http://www.poundingtherock.com/analy...-but-who-is-he (Full Article Here)
The article instead compares him to Late Celtics Allstar Reggie Lewis
Michael Jordan was interviewed a couple of months ago about Lewis for the 20th anniversary of his death. His answer to Lewis' playing style sounds eerily familiar...
"
Most players weren't athletic enough to literally "hang" with Jordan. Lewis was one of the exceptions."He was a tough matchup," Jordan said. "He had those long arms that really bothered me.
"I was trying to be aggressive with him. I was trying to take advantage of his passive demeanor, but he didn't back down. He never relinquished his own aggressiveness.
"He shocked me a little bit."
As he so often did with young players, Jordan tried to verbally engage Lewis, yet Reggie wouldn't participate. He merely smiled and made a move to the basket.
"I saw it happen all the time," Shaw said. "Players tried to intimidate him, make it personal. But Reggie never said a word.
"He was a silent assassin."
MJ dismissed Reggie's initial block as an anomaly. When it happened again, this time on a pull-up jumper, Jordan became irked. The next time, he became concerned.
And by the fourth time, on a lefty drive to the hoop, Jordan was irritated -- and somewhat spooked.
"His length confused me," Jordan conceded. "Every time I thought I had him beat, he'd recover and get up on me. When you have the skills to break someone down on defense and you can't, it makes you tentative offensively."
"
Sounds like a closer comparison for Leonard.
Reggie Lewis
Kawhi Leonard
Last edited by cd021; 09-11-2013 at 08:45 AM.
I agree in general that Leonard and Lewis seem similar. But that Leonard highlight video sort of obscures that. Kawhi looks to be more explosive offensively and a much better rebounder. Obviously, if he becomes a 20 ppg scorer, that will only be good for the Spurs.
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce! My favorite player.
Leonard has more offense but slightly less defense. So, yeah, he is no Bruce. But lots of potential.
I wish someone would make a mixtape of every play Kawhi guarded LeBron. I was blown away by what he did. Not that he shut him down naturally, but he did make things difficult for the the greatest player in the universe.
Danny Green on the other hand....*shudder*
What the is wrong with Spurstalk? You'd think that James scored all his points on Green by listening to these posters. Almost every notable defensive sequence against James was Green's doing. Leonard was great, but that doesn't mean that Green did a bad job at all. On the list of reasons why the Spurs lost the Finals, having Green as the secondary James defender is near the bottom.
Leonard is a much better overall player.
Completely agreed. Green's defense was certainly respectable. Sometimes he can be a little too energetic and blow by the offensive player while trying to contest a shot. But too energetic is better (and easier to fix) than too lethargic.
I agree, not sure where this sentiment is coming from. I saw Green making tons of great defensive plays and he did admirably against Bron. Everyone forgot about Green chasing Bron down and blocking him at the rim? That was a huge play down the stretch.
That was a great play. Hustle play.
Leonard reminds me of Shawn Marion in some aspects and Reggie Lewis in others. Beast any way you slice it, but I put the onus on him to improve his free throw shooting.
Green backpedaled and stopped a fast break several times, even getting the ball back a few times. His defense on the break was amazing.
Seems like his good D got lost in the shuffle of his record-breaking offense during the finals. I too recall a few times it looked like the Heat were gonna get an easy bucket on the fast break and Green swoops in outta nowhere to clean up the mess. His on the ball D was pretty solid too, even when stuck on LeBron. I hope DG can build on that confidence next season, because he could be a pretty crucial cog to the Spurs system, He already is pretty important.
So while Leonard has had a big improvemant year to year in the spurs system so far has it really been bigger than Green's improvement over the same period? I'm not saying that green has the same overall ceiling, (I don't think he does though he would be a very good sg if he could get slightly surer handles and any ability to finish at the rim.) We have someone who went from getting cut b the cavs to starting the finals in 2 years.
ur a f00l lmao
Bruce was a world class defender. Leonard is a great defender, but let's be real, you won't see many defensive specialists like Bowen.
On offense he does blow him away, that alone would make the difference because Leonard is already good on D and has a upside to get even better! Bruce was as great defender and hard worker with a corner three he learned, that was his ceiling. They are not similar IMO.That is true, I would take a Bowen on my team anyday to defend your best player. He keyed solely on his D to make his career and did well at it! He also could hit a timely corner three and he developed that shot through hard work. Leonard alot more gifted as an athlete.
Green was probably more Reggie Lewis like than Kawhi. There were several times Green blocked him and you could tell Lebron was just not expecting it.
Another thing that is Bowen like is Kawhi can hit the big shot without being affected by the moment.
I thought a similar thing after watching the video of Lewis versus Jordan. Green might have blocked James more in the Finals than any player has ever, and that is especially true for the transition. It was very obvious that it got to James' head. He went from looking at Green during a Game 1 jump ball and saying (almost literally), "Oh, I get to jump against him? All right." (James lost that jump, actually.) To hesitating whenever Green was protecting the rim in the final four games. If the Spurs had pulled out Game 6 in overtime, then the most talked-about play may have been Green's block on James in the Final minute. That was legendary.
Reggie Lewis was slower and more methodical and he was less athletic than Kawhi. His offensive game however seemed much more refined.
I don't disagree.
I still think Green got worked. But I'm not blaming him. Kidding? I love Green. He's one of the most solid SG's in the league
Maybe you should make a mixtape of the final 30 seconds of game 7. Down by 2 and Lebron sinks a walk up 15 ft jump shot to seal the victory. Where was Leonard? Playing a good 5 feet off the ball (conservative estimate). Lebron probably saw better contested shots during shootaround than he did from Leonard on the series clincher.
*** Don't say it was Pop's defensive strategy to give Lebron a wide open uncontested, backbreaking jump shot or that Kawhi was playing off the ball to prevent him from driving because that's what help defense is for.
I thought Green did a better defensive job on James than Kawhi.
Kawhi was awesome though in most other areas.
Pop broke a cardinal rule of defense. Don't give the offensive player consistent looks. He's too stubborn to realize that. Even when we played Lebron in '07 with Bowen we didn't back off him that much. Also our help defense and ability to get shooters open of picks went down when Pop decided to go away from Splitter.
It's one thing to give a little space in the first half of games because it prevents foul trouble and fatigue. But, to do it with the game..... STRIKE THAT...... season on the line was ludicrous.
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