If Leonard takes the next Step, Are the Spurs Unbeatable?

[ralph_i_el]

Leonard isn't really a go-to scorer, that's just not his mentality.

He's a great cog in the Spurs system. He can shoot, but he's not a great shooter. He can handle the ball, but he's not the guy you want making a ton of plays with the ball in his hand. He plays great D, and moves well off the ball. Long arms let him be a really good finisher.

He's a do-it-all SF and an extremely valuable role player, but I don't think he's going to come out and average more than 20 a game on a good team.

I'd love him on my team. I wouldn't want him to be my first option. I look at him as a Shawn Marion or Andrei Kirilenko type player. He can make an All-star level impact with his all-around game.

[rmt]

I think that the Spurs fortunes rest more on Duncan (and to a lesser extent, Manu) not falling off than on Leonard taking the next step. Leonard just needs consistency - doing what he does night after night. Pop's not going to give any one player many minutes so it isn't necessary for him to take the next step. When TD and Manu retire, then he'll have to take the next step for the Spurs to compete.

[JonatanRey]

I think he was looking at Per 36 Stats.

This. On 50%FG. If he gets more minutes, he will surpase 20 ppg. No doubt.

[Smoke117]

Leonard isn't really a go-to scorer, that's just not his mentality.

He's a great cog in the Spurs system. He can shoot, but he's not a great shooter. He can handle the ball, but he's not the guy you want making a ton of plays with the ball in his hand. He plays great D, and moves well off the ball. Long arms let him be a really good finisher.

He's a do-it-all SF and an extremely valuable role player, but I don't think he's going to come out and average more than 20 a game on a good team.

I'd love him on my team. I wouldn't want him to be my first option. I look at him as a Shawn Marion or Andrei Kirilenko type player. He can make an All-star level impact with his all-around game.

Someboy who isn't a retard, finally. Where do you clowns get that he'll ever be a 20ppg scorer from? He's never averaged 20ppg in any given month, any given series. Also, what the **** is this nonsense about him developing into a point forward? The guy averaged 2apg in the regular season and 1.7 in the post season... Players don't DEVELOP into point forwards going into their 4th season in the NBA. Pippen, Hill, Lebron...they all had those skills coming into the league.

[rmt]

Someboy who isn't a retard, finally. Where do you clowns get that he'll ever be a 20ppg scorer from? He's never averaged 20ppg in any given month, any given series. Also, what the **** is this nonsense about him developing into a point forward? The guy averaged 2apg in the regular season and 1.7 in the post season... Players don't DEVELOP into point forwards going into their 4th season in the NBA. Pippen, Hill, Lebron...they all had those skills coming into the league.

Pop brought Leonard along very slowly. Remember he came to a very good team with proven stars - it's not like most great players who go to bad teams where they play lots of minutes and the team depends heavily on them for scoring.

Combine that with starting in a lockout year, no training camp, having to fix his broken shot, tendonitis in his knee, broken hand, and a coach who watches everyone's minutes, I don't think he's been given the chance to be a "scorer." In SA's system, everybody takes a back seat - even Parker - 16.7 ppt in 13-14.

And no, he's not a point forward - doesn't have that natural talent - but with the athleticism, drive, hard work and fixed shot, I expect him to eventually become that scorer when Duncan and Manu retire. That together with his elite defense is more than I could ask from a trade for George Hill and more than SA could ever expect drafting so late as they always do.

[SCdac]

Such a wild variety of assessments, not just on Kawhi's future game but even his current game lol.

Some think he's basically offensively inept (he's not... at all), others think he'll be close to a superstar (doubtful... all star more likely).

Bottom line to me is that when Kawhi scores well and plays well in any given match (17+ points) the Spurs at least of last season were virtually unbeatable. When he came back from his hand injury last season, Spurs rattled off a 19 game win streak. No coincidence, given he defensive prowess on the perimeter and Spurs lean on him more every season.

When Kawhi turned it up in the last three games of Finals

[riseagainst]

since he is already a better finals performer than lebron ever was, if he takes the next step he'll be twice the player lebron ever was and it's not even close.

[Hey Yo]

Rich man's Jimmy Butler

[rmt]

For SA, Leonard's offense is not that important. The reason the Spurs have reached the Finals the past 2 years is the defense of BOTH Leonard and Green. They'd never make it past Curry/Thompson last year or KD/Westbrooke this year without them.

[ralph_i_el]

For SA, Leonard's offense is not that important. The reason the Spurs have reached the Finals the past 2 years is the defense of BOTH Leonard and Green. They'd never make it past Curry/Thompson last year or KD/Westbrooke this year without them.

