Kawhi hate is ridiculous, what about LMA?

[T Park]

Stop the Kawhi hate, seriously. The guy is a phenomonal talent and not the reason we're out of the playoffs. Age, lack of athleticism, some bad breaks and facing a talented team that wanted it more is why we've gone fishing.

How about some analysis of LMA around here? He was great in games 1 and 2, then disappeared for much of the rest of the series. In crucial game 5 he went 6-21 missing at least 5 wide-open, uncontested jumpers (supposedly his bread and butter), including a 12ft bunny in the final 1:30 that would have put us up 4 and could have steadied the ship. Choke much?

Do you like relying on a streaky mid range jump shooter to win big playoff game? I don't. He holds the ball, clogs up the offence, and when he's off keeps shooting rather than getting down and dirty and grinding out some post buckets like he should.

We had to grab him when he was available, and we probably have to give him another season, but I'm unconvinced he's the medium term future for this team. What do you think?

Better jettison the multi all star power forward now. They grow on trees

[Dre_7]

First of all, I love both players and know how fortunate we are to have Kawhi and Aldridge as the Big Three Era is starting to come to an end. How many other teams get to go from one era to another without a rebuilding phase of some kind? Aldridge has a year with the Spurs under his belt, I expect him to have a much better season next year.

Second, Kawhi hate makes absolutely NO SENSE to me. He helped bring a 5th Championship to San Antonio. He did so winning a FMVP in a series that he absolutely dominated the final three games. He is the best defensive player in the league, one of the best three point shooters, a first team All NBA Player, an All-Star, won his second straight DPOY award, and was second place in the MVP voting. Now think about all that combined with the fact that he is still only 24 and that he has gotten better every single year, while adding to his offensive game every offseason. You don't think he is going to do the same this offseason?

Spurs are in great shape for the future.

[YGWHI]

Because they are completely different kinds of players. Kawhi is Scottie Pippen reincarnated, but a better shooter and not as good a playmaker. LeBron is a running back with a lineman's size and basketballer's skills.

Not really.

But also, it's not a matter of skills. It's about roles.

Ya know, a lot of people here think Kawhi is a better player than Lebron. In Lebron's entire career, have you ever heard of any fan, media member or analyst alike ever say that such and such team needs a PG that knows his role and would be willing to pass Lebron the ball? The ball is in Lebron's hands at the end of games. Why isn't the ball in Leonard's hands at the end of games?

Why? Because Parker doesn't accept his new role. He said the right things "this is Kawhi's team" but his play says otherwise.

I guess LeBron never had to deal with that Parker-type of player at his 23-24 years old in Cleveland.

Why Pop should ask Parker to pass the ing ball to the main scorer? Why a 10 years younger guy has to be vocal to get the ball from the vet point guard?

A true point guard knows he has to keep his scorers going and... never keep the ball away from them.

At this point of his career, Parker should know what is his job/role. But he doesn't.

[SD126]

Spurs as a team the bed after game 1, per par.

[tholdren]

DarrinS in da house with the bads, per usual

[spursistan]

the thing that nobody is actually talking about is the underwhelming defensive series of LMA--rebounding, rim protection..it is like he thought he is going to be dropping 40 on them each game so he can afford to take off competing on the other end..

He averaged 37 MPG in the series and only committed 1.7 fouls per game..that's how averse to banging and aggressive contesting of shot he was in a series the Spurs got murdered bigs-to-bigs..Even a smart defender like Timmy was taking 3.7 fouls per game in last season Clippers series while playing 35 MPG in a similar cir stances when the Spurs had only one good Big who could play major minutes ..

[Trill Clinton]

i ran into kawhi, danny and george hill at the airport this morning. chopped it up with them real quick before they headed out.

[tholdren]

i ran into kawhi, danny and george hill at the airport this morning. chopped it up with them real quick before they headed out.

sounds like a gay ol time

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Better jettison the multi all star power forward now. They grow on trees

C'mon man, I thought you'd grown up. Don't strawman me. If the Spurs moved him through trade they'd get value, although I know they won't.

I don't like relying on a jumpshooter as the number 1 option in close playoff games. Do you? He also clogs up what used to be a beautiful offensive system by holding the ball far too long.

I hope he changes his game a bit next year to facilitate more ball movement. He's a quality player, but game 5 really exposed him. We probably win that game if he hits even one of the 5 or 6 wide open jumpers he missed, including 2 in the last 3 minutes.

[timtonymanu]

C'mon man, I thought you'd grown up. Don't strawman me. If the Spurs moved him through trade they'd get value, although I know they won't.

I don't like relying on a jumpshooter as the number 1 option in close playoff games. Do you? He also clogs up what used to be a beautiful offensive system by holding the ball far too long.

