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Kawhi is a good player, solid. He's not "it" though. There aren't many, so don't get upset over "it".
FMVP and 1b for the last three years in the playoffs. STFU got.You for thinking one half of a home game against the Kings nullifies a year of tiness.
Kawhi is a good player, solid. He's not "it" though. There aren't many, so don't get upset over "it".
FMVP and 1b for the last three years in the playoffs. STFU got.
That is not true though, anyone that has actually watched the game, remembered what happened, can tell you that is BS.
-Leonard has been injured all year long, he's been missing point blank layups left and right, even when they weren't contested, shots he is now starting to make and has always made. It's crazy how people forget that, I'm not surprised his shot % is so low. If he were actually contested and forced into missing the shot, I'd agree, but many of those shots weren't.
-Leonard has been playing around lottery talent much of the season, ignore the names and actually look at how bad most of the Spurs have been this year. No Splitter/Mills/Belli left Ayres-Daye-Diaw-Baynes-Parker-Bonner, every single one of those guys at that time were playing like . Baynes and Diaw have recently started playing much better, Parker has just been horrible all year long. Green/TD/Leonard have been consistent all season long.
-Spurs were really shooting like from 3 to start off the season, Daye/Anderson/Cojo/Diaw everyone was bricking Leonard's assists for 3's and affecting spacing, affecting his drives.
-Spurs lack of chemistry, learning to play with Leonard has also affected his drives. The Spurs' bigs almost always clog the paint on failed drives, poor spacing, they draw in their defender and it neutralizes Leonard, are you really going to blame that on Leonard? Baynes is probably the biggest culprit (even Bonner has been pretty bad), but he's inexperienced, lacks chemistry.
All this leads to a low % in drives.
This thread was made during the worst Kawhi's shooting slump of his NBA career and the worst Spurs rodeo trip in years...
Obviously the fans were extremely frustrated and that's why they were voting negatively.
But if the thread would have made after his return from hand injury when he was playing great, the result would probably have been very different.
It's all about context.
Not what I said. Try and keep up.
Not sure if this is selective memory or just an intentional attempt to hide his good games in the season.
Kawhi was dealing with a shooting slump during five games in last rodeo road trip but he was playing really good in December, January and the first week of February.
In his last 10 games before the rodeo trip:
Sure, A YEAR of tiness...
I'm really happy for your points, and I'ma let you finish, but there are three issues:
First, the post you quoted was explaining what a tweet said. Refuting the tweet doesn't in anyway negate the fact that that was what the tweet said.
Second, no number of excuses/explanations for Leonard's poor driving rate. The fact is, he hasn't been very efficient in that regard.
Finally, let's just go over some of your points:
Hurt Kawhi is just this season's Kawhi. While he may be dealing with issues, he is what he is this season. If he's too hurt to make open layups, he shouldn't be taking them. I do think it's disingenuous to only mention his injury when he's being criticized, though.-Leonard has been injured all year long, he's been missing point blank layups left and right, even when they weren't contested, shots he is now starting to make and has always made. It's crazy how people forget that, I'm not surprised his shot % is so low. If he were actually contested and forced into missing the shot, I'd agree, but many of those shots weren't.
How can you blame everyone else for Kawhi but not see that he's also a reason why everyone else is out of rhythm? I agree he's had games where he's been unreal, but he's also had games where he's just straight broken the offense. I certainly don't think Leonard has been horrible overall, but he also hasn't been consistent in his offensive impact.Leonard has been playing around lottery talent much of the season, ignore the names and actually look at how bad most of the Spurs have been this year. No Splitter/Mills/Belli left Ayres-Daye-Diaw-Baynes-Parker-Bonner, every single one of those guys at that time were playing like . Baynes and Diaw have recently started playing much better, Parker has just been horrible all year long. Green/TD/Leonard have been consistent all season long.
I feel like I'd need to see that substantiated a bit more. Parker started off the season unreal from three, and we all know about what Danny was doing. I think Leonard had issues with spacing, but they weren't just all on his teammates.Spurs were really shooting like from 3 to start off the season, Daye/Anderson/Cojo/Diaw everyone was bricking Leonard's assists for 3's and affecting spacing, affecting his drives.
