Pop wants more consistency from Kawhi; Kawhi wants more mins from Pop

[spursparker9]

Each season of Kawhi Leonard’s bright young career marks a distinctive step towards…well, we’re still not exactly sure. But from what we’ve seen so far, it’s going to be pretty damn good. Indeed, it already is.

2011-12: Held his own as a rookie starter.

2012-13: Held his own in the Finals while matched up against LeBron James.

2013-14: Dominated the last three games of the Finals while matched up with James to before the youngest championship MVP since Magic Johnson in 1980.

Not that he’s resting on his laurels or anything. Having taken a month off after the series, Leonard said he left his trophy to collect dust back in San Antonio while he headed to his native California for offseaseason prep.

Having only just turned 23, he’s still just scratching the surface after scoring 29, 20 and 22 games with 28 total rebounds over those last three Finals games. Leonard said didn’t work on anything specific other than honing his isolation moves to be more effective in certain spots on the floor.

But more than any technical improvements, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said the biggest jump Leonard can take will be mental.

“I’m probably going to talk to him more about consistency now,” Popovich said. “He’s reached a certain level and if you look at those last three games he played they were pretty special. But to be in that top echelon of players in our league it’s a huge responsibility to have to come and do that every night. The Duncans, the Durants, the James-es and all those kinds of guys do it night after night after night and it’s a huge responsibility.


source from
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...-more-minutes/

[Chinook]

Eh, probably deserves a thread as much as anything does.

I really hope that Leonard's not going to be one of those quiet guys whom you wished stayed quiet once they start talking. He needs to play better to get more minutes. He started off last year very poorly. If he does that again, there's no way Pop's gonna give him the keys.

Maybe it's also a little frustration about not having an extension leaking in as well. This is what happens when a coach constantly talks up a player. Rex Ryan found that out with Revis (though judging by his comments about Wilkerson, Rex still hasn't learned his lesson).

[spursparker9]

I remembered Kawhi was quite terrible shooting the 3s in the early season last year. Quite a surprise, considering that he shot well beyond expectation in the rookie and sop re year after not being known as a shooter in college.

Then after coming back from the injury that took him out around 15 games, he and the team started to gain momentum and roll.

[anakha]

As mentioned in the other thread - You'll need to take out most of the quoted article, since the site owners could get in trouble if people post full articles from the E/N.

[SpursFan86]

He needs to play better to get more minutes. He started off last year very poorly. If he does that again, there's no way Pop's gonna give him the keys.

But even once he stepped things up and was playing great, he still didn't get many minutes.

Pre all-star break: 28.6 mpg
Post all-star break: 30.0 mpg

I get that we were blowing teams out a lot and it's dumb to risk injury, but IDK, I think he needed more minutes last year. It's harder to develop when you're only playing 29 mpg and most of those minutes come while playing alongside guys like Parker/Manu/Duncan.

I'm not saying give him full rein and start running iso sets out the ass for Kawhi. Just give him the minutes. Do you disagree with the idea that he'd benefit from playing 35ish mpg as opposed to <30? Do you think him playing an extra 5 minutes per game would be detrimental or beneficial to the team?

[Russo21]

Spurs are in turmoil oh no

[r0drig0lac]

shots fired

[Fireball]

If his knee tendonitis is completely gone, I have no problem playing Kawhi 32-35 min a game ...

[Mel_13]

But even once he stepped things up and was playing great, he still didn't get many minutes.

Pre all-star break: 28.6 mpg
Post all-star break: 30.0 mpg

I get that we were blowing teams out a lot and it's dumb to risk injury, but IDK, I think he needed more minutes last year. It's harder to develop when you're only playing 29 mpg and most of those minutes come while playing alongside guys like Parker/Manu/Duncan.

I'm not saying give him full rein and start running iso sets out the ass for Kawhi. Just give him the minutes. Do you disagree with the idea that he'd benefit from playing 35ish mpg as opposed to <30? Do you think him playing an extra 5 minutes per game would be detrimental or beneficial to the team?

