the league by their percentile in isolation sets in 2024-25, you'll find a lot of low usage guys ahead of Durant (and everyone else named here). Unless you think Tidjane Saluan would win the NBA's inaugural one-on-one tournament, that's not the way to look at this.

Still, it's worth noting that the only player ahead of Durant in Points Per Possession (PPP) that roughly qualifies as a star in 2024-25 was De'Aaron Fox (93.4th percentile). Durant was in the 93rd percentile in Isolation PPP, and given the names ahead of him, one could argue he was the best iso scorer in the NBA.

Does it matter?

Kevin Durant will focus on scoring for the Rockets

For the NBA, sure. For Rockets fans, no.

The league should give this tournament serious consideration. It would be fun to watch Durant participate. Ultimately, it's inconsequential for Rockets fans.

They're excited to see one of the best scorers in league history in Rockets red. That's what defines the upcoming 2025-26 season. If the league does host a one-on-one tournament, and Durant does participate, it'll be icing on the cake:

Although, we'll all be rooting for him to win.