NBA - Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose’s will be the next superstars
Kobe Bryant dominated the NBA for more than 13 years and still continues to do so; however critics say he did not have much competition around him until 2003 when Dwyane Wade and LeBron James showed up. Like they say history repeats itself, critics once again cried out how Wade and James do not have much competition besides Bryant.
But that had changed by 2008 when NBA brought in two of the most determined players, namely Kevin Durant, who was drafted as the 2nd pick overall in 2007 by the Oklahoma City Thunder and Derrick Rose as the 1st pick overall in 2008 by the Chicago Bulls.
Just like Dwyane and James the two are the hopes of their respective teams. Ever since Kevin landed in the City Thunder’s, the desperate team that has not won the championship final since 1979 and has struggled through the playoffs since then. Although all that change after Kevin step foot in the team, he finally gave the lonesome fans something to smile about.
Derrick Rose played a similar role, although the Chicago Bulls is a franchise who has won 6 National titles in a span of just 10-years, but after Michael Jordon and Dennis Rodman’s departure from the team they hit the wall. After 8-years of struggling, the franchise finally got hold of deserving player who lifted the team’s spirit once again; the 21-year old point guard, Derrick Rose.
At only 21 years of age Kevin and Derrick are the youngest players to be the leaders of their teams. Kevin’s stands at 6’9” and formally plays as shooting guard or small forward but is also known as a swingman, he is given credit for his prolific game play and his leadership qualities. Durant is one of the hardest workers in the league; his skills keep on improving as the seasons go by. The young aspiring player was named the McDonald’s All-American in 2006. Before he came to the NBA, scouts and coaches were impressed by his shooting and ball handling ability despite his sheer size.
Derrick on the other hand was named the Rookie of the year by 2009 and is being constantly compared to veteran players like Dwyane Wade by sports analysts. The 6’3” point guard has considerable amount of accolades in a span of only two years. Chicago Bulls fans and experts had predicted that Derrick would soon be the centre of attention in the NBA and the prediction seems to be coming true, Derrick Rose is currently one of the most searched basketball players on the internet. There are countless blogs and sports articles that have featured the young player.
However the two striving players have yet to go far in the playoffs, basketball pundits concluded until their teams did not provide them with the right supporting cast the two would just be amongst those players who came to the NBA and their talent was just wasted.
Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder took the thought into consideration and after observing how this year Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers had added more depth to their roster, the two franchises decided to do the same.
The Bulls signed onto power forward, Carlos Boozer and swingman Kyle Krover, while the Thunder’s added Cole Aldrich who will take the roll of the Centre and Miami Heat’s former shooting guard Daequan Cook.
Kevin and Derrick both made an appearance in the NBA-All Star team this year. Kevin although has played in the playoffs but kept an average of 25.0 points per game, 2.3 assists per game, 7.7 rebounds per game and in a regular season 25.3 points per game. On the other hand Derrick has appeared in 2 playoffs games back to back, with averaging 26.8 points per game this year with 7.2 assists per game and 3.4 rebounds per game.
The two young players certainly have a long career ahead of them and have a lot to prove to NBA nation, but as of now the Derrick and Kevin have astounding career averages and experts say if they keep this up they will surpass Dwyane and James soon enough.
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