Kawhi Leonard is so great at D, he's actually hurting the Spurs

Nice read.

My takeaway is that he's the NBA version of Revis Island at its peak.

 

He didn't stop James Harden when we beat them in SA.

 

Good read, just kind of proves a mobile defensive big man is much more valuable than a wing guy. The days of NBA isolation as primary means of an offense are effectively over. It's much more effective to have two above average defenders at the guard and center position than one defensive player of the year candidate at the wing given how much pick and roll is being run in the league.

 

Yours sincerely, Dwight Howard

 

How does the article prove that? The article even points out that whoever Leonard guards that night will pretty much have a less than average performance or be taken out of the offense altogether.

What this proves is that the difference between Leonard's defense versus the defense of the teammates he plays with at any given time is huge.

 

interesting strategy from opponents

 

Very good read.

I imagine Pop will figure something out.

 

All this proves is yet again how meaningless the individual DefRtg stat is.

Why do people keep using this stat, and try to make something out of Kawhi's ON/OFF being so bad? It just shows how useless the stat is. I continue to be flabbergasted by why fans and the media keep using individual defensive +/- stats when it is so meaningless...over and over and over. (For instance, not too many games ago Harden and Ryno had our best ON/OFF for starters. Meaningless.)

It's like we care more about shoehorning explanations to salvage the stat itself -- and in this case explaining the DPOY's bad +/- -- rather than looking at root reason ... the stat sucks.

Let go of the Individual DRtg stat. Quit trying to explain away the horrible samples like this.

 

Did you look at the team's points allowed stats with Leonard on the floor? There aren't any Kobe/Iverson led ISO offenses anymore where you just tell Leonard to go stick a guy for 48 mins.

Teams are more than happy to have their own Butler/Wade out alone on an island if it means Leonard is effectively out of the picture. If Leonard were a defensive big, say like Ibaka or Draymond, then teams can't exactly just have their most effective center/pf completely out of the play. Can you imagine the Hawks playing Orlando and telling Dwight to camp out on the weakside corner so Ibaka will be further away from the ball? Aside from the point that Ibaka wouldn't even respect Dwight's shot enough to gravitate away from the paint, Dwight would be hurting Atlanta more with his positioning.

And yes, this does prove Leonard's teammates aren't up to par on defense, especially pick and roll defense. But that doesn't change when Leonard's off the floor.

 

It just makes it more impressive that he got B2B DPOY as a wing player.

After the Chicago game, Wade said it's good not to be guarded by Leonard anymore as he recalled those days in Miami being tortured by Leonard after LBJ left.

 

Again, this is what you stated:

My reply argues against that. What you wrote still doesn't prove that a mobile defensive big is in any way more valuable than a defensive wing. Your example (Orlando/Atlanta) includes a player that isn't even a threat outside of 10 feet (Howard) camping out on "the weakside corner" so how is that an apt comparison? You said it yourself that:

That's another difference: Butler/Wade and all of the other forwards Leonard has to guard can hit 3 pointers so Leonard has to still keep an eye out on them. If anything a better comparison would be a game with, say, the Kings vs. the Heat where you have an offensively gifted center (Cousins) that can shoot threes going up against one of the best defenders in the league at the 5 spot (Whiteside).

If Cousins were to camp out on the corner three, who's actually hitting 3s at a 37% rate this year, you don't think Whiteside would be dragged out to the 3 point line? And you don't think if the Kings, in this scenario, deployed the same tactic the Bulls used on the Spurs (e.g. putting the opponents' best defender out of harms way), wouldn't be as successful?

If you feel an elite defender at the 4/5 is better than one at the 1/2/3 that's fine and I respect your opinion but this article does not support that opinion because one player, regardless of position, cannot make up for his other 4 teammates' lack of defense.

 

Kawhi is the second coming of Tim Duncan

 

To keep it high level, here is the Drtg for the Spurs' starting five this year:

Gasol: 102
Aldridge: 105
Leonard: 102
Green: 106
Parker: 110

How bad is the backcourt offense of San Antonio's this year? Here's the Drtg for the Rockets' starting five this year:

Harden: 106
Beverly: 107
Ariza: 106
Anderson: 111
Capela: 104

Keeping it VERY simple, Green's defense this year is comparable to Harden's while Parker's defense is just as bad as Ryan Anderson's. We already know Leonard will guard the opposing team's best player (as long as he's not a 4 or 5) but now we see that by deploying the tactic cited in the article, the opposing team will most likely have a field day against San Antonio's backcourt D.

 

Interesting analysis, but I don't know that I learned anything real shocking from it. The ability to be so good on defense that the opponent voluntarily neutralizes their top scorer to keep you out of plays is a positive, no matter what your teammates are doing. And it's not shocking that teams are trying to attack guys like Parker and Gasol instead of going at the Spurs' top defenders, they've always done that against Parker and it's always been a risk of a top defense showing cracks after adding an aging big like Pau.

Mostly a good example of "don't always believe the numbers on face value", and to the writer's credit he didn't and looked deeper.

 

If Cousins is just exclusively hiding in the corner for 3s (Which isn't where I've been seeing Cousins hit most of his 3s since he's typically positioned at the top of the arc or paint line extended) then I take that as a win if I'm Miami because now Cousins isn't posting us up or gobbling offensive boards.

I'd much rather an opposing all-star big like Cousins or Dwight stay in the corner than a guy like Butler/Wade. (Tbh I don't even buy your argument that Wade is a 3pt threat, he's just having a hot start this season and I'd be shocked if he was still shooting 34% by the time this season's over but that's a different topic.) The reason being that I believe big men all-stars are more crucial to team offense than wing players like Butler/Wade/PG etc.. If I can keep Brook Lopez or Cousins just hidden in the corner rather than posting up, setting pick and rolls, pick and pops, cross screens, back screens, fighting for rebounds, I'd prefer that 100% of the time.

I do and I felt there was already a consensus regarding that belief. Big men have always dominated DPOY awards and consideration as they've traditionally played closer to the basket and are in better position to apply help defense and positional team defense. For every Cousins that might pull away Whiteside from the paint, there are at least 5 Monroes, Drummonds, DeAndres, Dwights, Chandler, etc... Yet the guys that Kawhi defends pretty much all can hit the 3 and pull him away.

Of course having 4 other defensive non-factors hurts in any line up but generally big men are always in better position to influence your team defense.

 

I wouldn't say he is hurting the Spurs. Just that the opposing teams have found a clever way to limit his damage. The fact that other teams have changed their offense because of him is a tribute to the player he is.

 

From reading the article to me its not really Kawhi's fault its the rest of the team for being subpar defenders, one guy can only do so much. Teams employ this "tactic" all the time, problem is on the Spurs Kawhi is the only good defender left. If they had a big man defender like TD still on the team thus wouldnt be a problem, but thankfully he's finally retired lol and Pops didnt really groom a successor. Bayne would've been a good replacement eventually IMHO but they let him go

 

This. People tend to over-exaggerate the significance of wing players playing good on-ball defense, when a versatile team defender like Draymond or rim protector such as Gobert has far more impact and influence on that side of the floor. Also, there is some indication that Kawhi's individual defense is not as good as the past two years; players are shooting better than their average when guarded by him, and from what I've gathered watching Spurs games, I really don't see the defensive monster he once was. It is possible to beat him off the dribble or make backdoor passes to a cutting man that Kawhi fell asleep on.