You are fucking retarded. Just stop having basketball takes altogether, it's not working out for you.
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JUST DEFENSE
Fucking Spurstalks now complaining about Kawhi being ball-hog..
Wake up man.. Manu and Duncan won't be here next year if Spurs don't repeat..
I love Kiwi, tbh... just bringing up something I noticed, it's not a bad thing, as other people said, this is the time to experiment...
32,000 + posts and none the wiser. You're the last person that should be dogging someone about basketball takes. Leonard generates offense with his defense. He's rarely able to create offense for himself and his passing is nothing to write home about. He's your prototypical, no-nonsense jump shooter shooting at a career low 45% from 2 and 33% from 3. 68% of lay ups, 82% of his dunks, and 68% of his jump shots come via the assist. The so-called number one option needs some passing guards to get him involved in the offense because he can rarely generate offense for himself. No wonder Kiwi backers want Parker's head on a swivel. A guy like Leonard, full of athleticism, should be demanding the ball and taking it to the basket on every possession, not settling for mid range jumpers, in which he's shooting a robust 37% from beyond 5 ft (89-237 ... 18/52 34%, 4th Q/OT) That's Corey Brewer territory.. Most of his J-shots beyond the arc come via penetration from Parker/Ginobili/Mills/Joseph and he only cans 33% of those wide open J's. Heck, If I was playing pg and knew those numbers beforehand and didn't see Leonard underneath the basket, I'd look the other way too.
:lol argument is 63% of his shots are assisted..
Well, ya, that's how it works for virtually every non-combo guard(Harden, Wade, Ginobili, etc) or PG in the NBA outside of Lebron, Durant(even Durant has 53% of his shots assisted) and Carmelo:lol..
Bradley Beal: 69%
Wes Matthews: 64%
Nic Batum: 69%
Tobias Harris: 61%
Klay Thompson: 65%
Chandler Parsons: 62%
Jimmy Butler: 65%
Wilson Chandler: 61%
Luol Deng: 68%
That's generally how the position works..
Your argument is that Kawhi is meaningless and has no value on offense because 63% of his shots are assisted..are all the players I listed meaningless on offense? Is every player in the NBA that isn't a combo guard, a PG or Lebron/Durant/Carmelo meaningless on offense?
No, I said he is primarily a defender. If he gives the Spurs offense, then, it's a bonus. With his shooting %'s of 36% beyond 5 ft (That's Corey Brewer territory), I can see why he gets overlooked so often. There are posters here who feel he should be the #1 option and the dead head starting at point needs to recognize and witness the miracle at SF. "Leonard's not getting enough touches." The Spurs are losing because TP is ignoring Leonard in the corner." I'm saying his offense is a product of the system and it's highly inefficient at this point in his career. That may change down the line but, that's not the case now. Those guys you mentioned are basically role players with the possible exceptions of *2015 Klay Thompson and *2015 Jimmy Butler. I really thought we were talking about "one of the best players in the game." There's suppose to be a big difference between Leonard and the guys you mentioned. Would you consider trading Leonard for any of those players mentioned?
Clearly you don't know what you're watching. He is one of the best post SF's in the NBA, those aren't his teammates making those post moves, backing down his defender, making those turn around fade away shots while his teammates get credited for an assist for lmao. He's great in the pick and roll, he can perfectly replicate Parker's penetrate and drive too. He was hitting guys with all sorts of passes in the beginning of the season, the problem was Daye, Anderson, Diaw, Belli, everyone was bricking their shots. Of course you weren't paying attention to this. And that whole penetration break down the defense thing after a rebound is not minor, it's huge to the Spurs' offense. His aggression creates for others.Quote:
I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but Leonard's ONLY real value is his defense. He's not the great offensive threat you think he is. He has great teammates which in turn, makes Leonard a better player overall offensively. His teammates put him in a position to succeed. Nearly 63% of his FG's are assisted to this season yet, nobody gives credit to the passer. Unless Leonard's defender falls asleep, Kiwi takes a couple dribbles toward the paint, stops, a.) shoots a 15-footer b.)passes the ball out to the top of the key. Put Leonard in another uniform and make him the number 1 option, and he wouldn't be half the player he is today. Yet, we'll mock TP for taking mid range jumpers.