^truth

There is a ton of value in having a guy who isn't a bad matchup on D against any 1,2 or 3 in the NBA.

There's a short list of guys you can trust to guard curry AND Durant

[ILLsmak]

He's a do-it-all SF and an extremely valuable role player, but I don't think he's going to come out and average more than 20 a game on a good team.

He's more of an all-star, I think. Just not a flashy one. Everyone is a role player when you think about it, except maybe like 5 guys in the NBA.

A role player is someone who excels at one thing. You have to compare people by position. He's a great talent at SF. Just like you can say a dude like Faried is a monster... even if he's not gonna get 20.

There are plenty of people in the nba that can get 20. How many of them do you need to win? If dude can get 15-8-3-1.5-1 I think he's beasting. He needs some plays, sure, but you guys are thinking it's gonna be like OK CLEAR IT OUT. Nah, I mean give him a cut. Let him come around and post (cuz he can post a little.)

If he gets to like... 18-8-3+assists-2+steals-1+block... he'd be 'taking the next step.'

People think SFs gotta be LeBron to be more than role players...

-Smak

[ralph_i_el]

He's more of an all-star, I think. Just not a flashy one. Everyone is a role player when you think about it, except maybe like 5 guys in the NBA.

A role player is someone who excels at one thing. You have to compare people by position. He's a great talent at SF. Just like you can say a dude like Faried is a monster... even if he's not gonna get 20.

There are plenty of people in the nba that can get 20. How many of them do you need to win? If dude can get 15-8-3-1.5-1 I think he's beasting. He needs some plays, sure, but you guys are thinking it's gonna be like OK CLEAR IT OUT. Nah, I mean give him a cut. Let him come around and post (cuz he can post a little.)

If he gets to like... 18-8-3+assists-2+steals-1+block... he'd be 'taking the next step.'

People think SFs gotta be LeBron to be more than role players...

-Smak

The way I look at it, unless the offense is built around you, or you're the driving force of the offense, you're a role player. I don't use the term "role player" as an insult.

[SsKSpurs21]

I love the Spurs, but they play like a machine, and because of that, I could never say they'll be unbeatable. Because while when they're going well, they certainly are, but with a system like that, the balance is so delicate that it only takes a small fissure for them to topple.


That said, Kwahi's ability to improve his ballhandling, passing, and playmaking would give that machine just that much more flexibility. I do though think he's never going to be a singular type piece for a title team.

definitely on point. when the shots are falling its a thing of beauty. that balance is crucial because if one guy is having an off night the system can still somewhat function but if two guys are off then the game is over.

for example, danny green is the starter. if he is having an off night they bring in belinelli. but if belinelli is struggling also its very hard for them to compensate for those lost points. we dont have a guy that can take over the game...

now if kawhi can become that guy who says, ok, everyone is struggling, so now give me the ball and ill finish the game (similar to how duncan carried the offense), then we can be really hard to beat. this is the NBA, noone is unbeatable.

[LongLiveTheKing]

Saw Kawhi live at the Spurs open scrimmage and he's seemed to develop more of an offensive game. He had a good amount of mid range fadeaways. And seemed more confident on offense.
Of course he still had great defense he stole one from Manu very well.

[ImKobe]

Honestly, RIGHT NOW as it is, I think Leonard taking on a bigger role could hurt the Spurs' chemistry. Their recent success has been based on team effort and everyone playing their role to perfection, Kawhi doesn't need a much bigger role right now because Tony's still good for 18-20 points on most nights, Manu will get his off the bench, Duncan will have vintage games. The load on the offensive end is shared, that's what makes them so great. You can't game plan to stop a certain player because as soon as you focus on shutting someone down, they will use their ball movement against you and bury a bunch of open 3s. They force defenses to stay honest that way.

I think in the future, they will need him to break out, probably after the upcoming season, when Duncan retires, Spurs will need Kawhi to be the man going forward, I think currently they are molding him into that player and he will progress because I believe in Coach Popovich, who has done a tremendeous job developing talent (from euroscrubs to elite role players and turning Tony Parker into an elite point guard). Kawhi needs to work on his passing game though, I feel like that's the weakest part of his game, though overall it hasn't affected the team and he can make the easy ones.

I don't think Kawhi will ever be the guy to dribble the ball on the perimeter and break down a defense like that, but he should be a Shawn Marion type of a player, who can put up 20/10 with a block and a steal or two a game.