Reply With Quote
Kawhi playing like Kawhi would be good enough for me.
Other than stingy defense, be initiative and aggressive on offense.
Kawhi playing like Kawhi would be good enough for me.
He will surrender at the sight of German forces
Portland's best players(Lillard and Aldridge) are jump shooters that allow their offense to employ their free-flowing, jump shooting style of play..game planning for them creates a lot of spacing for the rest of the team..
I understand the systems are radically different. But Batum didn't simply stay on the wing side and defer to their two best players. And purely offense-wise, there is no current Spurs players as destructive as Lillard and Aldridge. Hence, Kawhi has more reasons to take his opportunities.
I agree he should be more aggressive, but it's tough to find space when the Spurs have the Duncan/Splitter frontcourt with Parker(a non-shooter) at PG..
Needs to score more, like last season playoffs.
Pop: 'SHOOT YA MOTHA A'
LOL
Pop: 'SHOOT YA MOTHA A'
kawhi need to play as kawhi
The le may be somewhat a misnomer. Sure Kawhi need to play like himself, but he can definitely borrow some approaches from similar players.
What he needs is better teammates and a coach, Parker's dribble dribble dribble bull destroys the offense, while his bigs don't allow proper spacing, the team doesn't know wtf to do out there with him.
Like Batum?
They have similar numbers but Leonard played significantly less in game 1 (game 2 foul trouble has kept him out of most of game).
Game 1
Leonard 11 points 10 reb 31 minutes
Batum 14 points 9 reb 45 minutes
Game 2
Leonard 6 points 5 reb 22 minutes
Batum 6 points 4 reb 40 minutes
Game 3
Leonard ?
Batum 26 points 9 reb 49 minutes
You really think Pop'll play Leonard 50 minutes in game 3? Nahhh....He should do it but he won't..
Jimmy Butler (24 years old) 44/53/41 minutes last 3 games
Nick Batum (25 years old) 45/40/49 minutes last 3 games
Kawhi Leonard (22 years old) 31/22 minutes last 2 games
Rest the youngest player all regular season and not increase his minutes in playoffs...it doesn't seem a good plan.
Leonard just needs to play more and get him involved in the Spurs offensive system.
Leonard has no where near the handles/passing ability of Batum.
Leonard has improved in that area this season, he has become a really good passer.
However, if Leonard plays like Leonard it would be better than Batum.
Improved does not equal better. It would be difficult for Kawhi to play like Batum because they have different skill sets.
Gotta keep him fresh for next season
Kawhi needs to play like... Kawhi.
Yeah, we need a real coach.
Yep, Batum playing Dirk is just LOL.
Yeah, we need a real coach.
Pop is too stubborn, good coach but his stick to the book BS has cost this team many times since '07, ever since then he's seemed like a different coach. Popovich plays to not lose, guys like PJax play to win, that's the difference between great and ATG.
Perfect example was last night, Leonard scores 7 straight points, is finally catching fire after quiet first quarter, I think most of those points came off of steals as well so he was getting it going both ways.
Next 2 possessions Manu/Parker do the dribble dribble, 2 man team BS and they both settle for bad shots which they miss, of course Leonard who's had Ellis/Calderon on his gets completely ignored.
What happens next? Leonard gets pulled, why? Because it's around 8 mins into the quarter, and Pop wants him to play a strict amount of minutes. Spurs give up the lead, Leonard rots on the bench, comes back in and has lost his hot streak. One of the many times Pop has done this regardless of who it is.
Playing to not lose is a losing strategy. It allows you to get beat by the most improbable stuff (see game 6). Playing to win allows you to get lucky at times. PJax has said you have to create your own luck. Pop, however, feels he's at the mercy of luck.
unfortunately Kawhi doesn't have the ballhandling or playmaking abilities that Batum has.
Batum's help D is also far superior to Kawhi's.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
