OT: Is Kawhi kind of a choker?

[apalisoc_9]

[apalisoc_9]

Kawhi went from top 60 all time to top 15-20ish in no time

[apalisoc_9]

If he goes to Clips next year and they win a chip



Hed surpass Olajuwon, Kobe etc

[midnightpulp]

You mean to tell me the best player of his generation worked the most overrated defensive player of his time 1-on-1?

Tim was an All-NBA player that season, he wasn't a zombie like Dork.

......and we all know what happened when Matt Barnes tried to guard Kawhi 1-on-1, just ask Glenn.

Tim Duncan was 38 goddamn years old . Oh, and for all the flak Parker gets for that series, and it was well deserved, no argument, he at least showed up in game 7 with 21 points on .476 shooting. Even Danny Green outscored Kiwi. Your hero had plenty of help. The difference was Matt Barnes scoring 17 points on 7-13 shooting vs. Nephew's 13 points on 5-13 shooting.

Oh:

0:56.0
K. Leonard misses 2-pt jump shot from 12 ft

107-107

it wasn't his fault though

[midnightpulp]

Kawhi went from top 60 all time to top 15-20ish in no time

He's not top 20 yet. Your standards are ridiculously low if you think that. He's got one lead dog le. Calm down.

[Kawhitstorm]

Post the stats. All players face different defensive looks. Quit acting like Kiwi was facing anything insurmountable.

Why don't you post PEAK Tim's stats from the last 4 games of the '04 series vs. the Lakers when he wasn't facing anything "insurmountable" but "choked" & while getting "shutdown' by TOBS Malone.

[Kawhitstorm]

Tim Duncan was 38 goddamn years old . Oh, and for all the flak Parker gets for that series, and it was well deserved, no argument, he at least showed up in game 7 with 21 points on .476 shooting.

You mean the game Porker sabotaged trying to be a HErrrrrooooooooo?

[apalisoc_9]

He's not top 20 yet. Your standards are ridiculously low if you think that. He's got one lead dog le. Calm down.

Theres less 15 players in the history of the NBA who was lead dog of his team and won championship. Let alone top 3 in scoring all time.

Smdh. Hes top 20 now in my book. Name 19 players ill wait.

[midnightpulp]

You mean the game Porker sabotaged trying to be a HErrrrrooooooooo?

Did you see the shot I posted? Kawhi got a 12 footer with 56 seconds left in "hero time" and missed it. Parker actually had the go ahead bucket with 1:21 left.

Oh:

107-107

Offensive rebound by M. Barnes

Kiwi was even letting Matt Barnes outrebound him in the clutch.

[midnightpulp]

Why don't you post PEAK Tim's stats from the last 4 games of the '04 series vs. the Lakers when he wasn't facing anything "insurmountable" but "choked" & while getting "shutdown' by TOBS Malone.

Still not as bad as getting shutdown by Matt Barnes .

[apalisoc_9]

Kawhi is a a top 15 player. By all acounts.

Lets wait for mid to name mpre players with more FMVP.

[midnightpulp]

Theres less 15 players in the history of the NBA who was lead dog of his team and won championship. Let alone top 3 in scoring all time.

Smdh. Hes top 20 now in my book. Name 19 players ill wait.

I think he's destined for top 20 all-time, but he's only been a lead dog since 2015, with no regular season MVPs (we've always at the reg season, but you need to win regular season games to get to the playoffs), a missed year due to injury, and still no all-time great playoff run on his resume (you think I'm hating, but consider what all-time great means). It'd be like saying Wade is top 20 all-time after 2006. Anything can happen. He can blow out his ACL. Start choking. Etc.

[Kawhitstorm]

Did you see the shot I posted? Kawhi got a 12 footer with 56 seconds left in "hero time" and missed it. Parker actually had the go ahead bucket with 1:21 left.

Oh:

107-107

Offensive rebound by M. Barnes

Kiwi was even letting Matt Barnes outrebound him in the clutch.

Caught slipping Boxscore Bobbying...what's new

Kawhi didn't even guard Barnes in the 4th quarter but keep pulling shyt out you ass b/c you are full of it

He was guarding Chris Paul until Re hit a couple of 3s (Manu/Danny) & that was his assignment during crunch time while Danny switched onto Paul.

