Take a look, and you can tell that he's destined for greatness

Last season Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder at just 22 years old became the youngest scoring champion in NBA history, came in second place in the MVP voting, and was seven tenths of a second from pushing the eventual champion Lakers to a seventh game. Right now Kobe is still the best, Durant is second, and LeBron and Wade follow. By the end of this season I think Durant will be the undisputed best player in the world.

At 6-9 Durant possesses guard skills and a big man's body, a deadly combination for the rest of the league. He can rise up and shoot over pretty much anybody and he will go by whoever is guarding him if they play too far up on him. Because he can score at will, Durant gives the Thunder a great chance to win night in and night out.

This year I expect big things from the Thunder. With Durant and Russell Westbrook leading the pack I think they have a good chance to make a deep run into the playoffs. There's no reason to believe that the Thunder won't be a dangerous team in this year's playoffs.

Durant is better than LeBron because A, he's a better scorer and a much better teammate. Durant gets his shots up but he is not selfish in doing so. And B, because Durant's game doesn't interfere with any of his teammates'. LeBron is a dominant player, but (at least in Cleveland) he has the ball in his hands far too much. Often times his teammates can't get into the game because it's the LeBron James show.

Right now the reason why Kobe is still the alpha dog is because of his ability to close out games. With the game on the line there is nobody in the league who I would rather give the ball to. It seems like every time the game is in his hands he delivers. Durant has hit some game winners but Kobe does it on a consistent basis. Once Durant shows that he's clutch enough to close out games like Kobe he will be the best player in the league.

Once he takes the throne, I don't see him getting knocked off for awhile. Because Wade and James joined forces in Miami they are immediately removed from the conversation. The young wave of all stars like Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, and Deron Williams are all game changers and they all consistently lead their teams to the playoffs but they're just not on Durant's plateau.

I am willing to guarantee right now that Durant leads the Thunder to at least two championships before his career ends. I'm happy I get to live in a time where I can see one of the most dominant scorers ever develop and grow. Averaging 30.1 PPG this early in his career is Jordanesque. I can't wait to see what he does for an encore.

The Thunder kick off the season at home against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night on ESPN.

There are no excuses

A lot has been said about the lack of size on the US front line. Many reports make it seem as though that's a viable excuse in the event they lose. There is absolutely no excuse for this team to not win it all. One thing I want to make clear. It's the media that keeps making excuses for team USA, not the team itself. The coaching staff and all of the players have maintained the mindset that this is their tournament and that if they lose it's on them.

Ok, so the US media is saying, "Well they have no size, how are they supposed to rebound?"

Do you know what every other team is saying?

"Derrick Rose AND Kevin Durant, how the hell are we supposed to stop that?!"

Other countries have TVs, they know what they're about to go up against.

The US is so much more talented than every other team they play that there is no reason why they should not win. A lot of these guys they are going up against aren't in the NBA, want to know why? It's because they're simply not talented enough. Now why should they lose to a bunch of guys who aren't even good enough to play in the same league as them. The only way I see the US losing a game is if they don't bring enough intensity. Every other country has their game with the US circled on their calender, that's their big game. It's crucial that the US match that intensity every night.

I'm not sure what other teams will do to try and slow down team USA. My guess is that they're going to play some variation of a 2-3 zone. The reason I say variation is because if it was a regular 2-3, the US would just put Kevin Love in the middle and tear it to pieces with cutters and spot up shooters, or at the very least an open jumper for a solid mid range shooter. Don't forget, the international three point line is much closer than the NBA three, don't be surprised to see guys pulling up way behind the line.

Despite its weaknesses, 2-3 seems like the way to go because they will need to make it so Rose and Rajon Rondo can't easily penetrate. Both of those lightening quick point guards will blow by pretty much anyone if they try to play them man to man. And once one of those guys gets into the paint the other team just has to pray that someone misses an open jumper.

I'm fairly certain that most teams won't press either because that's exactly what the US wants. A fast paced game plays right into their hands and if that's the case then it should be a blowout with the athletes the US has.

I know the USA Basketball program puts a lot of emphasis on, "checking your ego at the door." Before training camp starts every summer Coach K gives a long speech about how in order to win on an international stage everyone needs to sacrifice a lot. I completely agree with that philosophy in most cases because most of the time the roster is full of superstars. This year is a little bit different. There are only two players whom I would consider to be superstars and they are Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. I would tell Rose to play like he plays in Chicago and I'd tell Durant to play like he does for the Thunder. Rose's scoring on his penetration will open up the perimeter, as well as taking a ton of defensive pressure off of Durant. If you don't think so then look at the scrimmage against Spain. At the end of the game Rose started being aggressive going towards the basket and it won the game for them. That's what he's good at, in my opinion he's one of the best players in the league at going to the basket, why fight it?

I am a huge Bulls fan so yes I am 100% biased in this theory but that doesn't make me wrong.

The bottom line is this. No matter what route they take in doing it, there's no legitimate reason why the US shouldn't come out on top.

My USA 12 Man Roster

Saturday night marked the first time we've gotten to see some of our NBA's stars since the end of the regular season, almost 3 months ago. In this glorified scrimmage the team is split into two, the white team vs. the blue team. Eventually 12 of these players will end up on the same roster to travel to Turkey for the world championships.

This may come as a surprise to you as it did to me but the United States hasn't won at the world championships since 1994. Their most recent world championships memory is a disappointing one. They blew a late lead against Greece back in 2006 to drop the title. That remains the only loss in the Jerry Colangelo era's record.

The first thing I have to say is, turnovers anyone? The turnovers in this game were crazy, 34 in all. As the announcer said 7 billion times, this is really nothing but a glorified scrimmage and not much is going to come out of this as far as team play progression goes. However, as far as cutting guys to get the 12 man roster this game was essential. After taking into consideration everything said in the media in the last week as well as each player's performance in this game, I have come up with what I believe will be the 12 man roster.

PG- Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook

SG- OJ Mayo, Steph Curry, Andre Iguodala

SF- Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger

PF-Kevin Love, Lamar Odom

C- Tyson Chandler