Bowenesque or Poor Man's Bowen?

[Sa_Spursfan20]

Kawhi Leonard is Kawhi Leonard. He's his own player. Just enjoy watching this kid grow into whatever he becomes.

[hooperflash]

[skulls138]

Bowen was, percentage wise, the #1 three point shooter in the league the season the Spurs won their second le.

I think comparing these two is a good comparison but Kawhi will be more around the bucket defensively, blocking shots and getting rebounds while Bowen wouldve been more like what Green was doing.

[Marcus Bryant]

Brilliant trade. He plays like a 30 year old. There are plenty of players who never figure it out, but he has already in his rookie season.

[TDMVPDPOY]

green atm defensively is what bowen is

KL is something else...he has a higher ceiling defensively that can fill the defensive stat sheet....ceiling is probably scottie pippen, with flooring maybe geral wallace without the poor shooting

[Buddy Holly]

People realize Bowen got here when he was 30, right? Kawhi is 20. Comparing the two isn't really fair. Kawhi will be a very very good player for us no doubt.

[GSH]

I'm going to re-use this from the Game 2 Grades thread, because I think it's a big part of what Kawhi is doing on defense. I was watching him closely again today, out on the perimeter. They just kept trying to get him to leave his feet, so they could jump into him and draw the foul. But Kawhi just doesn't bite. The kid is just amazing. I don't know if he'll ever be another Bowen, but it's not really fair to make those comparisons anyway - especially in his rookie year. If they gave a Defensive ROY, it's Kawhi, hands down. He's a damned good defender, and he's just causing a world of problems for perimeter shooters. And he still manages to come in and help around the basket, and pick up much-needed boards.

One thing that has really been getting my attention about Kawhi's permieter defense lately is just how good he has become about keeping his feet, and not biting on pump fakes. I see guys who have been in the league for years - good players, who can't help themselves. Kawhi almost never bites now. It's amazing for a rookie. (Green is pretty good, but less consistent about it.) He may not be throwing up huge offensive numbers, but he's way, way ahead of the curve defensively.

[lurker23]

The comparison to Bowen is one of the laziest things around. He's much bigger than Bowen and he's already light years ahead of Bowen at that age. They don't defend in the same way and I doubt Kawhi will ever be able to go through and around screens with the efficiency that Bowen did.

Kawhi's ceiling is much higher than Bruce's ever was. Bruce was never able to guard a player like Griffin. Bruce never led one man breaks the way Kawhi is capable of.

People really need to stop the comparison because it honestly makes no damn sense.

This is pretty much spot on. As easy as it may be to try to compare potentially good-to-great defenders to Bowen, Kawhi is so stylistically different that it's not really fair to either of them. Per 36 minutes, Kawhi so far gets more than twice the rebounds and almost twice the steals that Bowen did in his career. Obviously it will take a while for Kawhi to gain the experience and savvy that Bowen had as a defender.

Ironically, the thing that they might have most in common is the corner 3. Thankfully for the Spurs, Kawhi's offensive ceiling goes much higher than a simple spot-up shooter.

[MannyIsGod]

While I think eventually Kawhi will be a much better overall player than Bowen, one thing that Bowen could do was simply make certain players invisible. Ray Allen, for example. Kawhi will play solid defense on certain players and offer up a form of "defensive containment" but Bruce would just make it seem like some players weren't even in the arena.

[Spurtacus]

While I think eventually Kawhi will be a much better overall player than Bowen, one thing that Bowen could do was simply make certain players invisible. Ray Allen, for example. Kawhi will play solid defense on certain players and offer up a form of "defensive containment" but Bruce would just make it seem like some players weren't even in the arena.

[Spurs Brazil]

Behind the face: Leonard’s comeback

Column by Buck Harvey

LOS ANGELES — They didn’t like Kawhi Leonard Saturday. They were in awe of him.

A few members of the Spurs’ brass stood in a Staples Center hallway trying to find the proper superlative. And, fitting of Leonard, the best compliment was a non-verbal one.

Keep reading: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...%99s-comeback/