How much has Kawhi improved last season? Can he continue to improve?

[YGWHI]

-Highest fouls drawn rate of career.

-Overall efficiency spiked 13%

-#8 in RMP

In his 4th season, Kawhi had a better Player Efficiency Rating (22.0) than Scottie Pippen (21.5), Bernard King (19.8), Alex English (19.7) and John Havlicek (19.2) did in their fifth.
More Wins Shares per 48 minutes (.204) than Pippen, King, English, Havlicek as well as Rick Barry (.155) and Wilkins (.197).

-0.2 in WS/48.

His mark is elite, one only 11 players reached last season. (LeBron missed out by 0.01 points, the first time in 10 seasons he failed toreach it.) Of the 21 players who averaged 0.2 for their entire career, 13 are in the Hall of Fame. The other 6, Durant, James, Duncan, O’Neal, Nowitzki, Chris Paul, Yao Ming and Ginobili, are sure locks.

-Highest assist percentage career

-#14 in scoring efficiency with 0.9 points per possessions

He has improved at a high rate his ability to create for others, since he isn't a gifted ball handler or passer, the level of his improvement in those areas of his game is a testament to his own hard work.

-career highs of 2.31 steals and 5.9 defensive rebounds, led the NBA in steals.

-Kawhi's defensive rating of 96.4 led the NBA, he was the first non pf/center since Pippen in 1994.

According to nba.com, the Spurs gave up only 97.1 points per 100 possessions when Kawhi was on the court, a defensive rating that would have led the league over the entire season. When he was off the court, though, San Antonio permitted 102.2 points per 100 possessions, a league-average defensive rating.

We can see Kawhi has improved in measurable ways last season, some of us think he's not a finished product and is continuing to add to his game, others can think he's already reached his ceiling...but even if he doesn't improve/add anything to his game over the next five seasons, he's already at a stage where few players ever reach.

[K...]

Honestly, with the lma addition I think he should just work on some basic stuff.. He gets at least one more year as role player on offense, or more specifically, I don't think he should work on ball handling. Post ups and mid range shooting.

Defensively, what more can he do?










Biggest improvement should be to play injury free.

[YGWHI]

:lol

With LMA Kawhi doesn't need to carry the load on offense but....since when the 1-b option is a role player on offense?

[K...]

:lol

With LMA Kawhi doesn't need to carry the load on offense but....since when the 1-b option is a role player on offense?

I think he won't be 1b this year except on matchups that reward him. Remember we still have Parker taking shots, Duncan at the elbow, diaw, green and mills playing important roles. I just don't see much room for Kawhi to get more touches. Hopefully more minutes, more skills, but overall no need to have Kawhi become a featured scorer.

[K...]

Basically Kawhi touches = last year's touches - (difference between lma touches and splitters touches) + Parkers decline


Obv Parker should give up shots if he's effective. But it'll never be zero. But lma should get more play than splitter. Basically everything else stays the same.

[RD2191]

Kawhi needs to work on his offensive game. He also needs to learn how to eurostep.

[Fireball]

the improvement needs to be consistency ... I doubt he is able to continue to improve in strides, but he needs to do his stuff on a nightly basis and stay healthy to play 75+ games

[K...]

Kawhi needs to work on his offensive game. He also needs to learn how to eurostep.

I really think you don't understand Kawhi. He's more likely to play pf than guard.

[TheDoctor]

First we need to define "improve". In the general sense of the word, of course he will improve, he's working hard and maturing. If we talking about his offensive game, definitely he'll improve with more touches.

With LMA acquisition, I'd love to see him slash and cut more. That will help him in games were his jump shot is not falling.

[DarrinS]

Dude is a sponge and a gym rat. He will only get better.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Slashing is about it. He's got the mid-range shot and post-up shot down, and he's decent at 3-pointers. Slashing was a real weakness for the team as a whole last year. It would be really helpful if he got more involved with that.

[SAGirl]

We can see Kawhi has improved in measurable ways last season, some of us think he's not a finished product and is continuing to add to his game, others can think he's already reached his ceiling...but even if he doesn't improve/add anything to his game over the next five seasons, he's already at a stage where few players ever reach.




Yes, I agree with you, and it is an interesting subject because he's already a fantastic player and has reached an elite level as an overall player, just based on how impressive he already is defensively and the fact that he's an efficient scorer (not a volume scorer, but really efficient). He's a guy who can get his own shot, move well without the ball, and has improved his court vision a lot, actively looking for teammates and to make unselfish plays. That is a tremendous improvement from his rookie and sophomore years.

