Yep.. dude is definitely 33-35 minimum. He had a hit of a resurgence the last two seasons but it’s more his offensive game that’s come around.. defense has been on a downward spiral for 5 years now.
Said it upstairs, but i don't think it is an unpopular opinion to say that if you look beyond PPG. Kawhi has regressed as a basketball player..
His defense has fallen off a cliff and that was not replaced by an sort of improvement in play-making ability now that he is soaking higher usage..
Yep.. dude is definitely 33-35 minimum. He had a hit of a resurgence the last two seasons but it’s more his offensive game that’s come around.. defense has been on a downward spiral for 5 years now.
Btw getting Gasol was a huge pickup (and underrated). You need a smart guy like that in crunch time of important playoff games. Relying on Ibaka and JV in the playoffs would have been suicide.
They wouldn't even give up Anunoby (who's regressed terribly)...no way they were doing Siakam.
Yup. He has free reign to showcase his offense talents (since he's holding the Raps hostage), but his defense has been slightly above average all year. And he's not a good enough play-maker to be focusing that much on his offense (hence why he struggled against hard double teams tonight)
Still the same. Just lazier on defense which is to be expected when you practiclly have 0 accountability.
In stretches this RS he looked even better.
Problem really is that no one holds him accountable now. The amount of braindead defensive decisioms hes made this RS is crazy relative to his old self in San antonio where he was held accountable for his mistakes
This game is off to a great start. Great energy and both teams dialed in. Should be a fun one.
Kawhi is like the 4th best defender out there. That raptors starting lineup is scary good defensively.
They’ve been really good at creating TO. ORL is actually getting good looks when they are not coughing it up, but TOR is so disruptive
He is done as an All-NBA defender. Just running on reputation now..
The tools are there. Hes had stretches this year where he looked even better defemsively than his SA days, but hes never going to putting in the same.effort anymore night in qnd night out.
he'll start playing defense again once he gets that max contract
vf is a fkn scrub, why does he play like he thinks he has the green light to chuckk?
^ still in DENIAL stage of grief
"Took a long time" to get healthy, Kawhi said in the postgame interview.
The Raptors were crazy good on D tonight.. so in tune with rotations and switching. Green-Kawhi-Siakam basically switch everything on D which is a big advantage because all three can guard on the perimeter and in the post. Will be huge against Golden State in the Finals switching between Steph, KD and Klaynus.
Lowry for all his choking still takes charges, gets deflections and makes big 1% plays.
Raptors vs Warriors finals would be like a a dude confused about his sexuality with spursfans.
They wont know who to cheer
I’ll root for Kawhi. I despised they way the dude left and called him a for it, but it would be naive to think that Pop was not a big part of the problem. Just look at how he coaches. We can all see how he loves ruling with an iron fist. We can all see how he tries to bend every player to his system regardless of their skill set. how many times recently was it brought up hoe he tried to change Manu over and over. Why? Who does that? We all can see the ridiculous micromanaging and complete disregard for what players are actually bringing during a specific game, and instead going with “well it wouldn’t be fair...” I’m mean, even Aldridge asked for a trade because Pop was trying to change his game.
Kawhi winning a ring would be a big FU to Pop and his senile ways these days. It would shine a light on how stupid he was to let his ego be so big that he could alienate a player of Kawhi’s caliber.
I'm a Raps fan these playoffs.. because of Kawhi.. only the real Spurs homers hate Kawhi because they think the Spurs can do no wrong. but like Uzer said.. the Spurs are a military camp and won't bend to anyone, unfortunately its a players league and Tim Duncan was the exception as a superstar and not the norm. What worked with Tim probably didn't work with Kawhi. Plus, Kawhi bought the Spurs a championship and basically changed the direction of the franchise when he was drafted in 2012.
IMO the Raps and the Rockets are the only teams that can beat the Warriors. If Houston doesn't do it in the second round.. it'll have to be the Raptors.
Lol Milwaukee.
Pop’s style changed 4 to 5 major times during his tenure with the spurs to adjust to the rosters strength.
The comments around manu was how he wanted him to tone down and cut the silly TOs. He eventually realized that to reign him in would cut the positives that the hectic style would bring so he worked that into the game plan.
The spurs offense is all built around the mid range game now, which is opposite to the leagues trend but the style for Aldridge and derozan.
honestly, I have trouble believing Toronto wont win it all. The defensive potential is just unheard of..
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)