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Leonard has the prototypical Small Forward's body, but with a longer wingspan and bigger hands. He's not built like a PF at all.
If you're open, you shoot.
That being said,
Manus always open..
Leonard has the prototypical Small Forward's body, but with a longer wingspan and bigger hands. He's not built like a PF at all.
Indeed. Kawhi is fine playing the 4 in small-ball lineups, only.
You are absolutely right. It IS absurd. Thing is, in this forum, absurdity trumps logic and basketball i.q. every day, 24/7.
Earlier in the thread I considered pulling out the clip of a play in the third quarter when Duncan had the ball at the top of the key and Kawhi was holding his arms up and calling for the ball. Duncan looked right at him and then looked away. Duncan handles the ball just about as much as Parker in this offense, but no one accuses Duncan of ignoring Kawhi. I didn't do it because there is no point in it, and it would be only doing the same thing the Parker haters do. And it would be just as irrational.
Fact is, Parker gets 'blamed' for running the plays that Pop calls. The night before last Pop said that he called plays for Kawhi more that night than ever before. And Kawhi got lots of touches and had a great game. Some of us imagine that the coach may have a different game plan against different teams and may want to emphasize some players over others given the opponent or the time during the game. ing about TP not passing to Kawhi is the more recent meme...it used to be that he didn't pass to Manu. Next it will be someone else.
There are haters here who try pretend that they are really not, but then find a fault with Parker after every. single. game., regardless of what he has done in them. If he scores well and frequently, they accuse him of hogging the ball. If he doesn't do either of those things, they accuse him of 'not showing up'. And after each game, it it the same damn posters finding fault. One of my favorites among the haters is the guy who is convinced that he knows Parker's mind and motivations, and regularly asserts that Parker is 'jealous of Kawhi" or "tries to limit Kawhi looking good". It is absolutely pathetic. If Parker has a good game they discredit it by saying he is only a regular season star and that doesn't count. They seem to believe that no one notices that they cannot let him play a single game without finding fault and starting a thread about it.
A lot of us have given up trying to respond to them with reason. They don't listen and they don't care. They have their agendas and that is their only concern. Good on you for trying.
He can't really guard them because they're simply too big/strong at times, but he's shown the ability to at least give them , boxing out, rebounding, cleaning up the class etc. Leonard does not have your prototypical SF's body. When he was drafted he was already 230lbs at 20 years old, he's visibly bigger and stronger in his 3rd year, it's not crazy to think he's gained around 10lbs in 3 years, making him around 240lbs, that's all muscle.
Compare his size to other top SF's in the NBA:
Leonard 6'7 240lbs
George-6'9 220lbs
Batum-6'8 212lbs
Iguodala-6'6 207lbs
Derozan-6'7 220lbs
Deng-6'9 220lbs
Hayward-6'8 225lbs
Evans-6'6 220lbs
Parsons-6'9 230lbs (maybe after his weight gain)
Gay-6'9 230lbs
Durant-6'10 240lbs (built like a stick)
Fat Melo-240lbs (but fat)
Lebron-250lbs (post weight loss)
Out of that list the only quality SF's that really rival his strength/size are Lebron and Melo (Melo is looking skinny these days, Lebron looks much weaker as well). It's time to start recognizing this guy as a power player, because he is one. Watch the finals last year, it's why he was able to hold his own in the post vs Lebron and why he was so effective guarding him/denying him so many attempts. He also bulled through Bosh multiple times throughout the series.
:40 look at the separation he creates against Griffin, that's all strength, then look at the shot he gets, he misses it but it's still a high % shot, look how easy of a shot that is for him, high %.
1:00 again, look at the separation he creates again against Griffin with body contact, this time it leads to a wide open jumper, pure strength, Griffin is not small.
1:48, powers through Jordan forcing him out of bounds, grabs his own rebound against Cp3, finishes
Just look at all those post plays as well. It's hard to guard him, too big and strong, it's combo of size/strength you rarely see.
TGY with some goodage.
Yeah, I agree he's a great defender & all around player (as was Scottie Pippin, who I think he resembles physically) but his body isn't that of a typical PF. He'd have trouble defending a Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, or Anthony Davis in the paint (though, of course, anyone would!). He'd probably still do a better job of it than quite a few of the PFs in the league now, but I think it would still be an example of a very good player using his versatility to play well when asked to work outside of his natural position.
we were +6 in the first half and +7 in the second half.
the impact was definitely felt
I bet every time Blake Griffin found himself in defensive isolation against Kawhi, he thought to himself, "awww , not this again!"
S D infernoing the thread.
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