Exactly. Clips double teamed Kawhi as they knew he did not have the ability to make the right pass to the open man. Thus, causing Spurs to lose series.
No they double teamed him because nobody on that roster could guard him in the post. Tom rivers lucked into Kawhi not being used to the double team and our shooters he was dishing it out to going cold. But thats one of the worst takes in a long time if you think LMA would command a double team more then Kawhi who makes his money off being a mismatch in the post. What are you going to do double LMA at the elbow
, he has not post game and that's where you see most double teams come.
The good thing here is that the Spurs don't need 25 and 12 from LMA. A modest 16-18 and 10 on 45-50% shooting/20ish PER from him should be enough (provided everyone else plays up to par) to beat every team not named the Warriors. That's a hair below his playoff stats in Portland, so it should be achievable. If he can stay in the ballpark with Portland playoff numbers in addition to playing much improved defense, the Spurs will be fine.
"We brought him in to beat the Warriors! 18ppg ain't gonna cut it."
The Warriors, presently, are an impossible standard to live up to. 18ppg from LMA should've been theoretically enough (look at our success last season against the Warriors without him), but the Warriors are in a different tier right now, and there's not a single player out there we could've signed short of a top 5 player that would've put us on their level.
I know I've been talking up Wardell and Co. a lot as this indomitable en y, but I'm just trying to temper expectations and generate appreciation for the current team. In 95% of NBA seasons, the Spurs probably win the le with this squad, with LMA being a key reason, but if your measuring stick is the Warriors, no signing was "worth it" outside of Lebron or Westbrook.
You showed one playoff performance from a team that had given up, and the spurs who were contending for a le. You also mention that Kawhi had a "slump". In other words he choked when it mattered. I defended lma, after people started bringing up Kawhi. I used the emphasis that people give credit to Kawhi out of pure fan reasons, considering he has shown time and time he wasn't ready to handle the pressure of a big time moment. He had his one performance against lebron who has made a career of making his opponent look good. Otherwise nothing. Yet the spurs support him. My point, that the fan vision wouldn't let people see... is they should look at Aldridge with the same support. The guy has show more than Kawhi, considering he has performed at a high level over a much longer period of time.
I said show career averages. You guys keep picking numbers that make your argument look good, instead of what was asked. Shows that you know what those averages show.. Kawhi has a career performance average that is not close to lma. If you want to make a case about someone not showing up, it would be Kawhi first, as it should since he's the younger and inexperienced of the two, but fans won't see it that way.
This thread was about lma talking about winning a championship and people started talking about him being a career no show and Kawhi being an alpha.
Kawhi is my favorite spur player. The only Jersey I've bought since Robinson, Duncan and Ginobilli.
The homerism here is ridiculous. Last couple years it wasn't about stats and media credibility, since that's not the spurs way, and now everyone talks about Kawhi ppg, and all star appearances. Fans here flip flop so much and jump on bandwagons they were dissing just a few months ago.
Bottom line, LMA is a big time player. Hasn't shown otherwise. Has consistently put up good performances even when all the teams are game planning to stop him. Been doing that since his rookie year. Kawhi, on the other hand, is just learning how to beat a double team.. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Asking the career averages for a 24 year old player who hasn't seen his prime yet versus a player who most likely has has seen his best years is more skewing than most of the stats others have posted. I posted stats last year when they were in a similar situation in terms of roles and usage % and Kawhi had the better stats. Also another poster gave you the same stats LMA posted at Kawhis age once again it was the same result, that's not homerism that's just giving some context to the stats your asking. Sure LMA wasthe better playing coming into the league and more polished, but imo Kawhi has surpassed LMA as a better overall player especially when you put defense into the conversation.
Those situations weren't the same at all. The Clips didn't come into that series game-planning against Kawhi. Once they started, his numbers fell off. LMA was hurt (actually was supposed to be shut down for the season but powered through it) on an injured roster against a team that pretty much only knows how to play defense and pretty much put all that energy into defending him. It's biased as to act like he and Leonard were in comparable positions. You switch the two, and the Spurs are in the WCF, and the Blazers are still at home. And that's not because LMA is better than Kawhi or that he was then, it was because the Spurs desperately needed a legit second big in that series, more than they needed an SF.
That's totally homerism. No one cares what Aldridge did at 23. And no one currently cares what Kawhi will do at 30. That Leonard has a chance to pass up Aldridge significantly is irrelevant to the conversation. The point is that Aldridge has had a much tougher road than Leonard has, and he's held up. He's legit. And Kawhi has had his share of struggles as the main man. And he's held up. He's also legit. Neither one is perfect, but both are great.Also another poster gave you the same stats LMA posted at Kawhis age once again it was the same result, that's not homerism that's just giving some context to the stats your asking.
This isn't about who's better now or who will have the better career. It's about understanding why having two guys like them is important, because neither one of them can do it by themselves. They aren't 2003 Duncan. They need to be good enough and cohesive enough that teams can't just take one of them out of the series. Aldridge and Kawhi get that, but the fans are having a hard time seeing that it's LMA AND Kawhi, not LMA OR Kawhi.
When and how did things go from Parker vs kawhi to now aldridge vs kawhi? Why do spurs fans do this to themselves?
