The Career and situation of Kawhi Leonard is an interesting one at the fresh young age of 21 Leonard has earned rave reviews from players and coaches around the league. In his 1st season in the NBA he became a reliable starting small forward that played a good amount of minutes on a team that went to the western conference finals. For all the accomplishments and accolades Kawhi has earned so far none maybe as important as what coach Popovich has said regarding his career.
“I
think he’s going to be a star. And as time goes on, he’ll be the
face of the Spurs, I think. At both ends of the court, he is really a
special player. And what makes me be so confident about him is that
he wants it so badly. He wants to be a good player, I mean a great
player. He comes early, he stays late, and he’s coach
able,
he’s just like a sponge. When you consider he’s only had (two
years) of
College and no
training camp yet, you can see that he’s going to be something
else.”
-
Greg Popovich
Coach
Popovich makes a lot sufficient points in that quote. Kawhi is a very
good player at both ends of the floor in only his 2nd
season in the league he is regarded as one of the best all- around
defenders in the league whether its man to man, zone defense or
perimeter defense Leonard excels highly at all of them. The best
example of Kawhi's defense would force you to look no further then
last nights game 2 of the NBA Finals. Although the stat isn't 100%
factual at this present moment checkout the job Leonard has been
doing defensively on Lebron James in the tweet below.
Obviously
you aren't going to completely stop Lebron James but Kawhi has done a
great job guarding the best player on the plant which is a testament
to his defensive ability.
Then
you have to look at Leonard on the offensive end. From his rookie
season to his sophomore season he has increased his scoring average a
whole 4 points from 7.9 to 11.9 Points per game as basically the 3rd
option in the Spurs offense behind Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. Those
guys along with Manu Ginobli aren't getting any younger so you have
to believe that as Leonard matures that he will grow into becoming
the leader of the San Antonio Spurs.
Here
is an interesting stat I came across after doing a little research.
Of the 14 other starting small forwards in the western conference
Kawhi Lenoard's Player efficeny rating is 16.46 which is higher then
9 of them. The 9 guys he is higher then are as folllows (Harrison
Barnes-12.48, Caron Butler, 12.50, Metta World Peace,-12.55, Michael
Beasley-10.91, Chandler Parsons-15.33, Tayshaun Prince, Al Faraqu
Aminu-15.76, Nicholas Batum-15.76, Demarre Carroll-15.56). Pretty
impressive for a guy who is the 3rd and sometimes 4th
option on offense all depending on how Danny green is shooting the
ball.
So
lets put those numbers in perspective Kawhi Leonard’s Player
efficiency rating is the 5th highest of starting small
forwards in the western conference. The only guys with higher ratings
with him are as follows ( Tyreke Evans-18.16, Shawn Marion-18.02,
Andre Kirlenko-17.67 and Kevin Durant-28.35). So all the guys that
are higher then him are the 1st or second options on offense for
their respective teams and one of them is an MVP Canidate. That’s
pretty Impressive stuff from the second year man out of San Diego
State.
If
you look at just Kawhi the person and his demeanor you will see that
he really has no change of demeanor. He is even keel which is what
you want from a team leader. When you win you never want to get too
excited but when you lose you don't want feel to down it's just good
to stay in the middle and Kawhi does a great job of that. He posses a
few quality's that current teammate and future hall of famer Tim
Duncan has such as a calm demeanor, productivity, hunger towards
success and quite frankly he is a guy most don't people pay attention
to.
I
think in due time we will see Kawhi Leonard mature into an all-star
and leader for the San Antonio Spurs. He is in a great situation at
21 years old getting to be around guys like Greg Popovich, Tim
Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Tracy Mcgrady. That’s a lot of
greatness surrounding a guy who is very young, plays the game the
right way and seems to have his head on straight. As long as he
continues to work and soak in as much info as possible then the sky
is the limit for Kahwhi Leonard.
Last
night in game 3 of the NBA Finals the San Antonio Spurs shot the
Miami Heat out of the building in a 113-77 blowout. The fact that I'm
even calling it a blowout should be considered a compliment to Heat
fans they gave up an NBA Finals record 16 Three Pointers. I have
never seen any team shoot the ball like I saw Danny Green and Gary
Neal last night who shot a combined 13-19 from behind the 3 point
line.
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