5 Warriors who need to step up in Curry's absence

Kevin Durant

Will Kevin Durant have enough time to get suited to a leadership role?

Dating back to his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant has always dispelled any doubt about his role as the #1 scorer in the league. It is pretty indisputable given all the statistical evidence that Kevin Durant is one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history. He has a devastatingly good True Shooting Percentage of 64.0% for the season. But will that be enough to cope up for Curry's loss who has a league-leading 67.5% of his own?

Having recently eclipsed the 20,000 point mark, there are murmurs among the NBA community that Durant may someday take Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's position as the NBA's all-time leading scorers. As his time with the Warriors has shown, he will definitely have no difficulty in scoring as long as Steph Curry keeps passing him the rock. But as the Warriors' recent struggles have shown, their offensive machine has come to a standstill much too often with players trying more isolation plays than running a free-flowing offense. This may even go on to affect Kevin Durant's touches in the postseason as seasoned opponents like Gregg Popovich's Spurs can now focus heavily on the 2014 MVP, limiting his options.

With scoring being difficult to come by, how can one expect the man to lead the team? From his time with the Thunder, Durant has always proven his hunger for winning and is not afraid to take the game-winning buzzer-beaters. Yet, the media and fans regularly allude to Russell Westbrook being the true Alpha on that roster, which is part of the reason why Kevin jumped the boat in the first place. With a lot of expectations riding in the balance for the reigning champs, Kevin Durant sure does seem to be their best bet at shouldering the load, for now.