Barnes was being guarded by Diaw as Blake ended up playing center due to the hack-a-Jordan.

Porker in the final 3 minutes:

-Bricks wide open 3 but Kawhi gets the board & scores
-Up 3 & with a chance to make it a two possession game, Porker shoots a random/contested floater with 20 seconds on the shot clock which leads to the Barnes transition 3 to tie the game

-Kamikazes towards the rim while running in quicksand & gets blocked by Re

-After a Danny brick off a Diaw offensive rebound the ball falls in Porkers lap b/c he was out of bound thus nobody was boxing him after the Kamikazes drive
-Gets blown by Crawford for a layup to tie the game

-Kawhi missed a jumper

-Blake misses & Barnes beasts Diaw for the offensive rebound

-Chris Paul/Tim exchange free throws then the floater happened.........

Seeing is believing:

[Kawhitstorm]

Still not as bad as getting shutdown by Matt Barnes .

Getting spanked by Daniel Santiago during your PEAK. ('04 was a rough summer)

[midnightpulp]

No amount of "analysis" can change the fact that Matt Barnes outscored Kawhi 17 to 13 in an NBA playoff game 7. Kawhi shoots 50 percent that game (remember, he's the guy with the greatest efficiency in this history of mankind), the Spurs win. How come he couldn't shoot just 50 percent? Oh yeah, because like I said, "He's a bit of choker." Similarly, he got outplayed by Andre Igoudala in a close out game. Don't fret, though. He's still a great player. He's just more in the Kobe, KG, Dirk tier than the Duncan, Jordan, Lebron tier. Nothing wrong with that.

[midnightpulp]

now we have to bring up the Olympics as a deflection. Kobe level fandom through and through. Though Duncan didn't get outscored by Santiago nor outplayed. Duncan scored 15 points on 11 shots to Daniel's 7 points on 7 shots. Duncan did his job outplaying his matchup, unlike Kawhi vs. Matt Barnes.

[Kawhitstorm]

I think he's destined for top 20 all-time, but he's only been a lead dog since 2015,

Porker attempted more FGAs per 100/poss & had a higher usage rate than Kawhi in '14-'15. He was still trying to be the lead dog which explains his Enrique performance at the end of Gm 7.

Kawhi was attempting 12 shots a game & was pushed into a primary scorer role mid-season (he only played 64 games at that) once it became clear Enrique was TOSB.

[DMC]

hur durr fisher has 5 chips. thats disingenuous dude. kawhi has 2 championships and was finals mvp both times

And Curry has zero Finals MVPs and fewer championships than Horry. Goalpost moving got

[Kawhitstorm]

No amount of "analysis" can change the fact that Matt Barnes outscored Kawhi 17 to 13 in an NBA playoff game 7. Kawhi shoots 50 percent that game (remember, he's the guy with the greatest efficiency in this history of mankind), the Spurs win. How come he couldn't shoot just 50 percent? Oh yeah, because like I said, "He's a bit of choker." Similarly, he got outplayed by Andre Igoudala in a close out game. Don't fret, though. He's still a great player. He's just more in the Kobe, KG, Dirk tier than the Duncan, Jordan, Lebron tier. Nothing wrong with that.

As if PRIME Jorn didn't shoot 35% for the last 3 games of the '96 Finals & still won b/c Rodman was collecting his garbage. Muphucka out here overanalzing a series where Kawhi (promoted mid-season into a primary option) cooked Barnes 1-on-1 but let's paint it as if he was struggling to score against Barea in his PRIME.
Barnes/Iggy hit a bunch of random outlier 3s while being guarded by Diaw/Lowry & 'em but yeah let's manufacture a narrative as if they were dusting Kawhi 1-on-1 like Terry did LeBron b/c the evidence doesn't exist.

[DMC]

Kawhi did fine, but he benefited greatly from the Warrior's injury bug. He's not in the top 20 all time. He's good, we don't even know how good he will be eventually, but he's a different kind of player than people he's being compared to. If he ever decides he cannot be stopped, look out.

