Pounding the Rock: "The Disease of More" and Kawhi Leonard.

[KL2]

I wonder how many of Leonard's passes have gone up for bricks this year, I'd say at least 60% this year. It's one thing I've been watching, Leonard has been getting guys wide open shots all year long so far, nobody has been making them, they're usually wide open 3's. The Spurs' offense would be on fire if they did and nobody would be talking about this lol. The guy who wrote this article is an idiot tbh.

[wildchild]

And people are attacking this article because ... ?

-hide facts
-manipulate stats
-suggest some uncorroborated things about Leonard personality.

the offense is still going to be weaker until they find away to fit in Kawhi's post game more effectively

And the article tries to say that is Kawhi's fault when it's not.

[dabom]

-hide facts
-manipulate stats
-suggest some uncorroborated things about Leonard personality.


And the article tries to say that is Kawhi's fault when it's not.

Dam dude. Have mercy.

[benstanfield]

After you have some success, you want more, more, more. I call it the disease of more, but what you get is less of what you did to help the team. Once someone gets too far away from the pattern, you got to bring them back in.
-- Pat Riley

Not sure why I should give a about Pat Riley's psychoanalytic musings tbqh. The fact that the writer takes it as ironclad fact and bases the rest of the article on it is questionable at best.

Coach Popovich is doing the complete opposite of that with Leonard, and it's hurting the team as well as Kawhi. I'm not a fan of the offense stopping so Kawhi can post up. The Spurs are at their best when the ball doesn't stick. Pop is getting away from that in the early part of this season as he attempts to will Kawhi into something he's not: a top ten offensive talent.

This is where gets re ed. Author implies 1) that Kawhi is posting up more than usual and 2) getting Kawhi comfortable in the post now won't pay huge dividends in the future. Regarding 1), Kawhi is shooting less from 3-10 than he did last year. The real increase has been in his midrange shooting, where ~36% of his shots are coming this year as opposed to 26% last year. Regarding 2), author is just straight up stupid.

Kawhi doesn't have the athleticism to be a Kobe-in-his-prime type of offensive player, yet he is taking many Kobe-in-his-prime type of shots this season. He lacks the jumping ability to truly dominate his position offensively. Specifically, his jumper doesn't have the necessary height to it to get it off comfortably on a consistent basis. Because of this, he makes 1.5 too many fakes when he posts up, and the result is an off-balance, poor shot.

I'm glad Fred Silva has the potential of a 23 year old already mapped out, and is better at gauging a player's abilities than Pop. We shouldn't increase Kawhi's USG% by 3% over last year because Fred on the internet likes passing.

I assume Pop's argument for pushing Leonard to forget about the 'Big Three' and become the 'Big One' is that the 'Big Three' are 'older than dirt' and a transition has to take place at some point. But this championship window is still wide-open and sacrificing wins and team chemistry at this point of the franchise's arc just feels like an inappropriate risk.

so many wins sacrificed
players probably hate each other now that Kawhi is shooting 2 more times a game

I'm fearful that I mistook Kawhi's quiet demeanor for humbleness. Tim is humble. Tony is humble. Manu is humble. David was humble. Avery was humble. Sean was humble. What Kawhi is doing is not humble, in my opinion. It began with his agent throwing the Spurs organization under the bus for not offering Kawhi the max. Obviously, it makes more sense to wait and give him the max later for salary cap reasons. It will give the Spurs their best opportunity to surround Kawhi with talent if Tim and Manu retire after this season. Anyone can see that. It doesn't even take intelligence. It's just common sense. But his agent decided to go to the press with ridiculous, illogical thoughts and I found it very unsettling.

I know right, how ridiculous that a sports agent wouldn't want his client to risk injury for a year without a guaranteed max until next year. Kawhi does seem like a selfish guy now that I think about it. Always hogging the limelight and wanting more touches. Thanks Fred.

And "Tony was humble"

What's troublesome is that it's difficult for me to separate that event with what is transpiring on the court. Whenever Kawhi scores a lot of points, he tells the media something like, "Well, I got shots." Implying that if he always took a lot of shots, he'd always score a lot of points. And more than that, that he wants a lot more shots. He's pretty sure that Pop promised him more shots and hasn't really come through.