Leonard rarely gets put in position to make plays, Parker on the other hand has the entire offense tailored towards him lmao. Practically everything Leonard gets out there is the product of himself. You want to see a system player watch Parker's '07 Finals highlights, Duncan is involved in practically every scoring play, that is a true system player.
Either way Leonard lead the Spurs without Parker, stepping up his game both times thanks to TP being out.Quote:
Parker gave up on his team but you nor I really can contest to the pain or discomfort Parker was feeling during the time in which you say "he gave up on his team". I guess that's convenient because it fits your narrative to a tee.
Parker has been playing pro basketball since he was 15, developing and playing among elite competition since he was a teen. Leonard played for some unknown high school and college nobody heard of, made it to the NBA, revamped his shot by himself without the assistance of Spurs staff during the lockout, turned into one of the best shooters in the NBA lmao. He's proven time and time again, give him reps, he'll get better. Parker needs to take a back seat, Spurs need to tailor the offense towards Leonard.Quote:
Btw, Leonard was essentially a lottery pick. Parker was the 28th pick overall. Kudos to the Spurs coaching staff for sticking with the 19 year-old and teaching him the game of basketball.
Lets see thread starts off by calling Kawhi a ballhog but Hoops shows up as the hero that we all know he is and explains why he isn't by pointing out Kawhi's % of FGM that were assisted. Thanks.
Duly noted.
Exactly. He takes a couple dribbles, stops, pulls up and clanks a 15 footer 64% of the time. Parker's %'s are a little higher though. Yet, Parker is a lazy slug who punishes the team by using an exorbitant amount of court time selfishly over dribbling and shooting his team out of games while completely ignoring the best player on the court.
Sure he does. He makes plays with his defense all the time. Sometimes, it leads to easy offense.
I knew it was somehow all Parker's fault.
Stats would disagree with this but, I digress. The Spurs have actually been a better offensive team with Leonard off the floor. The defense on the other hand, yeesh! I agree, he will get better, but, it's a bit too early to tailor your offense around a player who's shooting 36% beyond 5 ft. Maybe when Parker is traded in the offseason, we will all be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing the future has finally arrived. Time to start adding some rings to the left hand to go with those already occupying the right.
BTW Hoops you posted Kawhi's outside 5 ft shooting % (37.75% according to NBA.com) it isn't that far off from guys like Westbrook (36.58%), Lebron (38.85%) and Harden (38.40%).
Kawhi's OffRtg is also highest on the team (107)
Harden is 107.8, Lebron 110.3, Butler 106.3, Westbrook 106.7, Durant 105.9
So yea Kawhi's biggest impact is on the defensive end (+rebounding) lets not act like he's some marginal/average offensive player. Maybe that is system related but then you could also apply that to the rest of the team as well.
How is the teams leading scorer just a defensive guy?:lol
OP is kinda right, Kawhi has been attacking often when he gets the ball. I do think he's also being a willing passer when the pass is there to be made though. Better than the alternative of sitting in the corner since our Big Two need all the help they can get shouldering the load bc a certain PG has been MIA all season. He can be erratic at times but I think hes shown enough flashes to where you just have to live with the errors and allow him to grow...I think he has the ability to dominate the large majority of SFs in the post and eventually should be used as point forward as well.
Yes we can afford to experiment because it's not like the Suns, Pels, and the Thunder are breathing down the Spurs' necks
yeah regular season is the time to get kawhi to iso a bit more, but heading to the POs they gotta come back to that ball movement that won them the 'ship
I don't believe we have fully integrated KL in the offense. Last year he grew wings in the playoffs on the offensive end. This year he appears to have confidence in an even wider array of shots. This changes the offensive roles of other players. Pop has got to find someway to integrate these changes while still moving the ball around effectively.
Bingo.
this is what I have been seeing all season.
The team is truly TRYING to get Kawhi more involved in the offensive sets. But to do that, they have to change some of what their offense has been doing for the last three years.
It is occasionally difficult to watch the process. Lots of times when Kawhi tries to iso, our bigs are unsure where to go and the spacing gets crowded. Plus, when he isos, our guards are not going to be in the motion offense they have been running for years.
All of this is to say it is not a fun thing to watch sometimes. It may be necessary to get to where the team wants to be by the playoffs, but it is not always pretty.
I believe that all of the team members want to do what Pop wants them to do. The ability to remember how to get it done differently from what worked before is not easy all the time.