I was so excited when we were in a position to take Leonard. It was a pretty safe bet that he would be a defensive monster with his atheleism and physical gifts. He has huge hands! I understood why we picked Morris instead; time of desperation and he has a chance to be a star player. And even if Leonard had the ability to be a defensive talent, he looked to be an offense liability. 3 years later, Leonard is definitely a star in the making. Though his offense is still a question, he can be your third offensive threat with his improved stroke and ability to drive the basketball. But his defense is what is going to make him a household name. I think in 2-3 years he will be the best perimeter defense in the NBA with a ceiling of a a step below Scottie Pippen.
I love Leonard, absolutely one of my favorite NBA players. That being said, he is not an offensive power house and won't be. He listens to the coaches and follows directions. You may say how is this a problem? Jordan, Hakeem, Harden, Melo, Durant etc....they avg 25+ because they basically say F**k you to the coaches or the coaches know better then telling them what to do. He would be perfect on the Rockets, by the way. Efficient as hell and as good as anybody at defending the 2 and 3. Also, Leonard and Danny Green are magic on transition D, 2 standard deviations above average.
The question I have about proclaiming players on the Spurs as All-Star (and this unfortunately includes Duncan) is that they have the best team and system in the league. Their system is very much like the college game, you have a coach who is basically the institution and players play for the coach. Jerry Sloan was the last coach who did this. Now Pops is basically the only one left. Within the right system and having that support, ANY player with a lick of talent can look good. Look at players like Christian Laetner. He was a STUD at Duke but once he got to the NBA..well...we all know what happened. In many ways you have a lot of players like this from the Spurs. Stephen Jackson, George Hill, and in some ways, Tim Duncan. I'm not saying these guys are scrubs and only became good with the Spurs. Obviously they're very talented and are probably considered really good to even "stars" regardless of what team they're on. I like Tim Duncan's game but I feel like he was beneficiary of the system and maybe that may have inflated his stats a little bit. Does he deserve a HOF place. Sure. But I don't know if I would put him as a top 3 PF of all time. Based on numbers and stats, sure. But I think talent wise, he's not top 3. I think players like Parker and Ginobilli are different and they've shown they can play outside of the Spurs system. Parker playing for France and Ginobilli play for Argentina. Duncan was rather underwhelming on the international stage. My point is Kawhi Leonard may very well be a Tim Duncan type of player. Very talented and disciplined but probably looks a lot better with the Spurs than he actually deserves. Only time will tell if he deserves to be called a true "star". If he can duplicate or even surpass he current performance, then I think he's indeed legit.
You know what was so ****ing stupid? Try Harden's no-show our first two home games of the playoffs. Leonard, on the other hand, is championship-bound.
he's good really really love his defense not sure what his ceiling is....if he improves his 3 ball...he can be a special player
The Spurs didn't really have that much of a system back when Duncan was at his peak, nothing even close to what we have today (they were the slow half court Duncan team, now they're the pass the ball a million times team). The Spurs today, always look better on the Spurs than they do on any other team, we see this consistently with basically anyone who enters or leaves, and I have no reason to feel Kawhi would be any different.
Every team has a system, even our Rockets *gasp*. Whether it's half-court grind it out or run n' gun, they are still systems. My point is that not all systems are created equal nor are all of them catered to the personnel you have on your team. That's what differentiates great coaches like Pops and Sloan from the rest of the pack. The point I'm trying to make is that Duncan, unlike a lot of stars or HOF (past and present) have played his whole career on ONE TEAM for ONE COACH. And since he's often mentioned as a TOP 3 PF of all time, I just want to put a caveat to that statement because it's difficult to really judge someone's talent when you have that kind of stability. Can he duplicate the same kind of success with another coach and/or team? I guess we'll never know. The only sample I got was when he was selected to the Dream Team back in the day and he didn't adjust very well to the international game.
Harrison Barnes wasn't even that good in the playoffs. Kawhi was the Spurs 2nd best player in the NBA Finals last year at 21. I'm pretty sure an NBA finals team is considered elite.
Popovich really wasn't that good of a coach back when Duncan won back to back mvps, his own players have made comments similar to milk hairs "there weren't really any plays"
This...people here forget that Pollen and Hill were two of the best allround forwards in history and could carry a team in every aspect. Kawhi doesn't look like that kind of player at all.
I guess we'll never know if Jordan is a top 3 shooting guard either. Judging by his Wizards years, he was not. And when he won his championship in college, he was only like 3rd best player on that team. Yikes.
Tim Duncan won MVPs from 2002-2003. Pops won his first Coach of the Year in 2003. I dunno if "wasn't that good of a coach" can just win a COY amongst competition like Phil Jackson and Rick Adelman when the Lakers and Kings were hot commodity. Look you're obviously a Duncan fan. I'm not debating whether he's a good player or not. He's obviously HOF bound and deserves a top 50 of all time spot. But all I question is whether having played for one team under one coach may have contributed to his top 3 PF of all time status. Some even call him the best PF of all time. I want to see him create the same type of stats playing for another coach or team. But I guess he'll retire a Spurs and under Pops.
