Why the NBA is Terrified of Kawhi Leonard

[Spurs Homer]

quad blowout season-ending injury in...5....4....3...

[K...]

Kawhi will always be forever tied to San antonio

only simp fans care about players who left in Free agency. They have no need to put his face on the 2014 team anymore, and do you really want to celebrate 2015-2017? We made him first option and he sucked. He's the exact kind of fake star that you can't build a team around. He works best with extremally deep teams of excellent role players. On his own he tries too hard and barely trusts his team mates, keeps his emotions on the inside, quite a prima donna inside. Let clippers fans take the L of having to wipe the ass on this, with the assist from toronto. SA should honor the big 3 for at least 20 years before they change the face of the franchise.

[baseline bum]

This Westbrook stupidity from the Clippers has the potential to tank their season if they don’t bench him quickly.

The starting lineup with Mann-George-Kawhi was starting to gel and had shooting, driving, defense etc. then you have a deep bench with Powell and Gordon and Batum and Plumlee.

Throwing Westbrook’s low IQ turnover helta skelta type basketball s with everyone’s rhythm.

Tank the season? They were only on like a 44 win pace and 6-4 in their last 10 before the allstar break. That five game win streak they had to end January was two games against the Spurs, one against the Lakers, one against the Hawks, and I guess one good win against Dallas. It's not like they're a team with chemistry that was playing well, they have been a straight mediocre team all year and were looking for anything to save their season.

[Harry Callahan]

If #2 signed a huge offer with the Spurs and stayed back in 2018, where would the franchise be? He would be missing huge chunks of the season for the last five years.

The team would have struggled as a result, not having a reliable #1 option.

[KobesAchilles]

If #2 signed a huge offer with the Spurs and stayed back in 2018, where would the franchise be? He would be missing huge chunks of the season for the last five years.

The team would have struggled as a result, not having a reliable #1 option.

It’s tough to say. I was quite literally the only person on Spurstalk who said not to give him the max at the time. I didn’t think he could lead a team to a le. But then the Raptors situation happened. And the question is was that the luckiest le of all time or not? The 4 bounce game winner. The foul out of Giannis in game 3 on what wasn’t even a foul. Durant getting hurt and then Klay getting hurt too. It was an insane amount of things that had to go right for Toronto to win. So do these things happen with the Spurs? I don’t know

What I do know is that he is injury prone and wanted to go to LA. So maybe we get those LA picks that NO has and it helps with the rebuild. But what screwed us currently isn’t that Kawhi left, it’s that we refused to yank after losing him. We basically traded a first round exit, DDR and Jak for a chance at Luka, or Ja, or heck even Zion. And unless we get Victor, it was incredibly short sided and stupid thing to do

[mystargtr34]

Tank the season? They were only on like a 44 win pace and 6-4 in their last 10 before the allstar break. That five game win streak they had to end January was two games against the Spurs, one against the Lakers, one against the Hawks, and I guess one good win against Dallas. It's not like they're a team with chemistry that was playing well, they have been a straight mediocre team all year and were looking for anything to save their season.

Clippers are 23-12 with a +7.8 net rating when Kawhi plays. And he’s starting to look better and better.

19-9 when Kawhi and George play.

The West is pretty open this year.

Also, Ty Lue just recently stopped being re ed and put Mann into the SL who is a perfect fit nezt to Kawhi and George due to his shooting, defense and high level play off the ball. They just made some good trades in getting Gordon and a backup C in plumlee.

[The Truth #6]

#zazawasright

[TD 21]

Clippers are 23-12 with a +7.8 net rating when Kawhi plays. And he’s starting to look better and better.

19-9 when Kawhi and George play.

The West is pretty open this year.

Also, Ty Lue just recently stopped being re ed and put Mann into the SL who is a perfect fit nezt to Kawhi and George due to his shooting, defense and high level play off the ball. They just made some good trades in getting Gordon and a backup C in plumlee.

S bag and George run the organization, which is why Westbrook is now on board despite the organization not wanting him and starting and Mann was not a perfect fit since they lacked a lead play maker (not implying disastrous Westbrook is the answer).

The players themselves are fine, but I didn't like their deadline moves. They have too much depth in certain areas (good luck keeping everyone content, especially without a galvanizing force) and still no answer at the point.

[TDMVPDPOY]

so all the clippers did was replace monkeyballer with another monkeyballer...


remember back in the day when okc released monkeyballer on the spurs in the playoffs...too atheletic, too many fluke shots going in...

[spurraider21]

Why is Kawhi still being discussed in ST?

