Why are you convinced KL is the future when he was outplayed by TD?

[wildchild]

Kawhi is extremely limited by the way the system is built, unfortunately..he'll never reach his full ceiling, consistently, unless the broken system is altered to suit his style...

Agreed. Sadly, the league will never see what is prime Kawhi able to do playing to his strengths.

If he signs a long term deal this summer he should demand a trade after a one or two seasons or risk stalling his game under the Spurs system.
But maybe he's too loyal and team-first guy, to do that.

the Spurs haven't had a legit #1 guy since prime Duncan, though, and it hasn't stopped them from reaching 2 Finals and winning 1..

I'd add the 2007 Finals, too. 3 Finals and 2 rings. Not bad at all...

[LongtimeSpursFan]

Not sure if that's true. Or the Spurs did a really bad job giving him the ball or that wasn't the Pop's game plan.

How you plan run the offense through a player and then that player don't get the ball for long 4-5 minutes.

When a coach have a player as main option, and the post up game of that player makes him a mismatch against most of guards in the league, the coach will involve him in most of the plays to exploit it.

That wasn't the case with Pop when Kawhi was guarding by Rivers or Crawford.

Kawhi post ups may work sometimes but we saw how well the Clippers were able to defend it after a while. Plus posting up a player can take about 12-14 seconds to set up and this slows down the offense. If a team decides to double him then he is forced to dribble out which can take 4-5 seconds more. Now he is left with 6-8 seconds to make a move to the basket against a defense that has time to reset. Unfortunately, Kawhi does not have the offensive skill set to get to the rim and he is usually forced to take a contested jumper of beyond 12 feet.
If I'm an opposing coach I would gladly take a contested jumper than that Spurs beautiful basketball which involved something going to the rim of an open three.

[RD2191]

Kawhi post ups may work sometimes but we saw how well the Clippers were able to defend it after a while. Plus posting up a player can take about 12-14 seconds to set up and this slows down the offense. If a team decides to double him then he is forced to dribble out which can take 4-5 seconds more. Now he is left with 6-8 seconds to make a move to the basket against a defense that has time to reset. Unfortunately, Kawhi does not have the offensive skill set to get to the rim and he is usually forced to take a contested jumper of beyond 12 feet.
If I'm an opposing coach I would gladly take a contested jumper than that Spurs beautiful basketball which involved something going to the rim of an open three.

Parker killed the Spurs beautiful basketball. Scrub chucked all series.

[Clipper Nation]

anyone know who is the statue on the Defensive Player Award?

Pretty sure that's Enrique squatting for the , tbh.

[LongtimeSpursFan]

Agreed. Sadly, the league will never see what is prime Kawhi able to do playing to his strengths.

If he signs a long term deal this summer he should demand a trade after a one or two seasons or risk stalling his game under the Spurs system.
But maybe he's too loyal and team-first guy, to do that.




I'd add the 2007 Finals, too. 3 Finals and 2 rings. Not bad at all...

Why would a young player that has had the level of success both individually and as a team leave? Three straight WC Finals appearances, two Finals appearances, NBA le, FMVP....that never happens to a rookie not named Bird or Magic. And Kawhi has the chance to earn more money here than what any other team can offer.
Which player in their right mind would leave a situation like Kawhi has here?

[HI-FI]

Agreed. Sadly, the league will never see what is prime Kawhi able to do playing to his strengths.

If he signs a long term deal this summer he should demand a trade after a one or two seasons or risk stalling his game under the Spurs system.
But maybe he's too loyal and team-first guy, to do that.




I'd add the 2007 Finals, too. 3 Finals and 2 rings. Not bad at all...

that would be bull if the Spurs never utilize all of his offensive talents. considering how much Pop loves Porker, we might be seeing dribble dribble dribble chuck for awhile.

[wildchild]

Kawhi post ups may work sometimes but we saw how well the Clippers were able to defend it after a while. Plus posting up a player can take about 12-14 seconds to set up and this slows down the offense. If a team decides to double him then he is forced to dribble out which can take 4-5 seconds more. Now he is left with 6-8 seconds to make a move to the basket against a defense that has time to reset. Unfortunately, Kawhi does not have the offensive skill set to get to the rim and he is usually forced to take a contested jumper of beyond 12 feet.
If I'm an opposing coach I would gladly take a contested jumper than that Spurs beautiful basketball which involved something going to the rim of an open three.

