Actually you're wrong. Jordan was already All-Star status before Phil Jackson came along in 1989. I believe Jordan may have played for 2-3 different coaches (I can't remember the others besides Doug Collins) before Jackson too. So he's definitely shown that he can play under different systems. He may not have been THE STAR, but for his college and first and second olympic teams, he was clearly one of the top players if you listen to interviews during that era from Phil Knight and Dean Smith. Plus at the age of 40+, he was still doing pretty damn well during those Wizards years.
He's in a good system that gives him open shots. I wouldn't put too much stock in SAS players on other teams. Look at Hill and Neal. Although he is a good defender, and I think he's a good role player to have on a championship team. I don't know about him being an all star like some of the posters in this thread says. I'm sure if Parsons switch roles with Leonard, he would do just as good and Pop would demand the same tenacity on defense as Leonard plays. Pop maxes out his players' abilities.
Hill and Neal were no better on the spurs than they are/have been on other teams, they just weren't. Don't know why people are using them as examples.And as far as Pop demanding tenacity on defense, I guess that message was lost on Gary neal, who quite honestly might have been the worst defender in the NBA in his time with the spurs, guy got lit up by derek fisher.
This guy was the most important factor as to why Rox got a season sweep over the Spurs. He was barely or wasn't playing most the games.
probably dumbest statement i read here on a long time. The spurs system was DUNCAN when he was on his prime. Have you ever watch a spurs game on 2003? It was just, throw the ball to TD and let him operate, facilitate, score, draw double team and kick out. When he got older pop changed the system to what it looks now. Duncan is not a top 3 pf, he is the best by a fair margin, impacting both Offense and Defense at an elite level. He was a nba 1er team last year at age 37!!
Are you saying that coach and system actually matter? Wow, that's news to me, and maybe to Morey as well.
I'd trade Parsons and TJones for him right now. He is exactly what we need at the 3, and becomes even more important if we get a guy like Love or Melo. Get a guy a PG that can attack the basket and dish, and you've got one great team... Llull / Bev /Canaan Harden / Daniels Leonard / Papanikolaou Love / Covington Howard / Okafor
you must have had a short memory. Neal and George was lighting it up. There's a reason why Indiana wanted to trade for George and was willing to trade for Leonard even though, Leonard was ranked 6th or 7th on their top players in the draft. Neal got a pretty lucrative offer from Milwaukee who didn't know how to use him. He did a little better when he was traded to Charlotte, but of course not at the level when he was on the Spurs. Yes Pop does demand his players to play defense. His team could be up 19 and the opposing team haven't scored in a while but they get an easy layup, and Pop will call a timeout immediately to scowl at the player that gives up the layup. Happens all the time.
also Leonard is averaging 12 pts and like 6 reb in the regular season and 14 pts in this playoffs. It's good but I wouldn't say he's going to be a future all star, he might, but he needs to add more things to his game, before doing so. He's a good 3 point shooter, and good in the open court. Doesn't exactly create his own shot, as his dribbling is average to a little above average, on the level of Parsons, where they can occasionally drive on their men. However Leonard is still young, and can improve a ton still
dude leonard is a beast, pop is holding him back but when duncan and ginobili call it quits hes going to become their main go to guy
Kawhi has always been 100x better than Barnes. to answer the question, Kawhi could probably be the second best player on a championship team and put up something like 21 & 7 with 2 steals (while playing great D)
Yeah obviously 12.2ppg> 18.8ppg That's each other's playoff avg for their career. Call me when Leonard can avg 15 a game in the season and playoffs and maybe u have an argument.
There's this thing called defense, and it makes up half of the game. Also it's not like Kawhi is averaging 6 points less on the same number of shots, he takes 4 fewer shots a game (and plays almost 10 minutes less).
He's good and I've been a big fan of his game since his rookie year but I think people are down on Parsons and perhaps a little too high on Leonard (myself included) because he plays in Pop's system. Imagine if Parsons played in Pop's system... A disciplined Parsons that has to focus on defense night in and night out (like his rookie year when he was just trying to "make it", take no plays off and make the correct rotations in addition to the other things he's naturally good at? He would look like an All-star. On the flipside imagine if Leonard were on the Rockets. He would probably make the occasional nice defensive plays but I would imagine he would spend a lot of time standing around watching Harden ISO or Dwight try to work in the paint. Leonard is not a natural play-maker in the sense of creating easy buckets for himself or his teammates so you compound that in McHale's unimaginative system and he wouldn't look nearly as good as he does now. The beauty of Pop's system is that he knows his players and every player knows their role and he brings out the best in each of his players by focusing what they're already good at. The discipline and tutelage of Pop is unmatched.
I like the "Sugar K" Leonard...cause his game is sweet... Lol only Shaq could come up with something so weird...but I think it works. Leonard is a terrific player who really improved as a shooter. I cant believe we had a chance to draft him and we went with Marcus Morris... and instead the Spurs did...