They don't - there are 10 Harlem alts and a couple of GNSFs who bite on this Kawhi vs LMA .When and how did things go from Parker vs kawhi to now aldridge vs kawhi? Why do spurs fans do this to themselves?
There is no "better" LMA is clearly "better" offensively and KL is "better" defensively.
LMA can carry a team of a bunch of scrubs thru RS and to the Second Round in the Playoffs, KL has yet to show that kind of performance and probably will never be able to do it.
KL on the other hand can Defend top NBA players and LMA has yet to shown this and probably never will. Same situation.
There is no better, i cringe to see people here comparing both scenarios for Kawhi and LMA, once the big 3 leaves there is a realistic possibility that the Spurs never get to the Finals again, yet some here still credit Leonard over the big 3 for 2014, completely ignoring the fact that KL didnīt deliver the one series the other team planned for him.
The Spurs big 3 have been succeeding for a decade, with teams planning exclusively to stop them, and almost always delivered, i can actually count more "role players choke" games over big 3 choke games, their stats in elimination games are flawless for the 3 of them, Leonard has not reached this level, and never did LMA.
Reminds me of that Parker quote:Good read.
"I came here to get carried to les, no to show up in the playoffs"
The Spurs fans should be thankful that BOTH their superstars are playing alongside each other just fine, not bickering ala Shaq-Kobe in early 2000's Lakers. And yet we can't have a thread which actually has a positive content & message in its original post, in a supportive & constructive manner.
Its funny how so many people like the Spurs yet think so un-Spurs like when it comes to them. Youd think theyd all be Carmelo fans.The Spurs fans should be thankful that BOTH their superstars are playing alongside each other just fine, not bickering ala Shaq-Kobe in early 2000's Lakers. And yet we can't have a thread which actually has a positive content & message in its original post, in a supportive & constructive manner.
Very well put.
LMA had a tough road and has consistently persevered. He deserves appreciation, not doubt. He has earned it.
Spurfan should be thankful he's here, otherwise kawhis ascension doesn't amount to much outside that all star appearance. With LMA he has a chance to be great outside the big three, in his own big three.
He has to earn it on this team, forget what hes done before, the money he gets is the reward for what hes done before. What has he done for me lately, thats all that counts. Having said that why not be more encouraging about what he can do for us, he has a great skill package that can help us win it all, Kawhi too.
Oh well they did threepeatedThe Spurs fans should be thankful that BOTH their superstars are playing alongside each other just fine, not bickering ala Shaq-Kobe in early 2000's Lakers. And yet we can't have a thread which actually has a positive content & message in its original post, in a supportive & constructive manner.
You have repeatedly said that LMA is a ty playoff performer, but that really isn't accurate. He had a bad shooting playoff last year, although he averaged 21 points, 11 reb, 2 asst, 2.4 blocks a game. His career averages during the playoffs are higher across the board than his regular season and last year was the only year that he has shot significantly below his regular season average. Many would attribute the drop in FG%, if any, to the fact that he averages over 40 minutes a game in the playoffs as opposed to 35 minutes in the regular season.
His playoffs numbers fall off a cliff, I already posted them in this thread..efficiency numbers, on/off numbers and production numbers..I don't care about his raw counting stats, they're irrelevant here..
I'm not sure you could find a star big man with worse career numbers in the playoffs, especially the efficiency..
Have a feelling LMA's great play is going to continue the 2nd half of the season. I think he's locked in.
I get what youre sauing. Some doubt kawhi based off what happened last playoffs alone. Want his role to change and someone else to be the "alpha" or "leader" and saying aldridge should be that guy. The comparisons are ridiculous seeing how they both play on the same team, but I feel some downplay kawhi a bit because of what happened in the playoffs.
Very well put.
LMA had a tough road and has consistently persevered. He deserves appreciation, not doubt. He has earned it.
Spurfan should be thankful he's here, otherwise kawhis ascension doesn't amount to much outside that all star appearance. With LMA he has a chance to be great outside the big three, in his own big three.
He really upped the ante after GSW and deleting the Twitter account.
Except in every offensive stat this year Kawhi is better offensively but. So how is Lma the clearly better offensive player as of now?
Except they def did gameplan for kawhi as they were doubling him a lot the first three games of that series. Were two of the spurs starters not playing injured that series as well? Was Danny green a complete no show till game seven? Kawhi carried the team hard that first five games and that's seriously revisionist history if you deny that. Yea he dropped the ball in game 6 and 7 but so did everyone not named Tim Duncan. Of course it will take both of them playing well for them to get back to the finals but if posters here are expecting Lma to step up in the clutch they are going to be let down. I hope he proves me wrong. It was lillard who clinched the series if he misses that shot they go back to hou for game 7 and LmA maybe never even gets out of the first round.
Only a re would try to use Aldridge's stats last season against one of the better defensive teams with the bigs to throw at him when his roster was ed by injuries as some kind of argument against him. Comparing Leonard/Aldridge numbers and efficiency wise this point is meaningless. Leonard has always been on a legit top 3 team in the league for his entire career with a HOF cast and GOAT level coach and only recently has he stepped up to be the man. Aldridge on the other hand did not have the same situation in Portland and his teammates routinely got injured. His best teammates' knees went out and after that his best teammate was L
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