As I touched on above, Leonard has issues with spacing that aren't his teammates' faults. Of course his inside game is weak with two bigs; he's in their territory. It's hard for a three to post up with two inside bigs next to him. He's also not adept at running the PnR, so there usually isn't a big who is away from the paint to set a screen. Also, Leonard tends to drive after pausing, which allows defenders to get back into position.-Spurs lack of chemistry, learning to play with Leonard has also affected his drives. The Spurs' bigs almost always clog the paint on failed drives, poor spacing, they draw in their defender and it neutralizes Leonard, are you really going to blame that on Leonard? Baynes is probably the biggest culprit (even Bonner has been pretty bad), but he's inexperienced, lacks chemistry.
Full disclosure: I haven't yet watched tonight's game. But from what I've seen from previous games, Kawhi is scoring better now that he's stopped trying to be an offensive focal point. His drives are better because he's just getting the ball and going. His post ups are better because he's only really getting the ball when he has a mismatch. His spot-up shots are better because he's being more selective. It's not the team's job to learn how to incorporate Kawhi's Melo-lite style into their scheme. It's Kawhi's job to learn how to be more efficient and assertive within the offense. Sure, it takes adjustments from everyone, but the biggest culprit is definitely shot selection.
Not just talking about Leonard, player fan.
Leonard does best when he moves without the ball and catches on the baseline, or when he creates offense from his defense. He tried a few times tonight to force action on offense and it didn't look good or end well, but he soon changed his approach but not his aggression, and despite all the silly turnovers from crazy bailout passes from others, did well.
Since this thread is about Leonard and not the team..., Kawhi hater.
The league is full of guys who can go off on the Kings. Put your back in your drawers.
Tonight game against the Kings is his only one good game in A YEAR...?
Again, not sure...Not sure why you're interested in my or where is...Put your back in your drawers.
For the record, he's still not a franchise player. He probably won't lead us to conference finals and Finals year after year.
But I am GLAD he is on our team.
But we're gonna need a bigger piece than he is to get back to championship level once Tim is gone.
called it
Kawhi will be the franchise and we will win rings. Bet on it.
I voted yes but he won't be like a typical best player on a playoff team. He'll be like Duncan the last 2 years or something; elite, but you can't just give him the ball and expect him to take over a series.
Well said. I love Kawhi but he is not a number 1 guy. He's exactly what Leetonidas said. A Shawn Marion type. They may not play exactly alike but I believe the production will be about the same.
So who replaces Duncan and Manu on these multi ring teams?
Kawhi does
Kawhi is already a better player than Marion was. Just imagine his stats playing for those Suns of D'Antoni, something like 22 ppg 10 rpg 40mpg...and 0 rings of course.
This is an unrealistic expectation that people have of franchise players...Only Tim, Kobe and Lebron did it the last 15 years.
There are unique supernova players, the most talented players of their generation like Jordan, Lebron, Kobe, Tim, and there are franchise players.
For the record, Gervin was a franchise player, Nash, Barkley, Webber, Ewing, Stockton, Malone, too.
You can't say they weren't great franchise players just because they didn't win a ring.
I can't see Lebron, Durant or even Aldridge playing here. Like said before, Kawhi'll be the franchise player the Spurs can get.But we're gonna need a bigger piece than he is to get back to championship level once Tim is gone.
He really isn't yet imo, Marion was a 21/12/3/2/1 kinda guy in his prime, we can hope Leonard gets to those numbers in the future. But to claim he is already better than prime Matrix is just silly. I will say that Marion often got shut down in the playoffs and we've already seen Leonard go ballistic on the biggest stage so the mental aspect is where we will see separation tbh
Even if Kawhi is better than Prime Marion, it doesn't mean that he shouldn't have the same role on a team as Matrix did. It simply means he could be even more productive in that role. It seems clear to me is that both Kawhi and the team feel more comfortable when he plays a Marion role. If folks think Kawhi will be a 20-10 guy doing that, why do you want his role to change at all? Why not just stick with that and find someone else to drive and kick and to score down low?
That's what if. They are different players yes, I'm just saying as far as production goes regardless of team. His ceiling is right around Shawn Marion type numbers. Just my opinion.
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