Kevin Durant isn’t afraid to speak his mind, especially when it comes to the art of scoring. In a recent exchange on X, a fan asked Durant why the midrange shot gets so little respect in today’s NBA despite his clear mastery of it. Durant’s response was short, sharp, and brutally honest: analytics killed the midrange, and the people who push those numbers aren’t always doing it for the right reasons.
“Because analytics dissed it and people read analytics to feel like they’re superior to others,” Durant replied.
Durant is arguably one of the NBA's most active X users, but he doesn't use it how one might think. Instead of making posts to broker peace or share his personal life experiences, he uses the platform to defend his legacy at the expense of the fans who are often on the other side of his arguments. In this case, he did not mince words as he shared his view on the evolution of the mid-range jumper.
In one sentence, Durant reignited one of the game’s most polarizing debates, the war between the eye test and the spreadsheet. And in doing so, he positioned himself as a defender of the in-between: the space on the floor analytics said to abandon, but that legends still dominate.
In the early days of the NBA, the mid-range was often considered preferable to the three-pointer, and it was a shot everyone could make. By the 90s and early 2000s, we saw a golden age of the shot as legends like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Allen Iverson mastered the zone. Durant is arguably the greatest modern-day mid-range shooter, and he's one of the few players who still frequently attempts the shot.
Of course, as the league began to spread out and pivot toward the perimeter, teams began to abandon the mid-range in favor of threes. As players got better and better at long-distance shooting, teams began to lean more on analytics, which valued three-point attempts and free throws over mid-range shots.
Suddenly, the mid-range jumper was deemed the least valuable shot in the game, and players were actively discouraged from seeking shots in that area of the court. The result is a league where playstyles feel repetitive, and offensive creativity has taken a back seat.
For Durant, the "analytics culture" is to blame for this shift. Instead of letting each team and each player find their own identity (built on personal strengths and weaknesses), it has forced everyone to a similar playstyle with limited innovation. The mid-range game is a dying art in the NBA, and the trend will likely only continue as analytics evolves and becomes a bigger part of every team's strategy.
Kevin Durant isn’t trying to change the way the game is played, but he’s not going to pretend the numbers tell the whole story, either. For him, the mid-range isn’t inefficient. It’s timeless. It’s skillful. And most importantly, it’s his. In an era dominated by data and formulas, Durant is making it clear: sometimes, greatness happens in the gray area, not in the spreadsheet.
In an era dominated by data and formulas, Durant is making it clear: sometimes, greatness happens in the gray area, not in the spreadsheet.
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