I think his ballhandling and courtvision are possibly at a point where they are as good as they are going to get. He's worked on ballhandling all of his 4 years, and I think with his big hands, and just his overall size, he's probably as good of a ballhandler as he ever will be, which is pretty good already. In terms of his passing I don't know. That tends to be an innate talent, specially for elite passers. Pop's comment about Simmons actually revealed a belief I have had for a long time, but didn't know if I was just biased, in that elite passing is a talent that not even Pop knows if it can be coached quite honestly. I am not sure Kawhi is a guy you can run everything through. When Pop gave him the ball last year he looked a lot like Melo, offense was stagnant, slow and the Spurs were not a high scoring team that way. They won games because the team--specially when Tony was injured and CoJo was at PG--was impressive defensively, but offensively it wasn't special. I differentiate an efficient scorer, from a guy who can run an efficient offense. For example CoJo was an efficient scorer last year when he had an aggressive mind, but with him at PG, the Spurs were not outscoring other teams easily and offense was noticeably more stagnant than with Tony or Manu. Kawhi is a big question mark in that regard. To me, he's a good passer, but not an elite one. Its possible that like a young Tony who was a scorer who Pop molded into a PG, Pop is molding Kawhi into some sort of point forward, but I doubt he will be elite in that regard--just like everyone criticizes Tony's passing (or lack thereof at times). As a credit to Tony though, he's improved his PG skills and passing over the length of his career a lot.

I am not sure at this point, if offensively he will ever reach that level of point forward that some fans envision for him. At some point his improvement will taper off. It was bound to be incremental specially at the beginning of his career, but at this point it will be moderate or small improvements overall. His decision making with the ball could improve though, because last year was just the first time that he had the opportunity and freedom to make his own choices in what he wanted to do offensively when Pop game him the ball. For him, looking at film and things of that nature, he can probably improve his decision making when double teamed, etc.

At some point though he will reach a point, where its just working on the little things, like being consistent at what he already does well, making good decisions with the ball, not settling for shots the defense is giving him, but looking for his preferred spots, taking command of things when the game is going awry, and having a mental approach to be consistently aggressive. No one knows where he is at in terms of his improvement curve. I think he can be better than he's been, but we don't know. He could just improve on what he already does well by being consistent.

[Brian Windhorst]

Consistency. No more 12, 4, 2, & 1 nights punctuated by the occasional 24, 9, 4, & 4 nights. Shoot more consistently from 3 and be more aggressive in transition on offense. Be more involved in the PnR on occasion, both as the ballhandler and the screener. Learn to be smarter when guarding quick guards in the PnR as opposed to big SGs and SFs; the same things that work on Lebron & Durant on D will not and have not worked on the Monta Ellis, Alexey Shved, Kyrie Irving, James Harden type players. This also has to do with Pop sticking him on whoever is the best offensive player, regardless of whether Green might be a better matchup for that player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJEEuiWB6Wk

[HarlemHeat37]

He's never going to put up consistent star numbers with the way he's utilized + the personnel on the team..

He is already a top 10 player in the league, though, which is better than virtually anybody could have predicted he would ever be..he'll never be a true #1 scoring option on a title team due to style of play IMO, but he can be the best overall player on a title team..

[Spurtacular]

Still waiting to see whether Kawhi bulking up helps or hurts his game.

[Gladney to see you]

I wish he had a better first step.

[random21]

We will see a bit more of his post up game this season, per my Spurs source...

[All Mighty Janitor]

They way I see it, Kawhi could already operate the pick and roll and slash. He uses his body and strength well (like Joe Johnson) to create space. He just didn't have many opportunities, because he almost always had only one other 3 point shooter on the floor. Thus he shot a lot of twos. He's good to great at them so it didn't hurt him as much, but relying on your jump shot is not conducive to consistent offensive output. With LMA on the court, Kawhi should have much more space to operate and show his driving ability.

To improve though, he needs to work on his confidence in his dribble so he's not constantly picking it up early. If he wasn't playing with a team of High IQ players that know how and when to move to bail him out, he would get a lot of turnovers for this. Of course, adding more dribble moves to his arsenal with help with this problem along with making him better in the Pick and roll.

Leonard also needs to make more accurate passes in general. He has good instincts, but he puts passes behind and too low for his teammates to catch cleanly too often.

Lastly, Kawhi must move from and "outside-in" to an "inside-out" scoring mentality. As I said, he shot too many twos. You don't draw fouls and create offence for your teammates playing like Melo (relying on triple threat face up twos to open up your driving). I didn't really have as much problem with this last year because there was no spacing. But he can be so much more than just an inconstant Iso scorer. Once he moves from and "outside-in" to an "inside-out" scoring mentality and improves the two things I mentioned, he'll put himself in the second tier of offensive players (under Lebron, KD, Curry, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and Harden).

