The first shot attempt by Wiggins was blocked and the ball taken away by Leonard. He was blocked like 5 or 6 times by Duncan and Leonard.
How can you say he is not a first option on offense? He is leading a 25-5 team in scoring with 21pts ppg, wich ranks him 10 or so in the league overall. He is leading the nba in 3point %, and overall shooting 51%. His usage went way up, and he can iso and create for himself or others when nedeed. If thats not a first option on offense, i dont know what is? Maybe you preffer your first option to be Damian lilard, scoring more on 40% shooting. You should call pop and tell him, maybe he will agree with you jajaja.
I for one hope Leonard never succumbs to hero ball (as in being a so-called "first option on offense", or a "go-to guy") no matter how much he is criticized over it.
He is just so damn easy to love and admire as a player. It is not much about humility rather than unquenched thirst to be the best in the game that motivate & powering this kid into greatness. http://www.nba.com/2015/news/features/fran_blinebury/12/24/kawhi-leonard-leader-development-san-antonio-spurs-christmas/index.html?cid=nbacomsocial_tw_sf17648036
This thread is full of Spurs fans that disguise themselves as Rockets fans. Lame. Being a go to guy in basketball matters because so many games end on or are sealed by a basket in one on one play. It's just how the league works. Kobe did it for years, Curry and Harden are doing it now. Being go to makes you elite because of this. I'd take Melo over Kawhi on a last second shot, but I'd take Kawhi on defense over every player in the league. Dude is the best defender in the league. No doubt in my mind. He scores within the offense. You don't give Leonard the ball and say go to work. He's just not that player and the Spurs aren't that team. They are a great teamwork team. This is one of Leonard's best attributes, but you need an alpha dog in crunch time. He's not alpha. Sorry, but no.
The dude was clearly being given the ball last night during crunch time. Many times they were looking for him. Sometimes he comes through, sometimes he doesn't - like most superstars. You can stay delusional though.
Do you still think this after watching Harden's consecutive hero ball possessions last night? HERO BALL IS WRONG
So you're saying you need a ISO chucker like Kobe in crunch time? This is such an oldschool & flawed thinking. A guy like Kawhi will help you not get into a situation where you need crunch time heroics in the first place. But even then, he showed that he's more than capable of providing you with some ISO-ball late in the shot clock if needed. Also, classifying basketball players as alphas/betas is pretty silly if you ask me. But if I had to define who is an alpha, it's the guy who plays the complete game, meaning both ends of the floor. Therefore, LeBron and Kawhi are the biggest alphas in the game today for me personally. Durant too I guess, even though his defense is a tier below. I guess you could make an exception for Curry since his offense is so ridiculous it makes up for him not being a lockdown defender. Harden on the other hand, is the definition of a BETA.
Here's just one example of Kawhi creating his own shot against one of the best defenders in the game. Just because Kawhi can play within an offense doesn't mean he can't be a go-to guy. <iframe src="https://streamable.com/e/851y" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen scrolling="no"></iframe>
Whilst I'm neither here nor there in this debate.... Showing one clip to prove a point actually proves very little. People on the opposite side of the fence could show you a clip of Terrence Jones doing something exactly like that/if not more impressive - you still wouldn't call TJ a go-to guy.
