Kevin Durant has been one of the best scorers in NBA history, and 18 years into his career, very little has changed about that. The two-time champion is averaging 25.9 points per game for the Houston Rockets this season, doing it with the same efficiency that has defined him since he entered the league.

What makes Durant's sustained dominance remarkable is where it comes from. While the NBA has moved toward a game built almost entirely on paint touches and three-pointers, Durant has built his career at the intersection of both worlds, refusing to abandon the mid-range game that most teams have written off entirely.

"The fundamental part of the game I try to master… I don't try to be gimmicky or do 3 step-backs in one play, shoot all 3s one game," Durant said. "I just try to keep an old-school mentality. I like mid-range shots, playing in the paint. It's like a mixture of new school and old school ball is really why I'm still here."

The shift Durant is describing began over a decade ago, when Steve Kerr's Golden State Warriors and their perimeter-first system rewired how the league thought about offense.

Mid-range basketball has quietly become a relic, something teams have phased out in pursuit of better shot quality. However, Kevin Durant never followed.

That stubbornness has paid off. Modern defenses are built to take away shots at the rim and contest threes, leaving the mid-range open for the handful of players skilled enough to punish it.

At nearly seven feet tall with one of the deepest offensive arsenals in league history, Durant is almost uniquely equipped to exploit that gap.

How Kevin Durant Plans His Offensive Game

Durant ranks fifth on the NBA's all-time scoring list and carries a career average of 27.1 points on 50.3% shooting, including 39.1% from three.

His 25.9 points per game this season come on just 17.6 shot attempts — a volume that reflects his efficiency more than any decline in his game.

He has always adjusted his approach based on what is working in a given game.

"I usually play off of feel though, if I'm hot from the 3 then I'm taking a lot of 3s, if my middy workin then that's where I'm goin for dinner," Durant wrote on X in 2019. "If the lane open then I'm staying in the paint."

That adaptability is what has kept him impossible to gameplan against. Most elite scorers can be pushed toward a weakness. Durant does not really have one, which means defenders are always a step behind, no matter where he decides to operate.

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Written by

Nandjee Ranjan

Edited by

Arvind Rao