I'm not sure if Leonard can get better at defense than he was toward the end of last season, but if he can do that all year, he might be the favorite for DPOY.

[spursistan]

He's never going to put up consistent star numbers with the way he's utilized + the personnel on the team..

He is already a top 10 player in the league, though, which is better than virtually anybody could have predicted he would ever be..he'll never be a true #1 scoring option on a title team due to style of play IMO, but he can be the best overall player on a title team..

I strain to find historical examples of that other than PGs (Isaiah/Magic/curry)..

[HarlemHeat37]

I strain to find historical examples of that other than PGs (Isaiah/Magic/curry)..

I don't think there's a precedent, as I've said before, SFs that aren't point-forwards typically won't lead your team to a title, too difficult to build around them..OTOH, the Spurs have been an outlier in many ways, so I wouldn't be surprised if they won a title in the next 2-3 years and Kawhi was the best player on the team..

[apalisoc_9]

cant improve if not given green light

even with green light from pop, still need to receive the ball from porker

now is porker going to feed the ball or continue with his jealousy shenanigans

[daslicer]

Stat wise I think he will be pretty much the same as last season. Will average around 16-18 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 assists.

[LongtimeSpursFan]

He just needs to play within his role. He's got a team full of AllStars and should play within his game to complement them. Good defense and occasional three point shooting.
I always tell my players I don't need five superstars. Aka, do what's best for the team.

[YGWHI]

He just needs to play within his role. He's got a team full of AllStars and should play within his game to complement them. Good defense and occasional three point shooting.

:lol

Fortunately for the Spurs, Kawhi keeps doing top #10-player things.

652309820251308032
652307538780782592

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkLInpNUMWU&feature=youtu.be
16 points

[HarlemHeat37]

IIRC, other than Kawhi, only Jordan and Hakeem have won DPOY and Finals MVP..that's all you need to know, tbh:lol..

[Kawhitstorm]

IIRC, other than Kawhi, only Jordan and Hakeem have won DPOY and Finals MVP..that's all you need to know, tbh:lol..

He's actually the youngest ever to achieve that feat.

[Kawhitstorm]

They way I see it, Kawhi could already operate the pick and roll and slash. He uses his body and strength well (like Joe Johnson) to create space. He just didn't have many opportunities, because he almost always had only one other 3 point shooter on the floor. Thus he shot a lot of twos. He's good to great at them so it didn't hurt him as much, but relying on your jump shot is not conducive to consistent offensive output. With LMA on the court, Kawhi should have much more space to operate and show his driving ability.

To improve though, he needs to work on his confidence in his dribble so he's not constantly picking it up early. If he wasn't playing with a team of High IQ players that know how and when to move to bail him out, he would get a lot of turnovers for this. Of course, adding more dribble moves to his arsenal with help with this problem along with making him better in the Pick and roll.

Leonard also needs to make more accurate passes in general. He has good instincts, but he puts passes behind and too low for his teammates to catch cleanly too often.

Lastly, Kawhi must move from and "outside-in" to an "inside-out" scoring mentality. As I said, he shot too many twos. You don't draw fouls and create offence for your teammates playing like Melo (relying on triple threat face up twos to open up your driving). I didn't really have as much problem with this last year because there was no spacing. But he can be so much more than just an inconstant Iso scorer. Once he moves from and "outside-in" to an "inside-out" scoring mentality and improves the two things I mentioned, he'll put himself in the second tier of offensive players (under Lebron, KD, Curry, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and Harden).

I'm not sure if Leonard can get better at defense than he was toward the end of last season, but if he can do that all year, he might be the favorite for DPOY.

I agree w/ most of what you stated but Kawhi is really Melo Jr. except he's faster & Melo had a quicker first step. They are both power players w/ silk jumpers but they don't possess the ability to change direction in traffic which make it tough for them to split traps & maneuver their way into the paint. They are simply straight line drivers & are hard to stop once they get their shoulder in front of their defender. You will also see them trying to power through a defender rather than absorbing the contact & drawing a foul but they end up getting their shots blocked. Although I do remember Kawhi Euro stepping to finish at the rim a couple of times but it still looked awkward kind of like a deer learning how to walk.

[apalisoc_9]

Kawhi and Aldridge worked on the PnR once with west on the floor in the weakside..It's where he missed the layup with Cousins contesting, but damn the spacing on the strong side...Kawhi can straight drive all day with that setting..

[apalisoc_9]

only time he improved? is when enrique is nowhere on the court