This is ST-level incoherence

I think Kawhi's ego has steadily grown, even if his off-court personality has not. While Pat Riley's 'Disease of More' has definitely not taken hold of the entire team, I think Kawhi is showing the symptoms and rather than forcing him to take his medicine, Pop is telling him to stay out later and party harder.

wut

Here are some stats from nba.com that support my eyeball theory. I'll give you the statistical category, followed by Kawhi's stats for last year and then this year. For example: PPG, 12.8, 14.9. So he's scoring 2.1 more points per game this year than he did last year. That seems like a good thing, right? Well, it's not.Pace, 97.23, 94.79. When Kawhi's on the floor, the team's pace has slowed as compared to last season. I assume this is due to the, 'Let's stop the offense so Kawhi can post up for eight seconds as everyone stands around and watches.' What are we, the Knicks?
eFG%, 57.6, 50.1. TS%, 60.2, 54.5. As Kawhi takes more shots outside the Spurs' system, his shooting percentages have taken a hit. I don't think this is a shooting slump. This is a reflection of Kawhi taking worse, more difficult shots.
AST/TO, 1.66, 1.26. AST Ratio, 14.6, 11.6. TO Ratio, 8.8, 9.2. His assist to turnovers ratio is significantly worse and his number of assists per possession are down. He's taking more shots, passing less often and turning the ball over with greater frequency. That's a bad thing.
USG %, 18.3, 22.0. Obviously, his usage percentage is up, which has resulted in all the stats that have preceded.

This is the only passage you really need to read to know what a re the author is. 19 games.

Here's my hope. The Spurs are not doing this to pander to Kawhi's ego. They aren't doing this because they are trying to keep Kawhi and his agent happy so he'll sign next year. They are not sacrificing the team for the individual. This is not the result of Riley's "Disease of More."

1) Then why write the article?
2) It's literally impossible that he signs anywhere else unless the Spurs decide they don't want him.

Popovich is riding his young star early and often to take the load off his 'older than dirt' Big Three. At the same time, with so many early injuries to deal with, his load would have increased regardless. In addition, it's early in a long season and who cares about the record anyway? OKC has to throw a no-hitter the rest of the way to catch the Spurs and I don't think any other team in the West scares Pop.

Huge difference between false-humility downplaying your takes and just begging the question of why you wrote your stupid article to begin with. Also "his load would have increased regardless" author displaying a child's grasp of the English language

No, although it'd be nice. My problem is that I love watching the Spurs offense flow. I like the ball to kick eight, nine and ten times. I even like it when they overpass and it results in a turnover. I like the motion, the unselfishness. Every time the offense stops so Kawhi can post up, a little part of my Spurs love dies. Hopefully, sample size and injury/age factors are to blame and this is not a long term plan, or even worse, a result of Kawhi's 'Disease of More.'

Oh I see. The legit counterpoint you made were a setup so you could say "but but but I like passing". This is embarrassing for PTR tbh. I haven't read them in a long time but this makes it look like a a forum for self-important reddit posts by people who watched the Mavs, Warriors, and Cavs game this season.

tfw Fred Silva is Timvp's pen name

[lefty]

http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...-kawhi-leonard

This is an interesting article, even if written by a fan. It points out what many of us have noted, that running more plays through Leonard seems to be hurting our offense. The article is quite critical of Pop, Kawhi and Kawhi's agent.

To some degree I agree with his "on court" analysis, but disagree with the motives behind the changes. I think Pop is using the early season (as he always does) to experiment. And he's frankly seeing what Kawhi can do within the scope of the offense with the ball in his hands. He may be playing to Kawhi's desires for more shots, but that's Pop's job, to find out what works. I'm sure by April we'll have the free-wheeling offense back, but this is the time to find what have in Leonard.

The article, when talking about Kawhi's inefficiency, also ignores his illness to begin the season and his still cloudy vision.

Pop isn't stupid. He isn't going to turn Kawhi into Kobe/Melo with "a feed him the ball and get out of the way" design. At least, not when it matters. I do wonder, though, if Kawhi's expectations are realistic. As reserved as he is, he has made a few remarks about wanting to see the offense run more often through him. Hopefully the article is wrong about the "Disease of More."

[admiralsnackbar]

Kawhi is being allowed to prove why he isn't a max player, while also being forced to play a greater role in the offense. Win/win.

[FireMicoHalili]

Another article from PtR regarding some numbers dipping for TP and TD (comes with age anyway): http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...-review-part-1

Some questions for serious STers:

1. How long til we can stop blaming Kawhi's conjunctivitis for his struggles? Do we disregard this earlier chunk of the season and regard it as an aberration? At which point do we decide his game is back to 'normal'? Love his energy and hustle but maybe some people are right: he may not be a Kobe-type iso player. His jumper, while smooth, still looks a wee bit stiff. He's also not that athletic; he gets by with his awesome wingspan. Is it worth sacrificing the motion offense for iso possessions? Might cost the Spurs some wins, and the West is top-heavy this year. HCA certainly a factor.
2. TP's decline due to old age? Or the fact that offense runs less through him this year?
3. Any thoughts on their collective shooting slump? Just less motivated this year?

[apalisoc_9]

Long time TP fans and TD fans just making articles because. they hate change.

^ awful article.

[FireMicoHalili]

Long time TP fans and TD fans just making articles because. they hate change.

^ awful article.

True bruh, no one likes biased takes from biased people.