I hope he changes his game a bit next year to facilitate more ball movement. He's a quality player, but game 5 really exposed him. We probably win that game if he hits even one of the 5 or 6 wide open jumpers he missed, including 2 in the last 3 minutes.

Don't mind T Park. His only role in this forum is to complain or twist the words around of posts to make himself look good.

[skulls138]

Stop the Kawhi hate, seriously. The guy is a phenomonal talent and not the reason we're out of the playoffs. Age, lack of athleticism, some bad breaks and facing a talented team that wanted it more is why we've gone fishing.

How about some analysis of LMA around here? He was great in games 1 and 2, then disappeared for much of the rest of the series. In crucial game 5 he went 6-21 missing at least 5 wide-open, uncontested jumpers (supposedly his bread and butter), including a 12ft bunny in the final 1:30 that would have put us up 4 and could have steadied the ship. Choke much?

Do you like relying on a streaky mid range jump shooter to win big playoff game? I don't. He holds the ball, clogs up the offence, and when he's off keeps shooting rather than getting down and dirty and grinding out some post buckets like he should.

We had to grab him when he was available, and we probably have to give him another season, but I'm unconvinced he's the medium term future for this team. What do you think?

I like Kawhi because if his offense is off he'll affect the game positively in other ways. And no I dont want LMA relying on that jumper. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

[skulls138]

Why? Because Parker doesn't accept his new role. He said the right things "this is Kawhi's team" but his play says otherwise.

I guess LeBron never had to deal with that Parker-type of player at his 23-24 years old in Cleveland.

Why Pop should ask Parker to pass the ing ball to the main scorer? Why a 10 years younger guy has to be vocal to get the ball from the vet point guard?

A true point guard knows he has to keep his scorers going and... never keep the ball away from them.

At this point of his career, Parker should know what is his job/role. But he doesn't.

We needed Parkers points, hes just lost a step. He should though give Kawhi some easier buckets, Kawhi needs easier points. He also deserves them with all the hard work he does. Hes easily the hardest worker out there.

[Spurtacular]

Valid criticism is not hate. Some people are smart enough to know that.

[skulls138]

Has the straw man been beat to death yet? Some of us are more compassionate towards rhetorical arguments, but if it must be done do it cleanly.

The analysis of Kawhi has been focused on whether he has the tools to lead this team. No one is calling him a role player. Jeez.

You mean the tools enough to win a championship right? I wanted that too but nobody else showed up either. This le was dependent on both LMA and Kawhi to play at all-star level AND at least 2/3rd of the big 3 to throw back the hands of time one more time, but that didnt happen.

People look at the great record but in reality OKC realized itself at the right time and when they did they were more in their prime, were faster, stronger and bigger.

Refs didnt help either.

[tholdren]

You mean the tools enough to win a championship right? I wanted that too but nobody else showed up either. This le was dependent on both LMA and Kawhi to play at all-star level AND at least 2/3rd of the big 3 to throw back the hands of time one more time, but that didnt happen.

People look at the great record but in reality OKC realized itself at the right time and when they did they were more in their prime, were faster, stronger and bigger.

Refs didnt help either.

KL and LMA are not team leaders. They can't do what it takes to win. Rebound in traffic, fight for a 50/50 ball, and take it to the rim to stop a run or continue a SA run.

If your argument is "they need more help" then you've proved my point.

Both failed during big games at big moments and were out shined by other players. Westbrook was the best player in that series and it wasn't close.

[YGWHI]

KL and LMA are not team leaders. They can't do what it takes to win.

At least one of those two guys...can.

Rebound in traffic, fight for a 50/50 ball

and take it to the to stop a run or continue a SA run.

[YGWHI]

Before anybody tries to bash LMAs series you might wanna look at the actual numbers...

Don't want to bash him or any other Spurs player.

LMA was the Spurs offensive up-grade for this season, he should have put a way better offensive numbers than the rest of the team but those stats didn't show it.

He took a bit more shots than Kawhi in the playoffs and...scored less.
Kawhi 16.6 FGA 22.5 ppg
LMA 16.9 FGA 21.9 ppg

After these two playoffs series, Kawhi was #2 in PER 29.6 and LMA #8, 25.9
http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/sta...esc/1/Playoffs

He's is our more talented offensive player, we assumed that LMA would be the MAN on the offensive end, carrying the load for the Spurs in most playoffs games, but he didn't.

the thing that nobody is actually talking about is the underwhelming defensive series of LMA--rebounding, rim protection..it is like he thought he is going to be dropping 40 on them each game so he can afford to take off competing on the other end..

He averaged 37 MPG in the series and only committed 1.7 fouls per game..that's how averse to banging and aggressive contesting of shot he was in a series the Spurs got murdered bigs-to-bigs..Even a smart defender like Timmy was taking 3.7 fouls per game in last season Clippers series while playing 35 MPG in a similar cir stances when the Spurs had only one good Big who could play major minutes ..