In this series, Kawhi learned so quick to handle the effects of double team. In game 2 we saw improvements and he excelled in game 3 and 4.

Obviously he isn't a deadly ball handler but he's good enough to attack the rim in those situations, but he was so reliant in his js because those shots looked so good in the first games of the series.

And the big and successful part of the learning process was Kawhi finding the open man after game 2 in most plays. Sadly our shooters didn't punish the double team after the Kawhi's pass.

[wildchild]

And Kawhi has the chance to earn more money here than what any other team can offer.

That's why I said "if he sign the long term deal this summer" with the Spurs. Obviously they can offer him more than any other team

Which player in their right mind would leave a situation like Kawhi has here?

A player who wants to play to his strengths and improve his offensive game?.

Kawhi was the leading scoring this playoffs series and the regular season because of the consecutive Tony's injuries.

Pop will never have Kawhi as an offensive option, giving him a lot of touches, never made changes to add him as a big piece.
If he had the chance to be that guy in the last Finals, in this regular season, and first round series it was because Parker struggled.

With a healthy Parker this team will look for Kawhi like last playoffs against Dallas, Tony taking the most shots and Kawhi being a role player with limited offensive presence.

That's the Spurs system, their offense is still too reliant in Parker's game. If they are looking desperately an offensive big like Aldridge is because, among other reasons, they need to refound the two-man game with Tony and a new talented PF.

[wildchild]

that would be bull if the Spurs never utilize all of his offensive talents.

We all know Pop, he's reticent to make changes.

[intlspurshk]

There is no alternative. SPURS will match any offer which is likely a max offer. If SPURS think KL is overpaid, then trade him like Kelvin Love to some teams that need to win now when the next Andrew Wiggins appear.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

We all know Pop, he's reticent to make changes.

Pop has made more changes and adjustments to his system than any other coach. Like ever.

[Stabula]

We all know Pop, he's reticent to make changes.

Pop said publicly that the team next year is going to look very different and will be re-tooled in many ways. Expect big changes to the way the Spurs play.

[Skull-1]

No, this is a 38 year old I am comparing him to. TOTALLY DIFFERENT. I think it just shows how not elite KL IS

Leonard is developing. Had to defend the toughest matchup all series. Guy has been carrying the team for months. And no way Duncan gets those numbers without Leonard there. We have seen this movie before.

[Johnny RIngo]

Tony Parker. Highest paid player on the team. Worst impact in the entire playoffs. Least efficient player in the post-season. But yeah, keep blaming all the other players.

[Skull-1]

Tony Parker. Highest paid player on the team. Worst impact in the entire playoffs. Least efficient player in the post-season. But yeah, keep blaming all the other players.

Parker for sure was the difference here. Even just a tiny bit of production from him we win in six games at worst.

[Johnny RIngo]

Parker for sure was the difference here. Even just a tiny bit of production from him we win in six games at worst.

Yup. 6.3 PER, 38.6% TS. Those are horrific numbers. One of the worst playoffs in NBA history for a starter.

[Skull-1]

Yup. 6.3 PER, 38.6% TS. Those are horrific numbers. One of the worst playoffs in NBA history for a starter.

Wow. The eye test passed muster again.

I really hope this is injury-related and not a cliff dive.

[ThaBigFundamental21]

Jesus..

Rk	Player	Age	G	MP	PER ▾	TS%	3PAr	FTr	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%		OWS	DWS	WS	WS/48		OBPM	DBPM	BPM	VORP
1	Tim Duncan	38	7	250	24.0	.595	.011	.378	7.9	26.0	16.6	16.0	1.8	3.1	6.3	20.1		0.8	0.4	1.2	.228
2	Patrick Mills	26	7	112	23.2	.744	.667	.310	3.7	14.8	9.1	11.9	0.9	0.0	9.5	21.1		0.5	0.1	0.6	.261
3	Marco Belinelli	28	7	116	20.5	.727	.769	.333	1.8	10.5	6.0	14.1	0.9	0.0	10.1	19.2		0.5	0.1	0.5	.215
4	Kawhi Leonard	23	7	250	19.7	.571	.239	.321	5.4	17.2	11.1	12.5	1.6	1.3	10.8	25.0		0.5	0.2	0.7	.142

And yet Pop refused to play Mills more and Porker less..Mind boggling tbh.