Kawhi is officially the 5th best SF in the NBA

[exstatic]

Deng and Batum are probably as good if not better than Leonard is.

Batum has the Diaw passivity disease, and is now cheap shotting players. Deng is a defensive force, but is on that same pile of players as Gerald Wallace, never really developing much more than a serviceable jumper as a weapon.

[wildchild]

KL is an elite defender.

And the Man of the Steal

@dav_mcg

5 vs Celtics

[SupremeGuy]

I'd take Leonard over Melo tbh.

Same here.

[ThaBigFundamental21]

LMAO, stop. Melo is better than Leonard, you all know that. BTW, Melo is better than George too. WTF are you guys talking about? Iggy is also better than Leonard. Leonard is good, he is young too. He has work to do before you can say he is better than all of these players.

[313]

LMAO, stop. Melo is better than Leonard, you all know that. BTW, Melo is better than George too. WTF are you guys talking about? Iggy is also better than Leonard. Leonard is good, he is young too. He has work to do before you can say he is better than all of these players.

[will_spurs]

Here is why Melo sucks, from the horse's mouth.

[Mikeanaro]

Melo is also a chucker, plays little D, and an all-around cancer...

Agree!

[Drom John]

This season by Hollinger's VA, Leonard is tied for 9th best SF.
James
Durant
George
Anthony
Igoudala
Parsons
Turner
Gay
Batum
Leonard

By WS Leonard is 7th.
James
Durant
George
Igoudala
Parsons
Deng
Leonard

[Buddy Mignon]

You guys are so desperate.

AK47
Chandler
Parsons
Harrison Barnes
Pierce
Josh Smith
Deng
Iggy
Gay
Batum

Battier


And a host of other players are better than that re Kiwi.

[will_spurs]

You guys are so desperate.

AK47

[hater]

LMAO, stop. Melo is better than Leonard, you all know that. BTW, Melo is better than George too. WTF are you guys talking about? Iggy is also better than Leonard. Leonard is good, he is young too. He has work to do before you can say he is better than all of these players.

I agree Melo is better than Kawhi just because he's a far superior offensive player. But I put George over Melo easily.

otherwise, provide video evidence that Melo has ever played defense

[AztecSpur]

I imagine it's KL's 10 point burst that spurred this post. The way we'd like him to shoot all the time.

So what did Pop say to KL before the start of the 2nd half and again when he came back to the bench after that 10 point burst? The announcers were talking about it, but didn't know what he said of course. I imagine it was somehting like "It's your time to step it up". Maybe because TP was hurting?...just guessing.

[Prime Time]

Leonard gets so much mixed reception on ST.

Some people act like he's a top forward

Others act like he's a scrub

smh. My opinion is he has all the tools to be a top forward and has shown such ability in the past when the big 3 were out, but I won't call him an All-Star until he consistently performs like one. So basically, I see him as a butterfly trapped in it's cocoon.

Also, Carmelo Anthony is a joke to basketball. He'll make any team worse, ANY team. Even the freaking Jazz. I'd imagine most Knicks fans LOVE the idea of trading Melo for Leonard straight up. He's nothing but a stat padder, someone who shoots 20 attempts at .416%. I can't go on enough about how much I dislike Carmelo Anthony.

[Spur|n|Austin]

I wouldn't. He's a great young player. But Melo is a pure scorer and an very good rebounder. Obviously Leonard is a better player in the Spurs system.

Give me KL over Melo any day of the week.

[Darkwaters]

Still can't believe we traded Paul George for him though...

[mclinejr]

Imagine the spurs dominating the league before All-star but with only Tony Parker as our All-star Player. Tim is having a rough start and I expect him to bounce back, but it's more than likely going to be after the break.

You seriously need to make up your mind about Tim Duncan.

[MR-Clutch]

I'd take Leonard over Melo tbh.

This. Melos style of playing will never lead his team through a deep playoff run. While kawh's offense is still developing, he's a team player and worlds ahead of melo on the defensive end.

[MR-Clutch]

Also if were factoring in potential, then I definitely would put kawhi in the top 5 and over Melo. I think guys like Iggy, Deng, and Batum are who they are, and have little room for improvement, while Leonard is still scratching the surface.

[Horse]

I get so tired of one-way players getting so much praise. melo he will never win cause he's a selfish prick.

[hater]

I get so tired of one-way players getting so much praise. melo he will never win cause he's a selfish prick.

don't get me wrong for the money Melo commands and the lack of D I would stay away from him and would take Kawhi over him anyday.

but I are talking basketball skill wise. melo is superior just because of his amazing Offensive game

[Chinook]

This. Melos style of playing will never lead his team through a deep playoff run. While kawh's offense is still developing, he's a team player and worlds ahead of melo on the defensive end.

Lol. A Memo-led team makes the playoffs annually. A Leonard-led team is in the lottery. There's no debate who can carry a team better. And that's coming from a guy who considers Anthony to be the dark cloud hanging over the Knicks.

[jesterbobman]

It's a top 3 then a chasm at this point.

Iggy, Deng, Batum, Melo, Kawhi are all somewhere in the race for fourth. By xRAPM for 2012/13(http://stats-for-the-nba.appspot.com/ratings/2013.html)
Iggy(+4.1)
Deng(+1.4)
Batum(+0.9)
Carmelo(+2.3)
Kawhi(+1.5)

RAPM tends to have a negative bias towards young players, as the incoming assumption is that they will be bad(as most rookies are) and xRAPM uses more than 1 year of data.(Which is part of how Gerald Wallace ends up as a Giant +)

Given that, and assuming growth for Kawhi and some for Batum(Still fairly young)
Iggy
Kawhi ~ Melo
Deng ~ Batum

Healthy Danilo Gallinari is probably up there as well.

[will_spurs]

A Memo-led team makes the playoffs annually.

That's good enough for the Knicks. Not good enough for the Spurs, though.

[Chinook]

That's good enough for the Knicks. Not good enough for the Spurs, though.

Of course it's not, which is why Leonard should NOT be considered the next face of the Spurs. At best, the Spurs would be like the pre-Rose Bulls or the Iggy Sixers. Only in the West, there wouldn't be easy playoff seeds to get.

[Hoops Czar]

If Leonard doesn't start to show consistency on both sides of the ball, and the Spurs give him a max deal, it would be like paying for an over priced Shawn Marion. He needs to stop settling for outside jump shot and he needs to get into the lane and create. His numbers look decent on paper, but offensively, he's a product of the Spurs system. When players start to retire and get older, Kawhi will have take on more responsibility and to this point, I haven't seen enough from him on the offensive end to think he's the slightest bit capable of carrying the Spurs. He's still young and developing so that could change.