NBA Top 50: Kevin Durant (No. 38)

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

While we continue to sift through the ethereal, hard-to-explain section of our top 50, we get a guy who might be a no-brainer come December ... or might continue to struggle with growing pains and growing pangs for excellence for the greater NBA fanbase. No slight to the fine, fine people of Oklahoma City, but Kevin Durant is our player -- he belongs to the world, not your town. We're all as every bit interested in his development as you.

By most measures, last year in Seattle was rough. Why shouldn't it have been? Dude took 39% of his team's shots, as a 19-year-old rookie playing out of position. He took 24% of his team's free throws. He took 22% of his team's total three-pointers. I know the Sonics cleaned house to start fresh under Durant and Jeff Green, but that's just an absurd level of responsibility.

In fact, the only teenage rookies with more responsibility in NBA history: Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James. Both had nominally higher usage rates than Durant in their rookie seasons, but ended up with substantially better results (PERs of 17.6 and 18.3 respectively, to Durant's 15.8). But look at Durant's central 2007-08 weakness: shooting percentages. There's no way in Hartford that Durant doesn't begin seeing major improvement there.

Last season he got better from the field as we went along. In 16 games in March, he shot a marvelous 53% from the field, with a True Shooting percentage of 60%. He probably won't come out with that level of efficiency to start 2008-09, but in the long term, it's a better indication of where he'll be than his full-season numbers.

He'll also, without fail, become a better rebounder. A kid who averaged double-figure boards in college isn't going to stay below Jason Kidd in rebound rate forever. Hopefully, P.J. Carlesimo realizes Durant can handle the paint and lets him use his crafty athleticism and length to help the shallow Thunder frontline. If Durant works as hard as we've known him to, KD could become Artest II: a new type of player who can defend everyone from Nash to Curry. But unless we see Durant in position to play such a role -- by getting under the basket a little, which begins with rebounding -- it'll be a while.

Durant will still have struggles. He'll still have some bad nights. But more than most child proteges, Durant was held on by circumstances last season. He wasn't given a chance to blossom: he was placed in an untenable survival situation. He's survived. He's still here. And by the end of this season, we'll remember what all the fuss was about.