Those two statements appear to be contradictory.

Giving him enough minutes to raise his mpg by 5 would require playing extended minutes in blowouts (assuming a similar set of point differentials this year) . Kawhi appears to be a victim of his own success in the this regard. The Spurs won 26 games by 16 points or more in 2013-14. Kawhi played in 25 of those 26 games. Only one of the 26 biggest blowouts of the season took place in any of the 16 games that Kawhi missed last year.

[TrueSpursFan]

I noticed in yeaterdays media day, kawhi looked frustrated talking about his minutes, but then again he shows no emotions regardless. But I did get a sense though that he seems kinda fustrated. The Spurs better give him more minutes or he'll look elsewhere for them. That's just the way young players are, they want to play, but Kawhi isn't like any other young player, so who knows.

[SpursFan86]

I wish there was a way to see his minutes played in games decided by x or less amount of points, but as far as I know there isn't. However, it seemed like even in games where we weren't blowing people out, Kawhi would often get subbed out pretty frequently or sit for really extended periods at times.

One thing I'd really like to see this upcoming season is Kawhi playing more minutes with the bench unit. If you look at our 20 most-used 5-man units last year*, Kawhi was included in 9 of them. Out of those 9 lineups, both Parker AND Duncan were in 7 of them. Just Parker was in one of the other ones, and just Duncan was in the last one. If Kawhi was in, you could bet money that Parker and Duncan were on the court as well.

I'd like to see lineups like Mills/Manu/Kawhi/Diaw/Splitter and others of that nature. For one, it'd result in more minutes for him, and two, it'd give him more freedom offensively and would likely allow him to get more involved. I think it'd benefit the bench unit as well by providing a boost to their perimeter defense.

*http://www.82games.com/1314/1314SAS2.HTM

[KL2]

Less Splitter Duncan if he wants him to really explode. You're taking away Kys ability to attack the rim, his post game, rebounding, floaters, etc. Basically his biggest offensive strengths.

At this point Leonard is probably the 2nd biggest SF in the league, it'd be idiotic not to post him, sometimes you just can't guard size.

[Mel_13]

I wish there was a way to see his minutes played in games decided by x or less amount of points, but as far as I know there isn't.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/.../gamelog/2014/

I did the math before replying to your previous post. Increasing his average mpg from 29 to 34 would require lots of extra minutes in blowouts:

Games decided by 16 points or more (41% of all games played by Kawhi): 26.9 mpg

Games decided by 10-15 points: 29.6 mpg

Games decided by 9 points or less: 31.8 mpg

[Chinook]

Leonard also has to realize that there is a lot of quality in the wing rotation. Him getting more minutes comes directly at the expense of other players who are already getting fewer minutes than they could get elsewhere.

I will say, though, that looking at his splits, he does do well with more minutes. Not only do his raw stats increase, but his efficiency does as well.

[loveforthegame]

I don't know if an increase in minutes is necessary. But surely they're going to run some plays for him this season.

[Das Texan]

No reason why Kawhi cant play 40 minutes a night in games of importance, if healthy. You can still keep his minutes low in blowouts and see his overall minutes per game increase.

[SpursFan86]

I don't know if an increase in minutes is necessary. But surely they're going to run some plays for him this season.

Maybe not literally necessary, but I don't think it'll be acceptable to keep playing Kawhi 29 mpg. He's 23 years old and one of the most promising 2-way players in the league right now...I see no reason (unless his tendinitis is more troublesome than we know) he shouldn't get 33-35 mpg during the regular season and 36-38 mpg during the playoffs.

[KL2]

Maybe not literally necessary, but I don't think it'll be acceptable to keep playing Kawhi 29 mpg. He's 23 years old and one of the most promising 2-way players in the league right now...I see no reason (unless his tendinitis is more troublesome than we know) he shouldn't get 33-35 mpg during the regular season and 36-38 mpg during the playoffs.

