Kawhi's Leadership

[Embedded]

Great to see him growing. Last night he fed Simmons for a great play. Simmons was too busy celebrating afterwards to notice Kawhi wanted to dap him for 5. So Kawhi popped him in his chest to get his attention. Of course it's hard to tell with Kawhi, but he seemed mildly annoyed that Simmons was too full of himself at the moment to acknowledge the man that dimed him the shot.

[BillMc]

Great to see him growing. Last night he fed Simmons for a great play. Simmons was too busy celebrating afterwards to notice Kawhi wanted to dap him for 5. So Kawhi popped him in his chest to get his attention. Of course it's hard to tell with Kawhi, but he seemed mildly annoyed that Simmons was too full of himself at the moment to acknowledge the man that dimed him the shot.

Saw that too. Probably just an over-excited Simmons, rather than any dis or negative reflection on Kawhi. He's growing as a leader definitely.

[spursistan]

any available gif?

[Brian Windhorst]

Kawhi also jumped up when Simmons made the three that KL served up for him. Seems like he's just rooting for the guy tbh, they have similar personalities.

[Nathan89]

If Parker did that the idiots on the forum would spin it as him wanting all the credit imho.

[spursistan]

Also i want him to be more vocal about demanding the ball on mismatches..The hierarchy in the team has changed for Kawhi to rely on Parker or other ball-handler to swing it to him..

[loveforthegame]

I love all the talking Leonard has been doing. Not the trash kind. But yelling out where guys need to be defensively, recognizing a mismatch on offense and getting the ball to that person. He's talking to guys on the bench more or in the huddles, timeouts. It's awesome to see him develop more into a leadership role.

Loved that moment with Simmons too. I didn't think he was annoyed with him but wanting to give him props for the game he was having and that play in particular.

He's doing a lot of the things I've seen Timmy do over the years. And it's those two who I have seen do most the talking together this year. :tu

[dabom]

Kawhi was gonna fuck up Simmons on that play. :lol

[SouthernFried]

Saw that too and thought the exact same thing. Both about Simmons and also about Kawhi acting like a leader. Amazing what we infer from a 2 second little hand bump...lol

[gambit1990]

i noticed too :lol

here it is: https://twitter.com/spurs/status/670450852629377024

[Trill Clinton]

it didn't look like kawhi was annoyed because simmons was full of himself to me. simmons reaction was the normal reaction after an and 1. kawhi just didn't want to be left hanging and tapped simmons to get his attention to complete the dap process.

[sasaint]

That was not the play I was thinking of. I thought you were talking about the other assist - shorter pass from the low post. But thanks for the link. Cool!

[Fireball]

Kawhi instead did not acknowledge the great pass from Diaw by not making the fucking corner three .... that would have been a gif regularly shown here I guess

[jehawk81]

If Parker did that the idiots on the forum would spin it as him wanting all the credit imho.

Exactly, that shit is annoying af

[YGWHI]

If Parker did that the idiots on the forum would spin it as him wanting all the credit imho.

Well, after the Barry's wife affair, supposed affair, the problem with Parker has been some unfortunate statements about his teammates. And the media wrote about that saying "Parker is miffed by X Spurs player's NBA Finals performance"...questioning him as teammate.

It wasn't true, Parker wasn't jealous of his teammates, but since that day the fans overanalyze every one of his words, gestures...

[YGWHI]

Loved that moment with Simmons too. I didn't think he was annoyed with him but wanting to give him props for the game he was having and that play in particular.

He's doing a lot of the things I've seen Timmy do over the years. And it's those two who I have seen do most the talking together this year. :tu

We know that Kawhi isn't a demonstrative person, but he's doing an effort to change that part of his personality just to support his teammates.

With Simms was a nice way of showing that he cares and tries to make the new young guys feel appreciated.

As one get aged, personality also gets changed more or less, in Kawhi's case...change for better. :toast

[random21]

Kawhi looked like a boss out there, last night... On offense and defense he was just a poised monster... I wonder how much better he can get??

[Nathan89]

Well, after the Barry's wife affair, supposed affair, the problem with Parker has been some unfortunate statements about his teammates. And the media wrote about that saying "Parker is miffed by X Spurs player's NBA Finals performance"...questioning him as teammate.

It wasn't true, but since that day the fans overanalyze every one of his words, gestures...

It really doesn't have anything to do with that imo. It's all about shitting on Parker and propping up Kawhi.

[YGWHI]

It really doesn't have anything to do with that imo. It's all about shitting on Parker and propping up Kawhi.

I was trying to find a reason for that. Because not only Parker haters were saying those things...IMO the media played an important role in the fans' perception of those incidents.

[DeRozan m8]

it didn't look like kawhi was annoyed because simmons was full of himself to me. simmons reaction was the normal reaction after an and 1. kawhi just didn't want to be left hanging and tapped simmons to get his attention to complete the dap process.


This guy's nailed it.

No one wants to be left hanging...especially on tv

[SAGirl]

Simmons didn't see the Kawhi high five, he was just looking in a different direction.

In the dleague and SL I saw Simms get really excited after dunks and good plays, so I know that Simmons is naturally a lot more exuberant. Simmons mild fist pump is a restrained Simmons lol

Kawhi's tap on the chest.... hmmmm Kawhi didn't want to be ignored, so he was like: "come on man, I just served that dish for ya, ok? Good job an all, come high five here, back here.. not the bench!"

If Tony did that on an assist, I would think all you guys would be mortified.

:lmao

But, on another note, it does show Kawhi trying to bond with new guys in the team that he's supposed to lead. Kawhi is so personally restrained and won't even celebrate his own stuff, so him wanting to celebrate Simmons is a definite effort from him to try to bond.

[BD24]

I love all the talking Leonard has been doing. Not the trash kind. But yelling out where guys need to be defensively, recognizing a mismatch on offense and getting the ball to that person. He's talking to guys on the bench more or in the huddles, timeouts. It's awesome to see him develop more into a leadership role.

Loved that moment with Simmons too. I didn't think he was annoyed with him but wanting to give him props for the game he was having and that play in particular.

He's doing a lot of the things I've seen Timmy do over the years. And it's those two who I have seen do most the talking together this year. :tu
He really does a fantastic job of being a floor general on the defensive end.

[AFMadison]

Jesus Christ

[HI-FI]

I liked Kawhi's reaction from the bench when Mills made that 3 on his second attempt (following the 2nd pass from West).

[urunobili]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2wek2Hw6qgM

[Mr Bones]

I'm especially happy with Kawhi keeping his scoring numbers up while increasing his assist #s...
Five 5 games of year, Kawhi had 0,1,2,1,0 assists. Last 5 games he had 6,5,4,3,2.