It's sad, but the Spurs didn't have any big man on the top #10 in rebounds.

LMA didn't finish in the top of defensive players in any category. Just in blocks per game #8 (with Kawhi)

But Kawhi was also #1 in steals per game, #4 in Def Rtg (behind 3 PF/C), Def Win Shares #3...At least, he was doing the job on that end.

http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/sta...esc/1/Playoffs

[still.focused]

Don't want to bash him or any other Spurs player.

LMA was the Spurs offensive up-grade for this season, he should have put a way better offensive numbers than the rest of the team but those stats didn't show it.

He took a bit more shots than Kawhi in the playoffs and...scored less.
Kawhi 16.6 FGA 22.5 ppg
LMA 16.9 FGA 21.9 ppg

After these two playoffs series, Kawhi was #2 in PER 29.6 and LMA #8, 25.9
http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/sta...esc/1/Playoffs

He's is our more talented offensive player, we assumed that LMA would be the MAN on the offensive end, carrying the load for the Spurs in most playoffs games, but he didn't.



It's sad, but the Spurs didn't have any big man on the top #10 in rebounds.

LMA didn't finish in the top of defensive players in any category. Just in blocks per game #8 (with Kawhi)

But Kawhi was also #1 in steals per game, #4 in Def Rtg (behind 3 PF/C), Def Win Shares #3...At least, he was doing the job on that end.

http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/sta...esc/1/Playoffs

Fam are you f*ckin serious
LMA wasnt a lights out scorer all yr but when the POs start you somehow you expected him to carry the load
Kawhi shows the entire world all season long that hes the best offensive(amongst other categories) player we have but you for some reason seem to think Aldridge is
How does this happen?
Your qualm of LMA taking 1/3 of a shot per game more but Kawhi scoring 2/3 of a point more per game is just asinine for 2 reasons
The numbers are so damn low theyre reletively pointless and secondly KAWHI IS THE BETTER OFFENSIVE PLAYER.
Its completely logical that when he has better offensive performances
Even then where still only talking about measley 2/3 of a point difference
Get ur head outta the stats dude

Sidenote. LMA was 27 & 9 per game on 52% shooting vs OKC

[tholdren]

KL sucks at offense tbh. Watch OKC get to the line.

[midnightpulp]

Neither of the big 2 were to blame for this series.

When 3 of your top 6 rotation players are +14 season veterans, with two of them on their last legs, you can't expect to beat a team like the Thunder, who are peaking and young and athletic across the board.

Thunder are also the real deal. Beating the out of Golden State right now.

[tholdren]

Neither of the big 2 were to blame for this series.

When 3 of your top 6 rotation players are +14 season veterans, with two of them on their last legs, you can't expect to beat a team like the Thunder, who are peaking and young and athletic across the board.

Thunder are also the real deal. Beating the out of Golden State right now.

gift the lack of understanding by kl and lma was exactly why sa lost the series. they play scared

[cd98]

Kawhi is a gem, even without success in the playoffs the last two years. I don't know of a successful team where the leading scorer was the best individual defender on the team (except centers from years past). I wonder if we need to add another scorer to be top dog or another defender so Kawhi can spend more energy on offense. I think his late game fades were a combo of fatigue and less so, just not getting the ball. But mostly he wasn't getting open, which makes me think it was fatigue.

[rasuo214]

lol at anyone blaming Kawhi or LMA, they were the only 2 to show up in the playoffs. The difference between the Spurs and teams like OKC, GSW and CLE are that their roles players have stepped up in the playoffs. The fact that the Spurs were still able to keep it close against OKC was impressive.

[YGWHI]

The numbers are so damn low theyre reletively pointless and secondly KAWHI IS THE BETTER OFFENSIVE PLAYER.

Well, most people here say that LMA is the natural scorer over Kawhi, they said he should carry the load and Kawhi could save some energy to play D...

The same people expected LMA to show it in playoffs putting a lot better numbers than Kawhi. But he didn't.

Or you're right and Kawhi's a better offensive player than him...or LMA didn't quite meet the expectations.

[kaji157]

Many here are saying that it was the role players who failed, i would say that Duncan and Ginobili were far below their averages this series, specially in play making, and that exposed how poor Kawhi and LA are as play makers, most often than not they made poor decision on offense, and the fact that Parker is also a ty play maker and that Diaw was MIA exposed this even more.

Truth is during our last runs, Tim, Tony and Manu have been the most important players as they allow an offensive flow no other core produced league wide, specially Manu and Tim, who were maybe the best in passing out immediately after creating a team advantage,obviously peaking in 2014. In this regard, Kawhi and LA are years away of developing that team chemistry, and without that chemistry role players rarely succeed.