He was a spurs player for some time. Notable one at that. Will be discussed

[mystargtr34]

S bag and George run the organization, which is why Westbrook is now on board despite the organization not wanting him and starting and Mann was not a perfect fit since they lacked a lead play maker (not implying disastrous Westbrook is the answer).

The players themselves are fine, but I didn't like their deadline moves. They have too much depth in certain areas (good luck keeping everyone content, especially without a galvanizing force) and still no answer at the point.

I think George definitely wanted Russ on the team. I don’t think Kawhi did or cared that much tbh. But could be wrong.

Agree now there is a logjam with Russ and will be difficult to keep everyone happy. But their roster pre-Russ was defined.

Mann-Hyland
PG-Powell
Kawhi-Gordon
Morris-Batum
Zubac-Plumlee

Covington as the 11th man can swing in and play backup 5 or if you want to go bigger you can play Roco behind Kawhi instead of Gordon. You could probably alternate Roco and Hyland as your 10th man depending on matchups offense/defense.

Now with Russ if kinda pushes Hyland out and you have 12 guys who should be in a rotation which is too many.

[lefty20]

Well, the playoffs have no back to back. NBA have to be terrified of Nephew during playoffs. See 2019 playoffs run.

Neph playoff runs...

The one where he was visibly hobbled in the finals, but was lucky enough to face a decimated Dubs team.

Then there was the one where his legs peaced out in games 6 & 7 while blowing a 3-1 lead.

Then the ACL blew up in the next one.



No one is "terrified" of him. His body has proven that it can't handle a long grueling playoff run, even with no back-to-backs.

[TD 21]

I think George definitely wanted Russ on the team. I don’t think Kawhi did or cared that much tbh. But could be wrong.

Agree now there is a logjam with Russ and will be difficult to keep everyone happy. But their roster pre-Russ was defined.

Mann-Hyland
PG-Powell
Kawhi-Gordon
Morris-Batum
Zubac-Plumlee

Covington as the 11th man can swing in and play backup 5 or if you want to go bigger you can play Roco behind Kawhi instead of Gordon. You could probably alternate Roco and Hyland as your 10th man depending on matchups offense/defense.

Now with Russ if kinda pushes Hyland out and you have 12 guys who should be in a rotation which is too many.

Kind of, but in reality all of Powell, Gordon and Hyland are 6th man type scoring guards and Gordon in particular didn't have a path to the role he's accustomed for and now has even less of one while Hyland, as you alluded to, now joins Covington as non rotation players.

With a lack of continuity and a galvanizing force, it'll more than likely be difficult to get the requite "buy-in".

[JeffDuncan]

If #2 signed a huge offer with the Spurs and stayed back in 2018, where would the franchise be? He would be missing huge chunks of the season for the last five years.

The team would have struggled as a result, not having a reliable #1 option.

Yes, it would have been the Spurs, instead of some other team, load managing Leonard, and he would have played, what, maybe 60% to 70% of the regular season games. Not good, obviously. Then, what would the Spurs have put together to team with Leonard?

Derozan is no superstar, but he isn’t a nobody, either. He’s a player who’s worth some effort, for assembling a team.

But look at how the Spurs “built” with DDR here. Forbes. Belinelli. Names like Quincy Pondexter, Dante Cunningham, Trey Lyles. No Poeltl, so as LMA declined, the center would have become who, Eubanks? Patty Mills? Lol

Add a load-managed Leonard to the team the Spurs put together with DDR here, and that’s not a contender, it’s a reason for nausea. Danny Green could have stayed, and helped a little, I suppose.

A person might argue that Leonard would have been a stronger draw for other good players than DDR and LMA combined were. I’m not sure of that, especially with the Spurs having nobody like Shai to trade. Even if Leonard was a better draw, the Spurs would have needed to add three or four players in the very-good to excellent category to make a serious run for the le with Leonard.

Would that have happened? I have a hard time seeing it.

My view is that those who wanted Leonard to stay are much too optimistic. It looks to me like the team would have been a perennial first-round exit, or second round if they got lucky.

Your mileage may vary, but I think it’s just as well he’s gone.

[Goob]

Would rather cover my schlong in honey and then stick it in a fire ant's nest than watch that video tbh.

[exstatic]

Well, the playoffs have no back to back. NBA have to be terrified of Nephew during playoffs. See 2019 playoffs run.

We’re coming up on the four year anniversary of that being in the rear view mirror. He walked away from that to set up shop with Playoff Pee, ensuring that he has to carry a heavy load. There are no back to backs in the playoffs, but there are also no rest games, either. He flames out after a couple of rounds

[Fusternino]

Zaza just mentioned on the ESPN broadcast. Westbrook with the undercut.