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Regarding those categories, probably steady year at best.
Through out Kawhi Leonard's career there has been one thing that has occurred every season. He has always been a slow starter that does much better in March than he does in November. I think this is at least partly because he spends all summer adding new elements to his game and at the beginning of the season he is finding the balance between adding the new stuff into his game, but finding a balance with everything else.
Here is his career splits in each of these months.
FG%
November - .497
March - .532
3PT%
November - .338
March- .410
TS%
November- .567
March - .627
Ever year of his career has consistently followed this dynamic. The one difference between this year and those years is he hasn't had any missed time during training camp or early. So as the thread le says the million dollar question is, will Kawhi this season follow the same pattern or will this be a more steady year and we get this same Kawhi all year?
Regarding those categories, probably steady year at best.
His shooting percentages will be steady at best. His 3P% may dip a bit. But I expect his assist numbers to go up. He's already looking more confident passing off of penetration than he did a month ago.
I think/hope Kawhi will continue to get more comfortable in his role as the primary scorer, but I also think the Spurs will find more ways to integrate LMA into the offense, which could make it harder for Kawhi to get into a rhythm, so we may not see the sort of statistical jumps we have in the past.
Slow start could be a number of things, between not being 100%, to not being used to the new parts of his game which probably feel like an experiment early, to just being off (like Danny right now I guess).
I think this year he was simply determined not to start off slow like in the past, and has had a very aggressive mind on a consistent basis that we hadn't seen previously. The offense is also tailored for him, Pop calls his number through games and gets on him to be aggressive if he's not showing enough aggression and determination, and his teammates look for him more than they ever had in the past. It's a combination of factors, the most significant is that his role is established early (not in a development stage)
I agree those 2 will balance out..he is shooting a ridiculous 45% from deep compared to 34% last season and averaging 2.0 APG compared to 2.5 APG. i would say in the end it would look like something 40%/3 APG..His PPG and rpg are about right where i expect him to finally average 20-21 ppg/7-8 rpg..
The million dollar question is, can we count on him to finish games? Or will we still need a fresh Manu and a fresh Tim to finish playoffs teams off?
Closing games is a team effort. I think you are asking if he will be clutch.
lol million dollar question
Not clutch but smart, Manu and Tim have always find way to either convert or get quality shots for others.
Also absorv the team pressure in the defining moments.
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