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DIME MID-SEASON REPORT SKULLCANDY 1 Prince, just with three or four more inches of airspace added on at the end. After losing James Harden, many fgured OKC would struggle offensively in the half-court. Instead, Durant's passing numbers have jumped to a career-high. Newcomer Kevin Martin is thriving next to him. So is Serge Ibaka. During Durant's frst fve years in the NBA, you could've counted on one hand how many times a Durant dime made a SportsCenter Top 10. Now, it's a weekly occurrence. Durant is also coming off one of the most effcient seasons of any player in the league, fnishing just outside of the top ten in true shooting percentage (61), and of the players above him, only one had a usage rate above 22: Manu Ginobili (For comparisons sake, KD's usage rate was 28.4). This year, he is even better, and has a chance to join the elusive 50/40/90 club even as the rest of his game is vastly improved. No longer just a scorer, Durant's allaround numbers should keep expanding with OKC counting on him more than ever. The added bonus is the loss of Harden puts even more pressure on the second-best KEVIN DURANT You are probably wondering where Russell Westbrook is on this list. He's a top ten player and a leader on maybe the best team in the NBA. By the end of this season, we think there's a chance he vaults even higher. Westbrook is already possibly the best offensive point guard in the league, scoring over 23 a game as he combines dynamite hops with one of the deadliest pull-up jumpers in the game. His weaknesses (up-and-down playmaking, gambling defense) are sometimes exposed. But with his obsessive work ethic, Westbrook is turning those into strengths because… he almost has to. OKC counts on him too much. All of that should add up to a major MVP contender right? Well there's one problem. He plays with Kevin Durant, and even the biggest Westbrook fans know he's not as good as OKC's starting small forward. More often than not, the MVP race comes down to the stories: what the media can pitch, write about, galvanize. With Westbrook, it'll always come back to this: he's not even the best player on his own team. That'll follow his MVP credentials like a reeking fart. You know the last time a player won a MVP when he wasn't the knockout leader, the ultimate, ultimate alpha dog on his own team? You have to go back to 1972-73 when Dave Cowens won the award even though John Havlicek led the team in scoring and was often the team's best player. That was 40 years ago. Meanwhile, Durant is having arguably one of the best individual seasons in the last 20 years. As of press time, KD was leading the NBA in scoring (28.3) while having by far the best defensive season of his career. No, he's still not like LeBron, an overpowering bear who defes all scientifc explanation. But watch Durant play defense on Kobe. Watch him on 'Melo. He's learning to use that 7-5 wingspan, playing defense in much the same fashion as a young Tayshaun 59 small forward in the league. If the Thunder lock down the league's best record without Harden, how can you not give it to KD? If you want to go by stats alone and hand the award to LeBron, go ahead. Why don't we just give it to him every year then? Durant's made a bigger impact with his team this year. LeBron James is still the greatest all-around player in the league, but Durant has had the most important individual season. OKC lost their third-best player on the eve of the season, and are dealing with one of the deepest conferences of the decade, so bottomless with talent that the star-stocked Lakers can barely get into the playoff hunt. Up until a recent swoon where they lost four of eight games at the tail end of January and into February, the Thunder were the best team in the NBA, running away with the league's overall No. 1 seed. LeBron has reached the mountaintop; Durant is still pushing to meet him there. In the end, it'll probably come back to a rematch in June for the Larry O'Brien. This time, it'll be Durant entering the building with "League MVP" stamped across his forehead.