Best defensive player in the league, top 10 offensive player, selfless teammate and now clutch player. He has no flaw in his game. This is one of the worst collections of talent outside of Kawhi the Spurs have had in years and they could still win 60 games. Only other player in consideration is Lebron who I would take in the last 5 min of a finals game, but at this age he simply can't give 40 minutes of effort a night like Kawhi. Unfortunately we are going to have to play against this guy for another decade.
He's arguably the best. You still have Harden, Westbrook, KD, Curry, and LeBron on any given night taking over. Aldridge is better than any other guy on our team and having Pop as a coach is a big advantage.
He is much better than anticipated. Can we just agree on this... lmao Yeah where is Marcus Morris now?
Would you not say he took over last night? Or the last several games he has bailed them out in the final few minutes. He plays in a small market and his game lacks high flying dunks and 40 ft 3's which doesn't bring the media attention. He is a significantly better defensive player than everyone you mentioned except Lebron. I think the media narrative has inflated guys like WB, Harden and Curry while suppressing Leonard. He doesn't sell shoes and tickets like those guys, but I bet most coaches would rather have him.
He's been helped by officiating big time and the NBA has admitted. This will be the third straight victory from his heroics that the NBA will come out the next day and say shouldn't have happened.
I do like his defense. It's all sham if he's helped by referees. And with that I say, F--- the Spurs.
Kawhi only plays 33.7 mpg. Even in the playoffs last year he was under 34 mpg. That's a luxury afforded him by the depth SAS has and other scoring options. He gets Curry minutes. Over the last 2yrs, SAS is 4-6 in the playoffs when Kawhi gets more than 35 mpg. 2-4 last year. Lebron is playing 37.6 mpg ... the #2 most mpg, right now. He played 39 mpg throughout the entire playoffs last year....over 5 mpg more than Kawhi. Not trying to argue. Dude can win a game on both sides of the court. Have no problem with him winning MVP. But he is not a high minutes player. Never has been. you're just trolling
He plays more minutes when he has to. Kawhi's a good teammate he'd rather watch his teammates fluorish than him inflate his stats pointlessly.
I don't care how many minutes Lebron has been on the court, he spends a lot of it coasting and letting Kyrie run the show. He doesn't frequently D up the teams best player. He is saving himself for the playoffs while Kawhi gives 100% effort when he's on the court. This is no knock on Lebron just the reality of his situation and he is smart for playing it that way. For the periods of time Lebron is locked in I can concede him #1 but Kawhi is not worse than #2 at this point. He could average 30 a night if he wanted to. And don't bring up past years with Kawhi, he has considerably improved every year and this is the first year he has become the focal point of the offense. I don't think he's done getting better too which should scare every team in the west.
I'm not so sure. He expends so much energy on the defensive end, it actually looks like Pops won't play him as much as Lebron. You can see that by his Playoff minutes not going up since he became their #1 Option, like pretty much every superstar in the league. Spurs were 2-4 last year in >35 min playoffs games by Kawhi. And 4-6 last two years. This is no knock against him. But OP said he plays more minutes than Lebron, and Lebron can't play big minutes anymore. Not true. Besides, "he plays more minutes when he has to" also points to SAS has more depth, and still more quality scoring options than other teams.
What're you basing this on? Because Leonard's actual game logs disagree with you. He plays plenty of minutes in close games. He doesn't play much in blowouts. Look at last year's playoffs. In games decided by 15 points or less, he averaged almost 39 mpg. In games decided by more than 15 points, he averaged about 27 mpg.
Spin it anyway you want, but Lebron plays 4 mpg more than Kawhi (at #2 in the league), and 5.4 mpg more than Kawhi in last year's playoffs. Kawhi rests on the freaking bench, while Lebron is still on the court. You can say Lebron gets to watch Kyrie, and I can say Kawhi sits weakside watching the LMA PnR last year when he scored over 40 against OKC in Game 1 and 2. It still doesn't make up for the huge difference in playoff mpg last year, or huge difference in mpg this season. bottomline: Are you sure Kawhi can sustain his amazing defense at high playoff mpg as the #1 option on offense, too. SAS was 1-4 against OKC last year in the final 5 games of the series when Kawhi got >35 minutes each game Kawhi shot 44.9% and 26.3% 3s in those final 5 games of the serires
And they closed-out the playoffs last year 1-4 in five consecutive 35+ minute games. It's without argument that Lebron plays waaay more minutes than Kawhi. It is arguable whether Kawhi can sustain such awesome defense and be the #1 Option on Offense in a playoff atmosphere.
What's your point? Are you saying that the Spurs were the better team, but because Leonard played so many minutes, they under performed and lost the series?
Why do you keep bringing up past years? Kawhi is an improved player from last year and the only stats I will acknowledge are from this season. IMO Kawhi will take the crown from lebron as the best player in the league if not this year then in the next 2-3 years. And I never said Lebron plays less minutes than Kawhi, I said he can't give the same effort as him nor should he at his age.
If I can't bring up last year, then why are you bringing up future years. There is zero evidence Kawhi can play the minutes Lebron does in the playoffs and win. Again it's no knock on him, since he plays at such a tenacious pace on defense. And there is zero evidence Lebron can't play with the same effort as last year again this year at 39 mpg in the playoffs.