[midnightpulp]

No amount of spinning can excuse the fact that Matt Barnes outscored Kawhi 17 to 13, shooting 7-13 vs. 5-13. He didn't "cook" Matt Barnes over the past 3 games in the series. Boiled down, he was outplayed by Matt Barnes and he was outplayed by Andre Igoudala.

[Kawhitstorm]

No amount of spinning can excuse the fact that Matt Barnes outscored Kawhi 17 to 13, shooting 7-13 vs. 5-13. He didn't "cook" Matt Barnes over the past 3 games in the series. Boiled down, he was outplayed by Matt Barnes and he was outplayed by Andre Igoudala.

No amount of spinning is going to produce the evidence of Matt Barnes scoring 1-on-1 against Kawhi (Iggy was literally chucking prayers against Lowry YESTERDAY, your memory can't be that bad)

Let me know when Kawhi in his PRIME gets outplayed by journeymen like Jason Terry & Stephen Jackson for the DURATION of a series. Forget getting outplayed by JJ Barea for a couple of games. I heard that's some GOAT stuff.

BTW, '07 Barnes did a number on MVP Dork on BOTH ends for the duration of the series.

DK choking against Nick Anderson who outplayed him:

[i'm_still_beta]

Mid saying that Kawhi is kind of a choker because his efficiency drops as series goes on and reaches games 5-7. And it's true. Kawhi ts, fg percentage drops noticeably in those games with comparable ppg. Story of Kawhi's career. So he is kinda right.
But ... game-winnning buzzer-beater in game 7, clutch free-throws in game 6 vs Warriors and great overall postseason numbers for Kawhi. So OP is kinda wrong.

And if all-time postseason run must have dominant finals, then Dirk is out of that list. Dirk had 0.537 ts percentage in Finals, while league-average was 0.541 that year (in RS, couldn't find for postseason). And in his final game he had 21 points on 9-27 fg with 0.377 ts. But which run was better: Dirk's in 2011 or Steph's in 2017 for example? I'd say Dirk's.

[DMC]

I don't think KL is a choker. I think he defers. He tries to play team ball, and when the game is most important he tries to play it the most. Almost indistinguishable from choking, but he had too many big moments to be a choker. He's not an A type personality, like Kobe, he doesn't want to be a hero, he just does what he can and he happens to be talented and skilled as . Those massive mitts serve him well. Where someone like Kobe wants the last shot because they don't trust anyone else to take it, Kawhi wants to win, and doesn't care who shoots. I think that was ingrained in him in SA.

[midnightpulp]

No amount of spinning is going to produce the evidence of Matt Barnes scoring 1-on-1 against Kawhi (Iggy was literally chucking prayers against Lowry YESTERDAY, your memory can't be that bad)

Let me know when Kawhi in his PRIME gets outplayed by journeymen like Jason Terry & Stephen Jackson for the DURATION of a series. Forget getting outplayed by JJ Barea for a couple of games. I heard that's some GOAT stuff.

BTW, '07 Barnes did a number on MVP Dork on BOTH ends for the duration of the series.

DK choking against Nick Anderson who outplayed him:

Kawhi was in his prime in 2015 and got outplayed by Matt Barnes.

And why do you keep bringing up Jordan, Duncan, etc chokejobs? I've already said that EVERY all-time great has choked at one time or another, but they balanced those chokes with more clutch/dominant performances than chokes. Kawhi has never had a dominant post-season run that can be considered all-time great. The stats show this. His 2019 run ranks 8th in on/off since '01. He was subpar in game 5 and got outplayed by Igoudala in game 6, where Lowry was the best player for the Raptors. "All-time great" runs don't end like that, unless your standards are that low or are a fanboy. You're both, obviously.

Kawhi's lead dog post-season legacy so far:

2015: Outplayed by Matt Barnes.
2016: Leads team to 67 wins. Spurs lose to OKC, with him getting thoroughly outplayed by Kevin Durant, the guy who called him a "system player."
2017: Incomplete.
2018: Didn't play.
2019: Solid superstar run.

His lead dog post-season resume is nowhere near tier 1 level greats. Quit trying to sell it as such.