I think they should increase his mins too, he almost always gets pulled as soon as he scores, he can't really get into a rhythm. Extended minutes allow him to play with the bench, it gives him a bigger offensive role, puts him in a tougher position which allows him to get better.

If they do increase his mins they should do it towards the end of the season, best to keep him fresh.

[spurraider21]

If we are stacking wins easily and with comfortable margins I don't see a need to give extra minutes to a budding star

[wildchild]

I noticed in yeaterdays media day, kawhi looked frustrated talking about his minutes, but then again he shows no emotions regardless. But I did get a sense though that he seems kinda fustrated. The Spurs better give him more minutes or he'll look elsewhere for them. That's just the way young players are, they want to play, but Kawhi isn't like any other young player, so who knows.

I hope he won't have many reasons to be frustrated in the early weeks of the season. Possible no extension, no more minutes, no more plays...for a young guy who wants a prominent role those things could be strongly discouraging.

[Uriel]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/.../gamelog/2014/

I did the math before replying to your previous post. Increasing his average mpg from 29 to 34 would require lots of extra minutes in blowouts:

Games decided by 16 points or more (41% of all games played by Kawhi): 26.9 mpg

Games decided by 10-15 points: 29.6 mpg

Games decided by 9 points or less: 31.8 mpg

If Pop wants to increase Kawhi's minutes, can't he just allocate more minutes for him during the time when the game still isn't decided (i.e. longer stretches of playing time in the 1st half, shorter stretches of rest)?

[Chinook]

If Pop wants to increase Kawhi's minutes, can't he just allocate more minutes for him during the time when the game still isn't decided (i.e. longer stretches of playing time in the 1st half, shorter stretches of rest)?

Theoretically. But what he's saying is that it would be very hard for any Spur to get to Kawhi's desired MPG because the team has so many blowouts. For Leonard to average 34 MPG, he'd have to average 37 MPG or so during non-blowouts. Mel's chart suggests Pop wanted to give Leonard about 32 MPG last year (assuming there are no blowouts), which is reasonable. A two-minute increase to Pop's target would still render a relatively low MPG when blowouts are factored in.

[Uriel]

Theoretically. But what he's saying is that it would be very hard for any Spur to get to Kawhi's desired MPG because the team has so many blowouts. For Leonard to average 34 MPG, he'd have to average 37 MPG or so during non-blowouts. Mel's chart suggests Pop wanted to give Leonard about 32 MPG last year (assuming there are no blowouts), which is reasonable. A two-minute increase to Pop's target would still render a relatively low MPG when blowouts are factored in.

Ah, I see. But in that case, why shouldn't Kawhi be allowed to play 37 MPG during non-blowouts? He's still young, he needs playing time to develop, and it's not like the Spurs have a backup SF to fill in those minutes anyway.

If anything, he can take Ayres' minutes as the 4th big by playing small ball PF.

[Chinook]

Ah, I see. But in that case, why shouldn't Kawhi be allowed to play 37 MPG during non-blowouts? He's still young, he needs playing time to develop, and it's not like the Spurs have a backup SF to fill in those minutes anyway.

If anything, he can take Ayres' minutes as the 4th big by playing small ball PF.

I think Kawhi will play more some four next year. But the Spurs made a concerted effort to play big as much as possible last season. With them paying Baynes so much, I assume the team will run a four-big rotation by default.

As far as the wings go, the Spurs have four players who could get more minutes elsewhere. I don't think it's fair for Kawhi to argue that he deserves more minutes at the expense of Green and Ginobili, and even Beli. Also, the Spurs have Anderson to develop, and Daye will probably need some minutes so the Spurs will know if he has a future there.

[DrSteffo]

Ginobili is getting older. Give Kawhi 2-3 of his minutes in the regular season, problem solved. Use Beli as usual and give Anderson and perhaps Daye some spot/garbage minutes, or send Anderson to the Toros like we did with Joseph. Also, injuries and back to back games will help get the bench PT. Luxury problem, or not even a problem.