My dad and I had a debate over this. He loves Durant ever since he bought a car off my pops 12 years ago. Now he follows the suns a lot and is a booker fan as well. He claimed booker is levels above but I disagreee. I personally said it’s close but I prefer Shai because he plays both ends of the floor. I’m sure the debate will be split within this thread. Just curious.
I think anyone who actually has decent IQ knows that currently as it sits, Booker is the better hooper.
You could argue SGA has better on-balll defence but even then this is debatable as Booker’s defence is pretty decent.
The only difference I see is that SGA currently doesn’t have any all-star caliber teammates and this gives A LOT OF THE CASUALS the delusion that he’s single handedly carrying the team like AI did back in the days.
This is not true where as Booker has had CP3 and despite my hatred, Deandre Ayton as a teammate (now KD and Beal) so makes it look like he’s not single handedly carrying. Again not true when you look into the context.
Both top tier players and are in their own league but what separates them is like everyone here has already commented, shooting efficiency, playmaking, passing and proven Playoff resume.
And because of the above elements it naturally makes Booker the better scorer (not by heaps but still better).
In the end, I think comparing the two right now is immature and will need to wait another 3~4 seasons to properly say who was / is better player but when you’re comparing the two right now, as in what the players have shown until today, Booker is clearly a better player.