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How can u talk about kawhi's shooting efficiencies without talking about his eyes being bad. I didnt read the article though. Ptr fans . Lol
http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...-kawhi-leonard
This is an interesting article, even if written by a fan. It points out what many of us have noted, that running more plays through Leonard seems to be hurting our offense. The article is quite critical of Pop, Kawhi and Kawhi's agent.
To some degree I agree with his "on court" analysis, but disagree with the motives behind the changes. I think Pop is using the early season (as he always does) to experiment. And he's frankly seeing what Kawhi can do within the scope of the offense with the ball in his hands. He may be playing to Kawhi's desires for more shots, but that's Pop's job, to find out what works. I'm sure by April we'll have the free-wheeling offense back, but this is the time to find what have in Leonard.
The article, when talking about Kawhi's inefficiency, also ignores his illness to begin the season and his still cloudy vision.
Pop isn't stupid. He isn't going to turn Kawhi into Kobe/Melo with "a feed him the ball and get out of the way" design. At least, not when it matters. I do wonder, though, if Kawhi's expectations are realistic. As reserved as he is, he has made a few remarks about wanting to see the offense run more often through him. Hopefully the article is wrong about the "Disease of More."
How can u talk about kawhi's shooting efficiencies without talking about his eyes being bad. I didnt read the article though. Ptr fans . Lol
One of the worst articles I've ever read tbh...
Ignoring the fact, that "more" is what the spurs did to Kawhi in both finals and conference finals in the last two years.
Sean would stomp this to ground...
I just wish the Spurs had worked on getting Kawhi into the post within the flow of the offense. He's not Prime Duncan. At best, he'll be Melo on O. However, this is the time to experiment, not just with Kawhi, but with all the other Spurs. Cory and Danny should get more looks as creators. Even Daye and Ayres should get some burn doing things they don't normally do to see if it works out. So far, the team isn't hurting too badly. No reason to dramatically change the plan unless they go on a skid.
Talking about Kawhi's FG% being down from last year without even mentioning his eye infection and the fact that he played a bunch of games with blurry vision is disingenuous at best. What about the possibility that he discussed the vision issue and Pop decided, based on that info, that posting up more might be a good experiment? I don't know what transpired between Pop and Kawhi with regard to shot selection, but either way, Kawhi's FG% numbers this early in the season, paired with the eye issue, don't really mean anything.
Right, plus it's still very early in the season - if the PTR author wants to jump to conclusions, why not crown Tony Parker the new Reggie Miller?
That's an awful article.
Another Kawhi article? I wonder if Shawn Marion had this much fanfare when he was in his 4th year. Probably not because the Internet was just starting to take off.
Shawn Marion was pretty popular.
Also Kawhi tends to play better as the season progresses. Remember how poorly he shot early last season, after the AS break was completely different.
BTW since Marion was brought up he took 18 shots per game his 4th year, Kawhi is shooting just under 12 shots a game.
Kawhi's averaging about 15 ppg right now on 45% shooting, and he's not shooting the ball particularly well from deep (32% from 3). He's missing a lot of open looks from downtown so far. If/when he starts knocking those down at a higher rate, he'll be averaging around 20 pts/per, maybe a hair under, along with his 8 boards and 2 steals, which would be pretty great, tbh. If he can average those #'s (20/8/2) and continue to play elite defense, you can't ask for much more than that tbh.
Stupid article.
Kawhi's usage rate is barely up. From 18.3% last year to 21% this year. His usage rate is still No. 5 on the team. And his 45%/33% despite his conjunctivitis means that he is still quite efficient, except not as much as he would want to be. Combine this with his defense and he is a surefire All Star in my book.
Sums up the idiocy of this article quite succinctly.My problem is that I love watching the Spurs offense flow. I like the ball to kick eight, nine and ten times. I even like it when they overpass and it results in a turnover.
I love watching the Spur's Beautiful Game, too, but there is a reason that it works, and that is a passing game around established inside threats. Getting Kawhi comfortable being another one of those only makes the system stronger, and that's also where he seems most comfortable getting his shots. Otherwise, you are asking the Finals MVP to live off backdoor cuts and standing in the corners.
One of my favorite artists said once you make a hit album or a hit song people come back to you wanting more and they find you sitting on the "Idiot's Chair".
Pounding the and project sperm....both lost any sort of credibility years ago. They both became beyond laughable when they sucked off Ayres. Repeatedly.
I've had a few doubts about the "new" Kwahi using the post up game while the passing game stalls out as well. I have a lot of faith in Pop in what he thinks will work best with his personnel, but I'm not sure that Kwahi Hero Ball is the ticket. We'll see.
i agree.
Shawn Marion was widely popular due to the surge in fantasy basketball. he was consistently a top 3-5 pick during the run and gun phx years.
I don't think the plan is to make Kawhi "the" number 1 option right now. But I think Pop would like to a) get him a bit more involved overall to transition him in that direction gradually, and b) give Kawhi enough games early on where he acts as the number 1 option that he and his teammates are comfortable with him playing that role if cir stances dictate he needs to in certain match-ups come playoff time.
Who knows what team we'll match up with in the playoffs, or who might be injured. Making Kawhi comfortable as a primary scoring option and getting the rest of the team comfortable operating with him in that role is a valuable tool to make us more diverse and harder to defend.
Dumb premise and horrible writing. The author should never be allowed to write another article.
Opportunists like Silva, betray the trust through hiding facts like Leonard vision issues, and manipulation numbers like usage rate.
He didn't write about Kawhi post-up game after Clippers, Lakers, 76rs games where he played in the post successfully, he wait to say that after a loss in Brooklyn. That's an opportunistic guy.
And people are attacking this article because ... ? Do folks really not see that Kawhi's plays seem disjointed in the Spurs offense? It's not about the eye, really. Sure, Kawhi would be better, so the overall numbers should be better. But the offense is still going to be weaker until they find away to fit in Kawhi's post game more effectively. Right now, this whole 'drop it off to Kawhi and let him make something happen' mentality is going to suck compared to the free-flowing passing offense the team had in the playoffs. But the hope is that the Spurs will be able to do both depending on the situation.
Things will change when play-offs is near.
I cringe when I see Kawhi goes iso all the time.
If this goes off into the play-offs don't expect Spurs to win the championship this year.
Yes, that's true. I don't like the idea of Leonard going KawhISO too much. But I think it'd be a great thing if the team already knew what to do in situations where they needed Leonard to score.
Even if it's an experiment that doesn't ultimately work, the more frequent posting up of Kawhi makes sense, and I strongly doubt he'd be doing it without the encouragement and urging of Pop. It's early in the season-- the perfect time to try new things-- and the Spurs are 15-5, for a .750 winning percentage. I don't see how anyone can possibly see anything negative in this.
Last edited by Mr Bones; 12-09-2014 at 12:25 PM.
This is the time to learn when the Spurs can and cannot go to Kawhi, what works, what doesn't work... there's really nothing more to it, tbh...
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