Kawhi Leonard: Believing the hype

Kawhi Leonard

The NBA Finals of 2013 was an historic spectacle. LeBron James won his second consecutive ring and continued his journey of being recognized amongst the best ever to play the game. Dwayne Wade was so happy that he now wants to be referred to as “Three”. The city of Miami is celebrating at its raucous best, and all seems to have come right for South Beach.

While the fans and savants may have been raining accolades, adulations and almost ostentatious laurels on the Heat, one needs to take a moment and pay homage to a great San Antonio Spurs team, who were a “Duncan hook” and a “Ray Allen clutch three” away from being champions themselves.

For the Spurs BIG THREE of “Parker, Ginobili and Duncan”, it might very well have been their last legitimate title push. Harrowingly other than Duncan’s Game-6 and Game-7 performances, the famed trio just didn’t deliver in the Finals. Parker started out bright and set the tone with his spectacular Game-1 winner, but with a hamstring injury bothering him and LeBron defending against him, he just faded out as the series progressed. Ginobili was maybe the biggest disappointment of the whole Spurs team, as his inconsistent shooting and egregious ball-handling cost the Spurs dear in vital moments of Game 6 and 7.

So, if you are a Spurs fan, you should be worried. Duncan may still be beating Father Time, but he is no longer going to be the alpha guy of the team. Parker is your best player, but his health can be a major concern. Ginobili is not getting any younger and expecting him to be a clutch go-to-guy can be a little bit too much to ask of him.

But, if there are reasons to worry, the Spurs also need to exult and celebrate the rise or rather the growth of a certain Kawhi Leonard. The 21-year-old kid had the unenviable, arduous and gargantuan task of keeping LeBron “the king” James at bay.

It was not surprising that many savants had their doubts, and the skeptics were already out with their sympathies. Paul George was maybe the only player who bothered LeBron in the post-season, and he still ended up with 30-odd points, while also doing the rebounding chores and creating multiple plays. Jimmy Butler did his belligerent best, but still LeBron persisted through. At 6’8”, 250-pounds, and with his freakish athletic ability, LeBron is quite easily the greatest physical specimen the league has ever seen. Kawhi on the other hand, stood at 6’7” and 225 pounds. Disparity in match-ups couldn’t be more evident on paper, and if you were to judge it on paper alone, it was a sure mismatch.

Many had started questioning the wit behind letting Stephen Jackson go. Jackson was streaky, but a competitor and had the beef to stand up and muscle up against LeBron. He also had a raving reputation as a player who played his best when up against adversity and had proven his clutch qualities time and again. There were many who stood up and questioned the astute basketball intelligence and veracity of the sagacious Gregg Popovich, and it is not difficult to understand their reasons.

However, Popovich wasn’t worried because he believed and knew that the answers to all such speculations lied in trusting the hype around Kawhi Leonard. Letting Jackson go was his way of developing confidence and belief in Leonard. Quite similar to his decision of trading away George Hill to get Tony Parker more minutes and to ensure that he feeds off the confidence shown by Popovich. Great coaches have their way of inspiring confidence and Popovich is a sure master in getting his troops comfortable, and getting them to be more reliable and accountable.

Now, Popovich may have had some of the most prodigal basketball talents in the league, but it is not often that the nonchalant Popovich goes out of his way to promote a certain player. He didn’t do that to Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker, but about Leonard, even when he was just a rookie and still to attend his first training camp, he had the following words to say: “I think he’s going to be a star. And as time goes on, he’ll be the face of the Spurs, I think. At both ends of the court, he is really a special player. And what makes me be so confident about him is that he wants it so badly. He wants to be a good player, I mean a great player. He comes early, he stays late, and he’s coachable, he’s just like a sponge. When you consider he’s only had (two years) of college and no training camp yet, you can see that he’s going to be something else.”

Kawhi Leonard and Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs warm up at practice

If you were to look at Leonard keeping Popovich’s statements in mind, you would be hard-pressed to understand Popovich. Leonard’s collegiate career wasn’t spectacular and he didn’t come in with a very impressive resume. His wingspan and large hands may have gotten some people to make references to Julius Erving, but in terms of flair and skill, he still had a long way to go. He averaged close to 10 rebounds per game in college, and had proven himself to be a versatile defensive player, but his offence was far from pretty. He shot under 30% from beyond the arc, and all his offence was mostly limited to transition opportunities. The point is that if Spurs and Popovich were looking for the heir to Tim Duncan’s throne, one was expecting a better resume.

And that is where one can go wrong about Kawhi Leonard. Leonard may not be the most explosive run-and-gun player, but he sure has demonstrated a basketball intelligence and aptitude that belies his age. His defensive versatility allows him to guard players as varied as from LeBron James to Stephen Curry to even a Zach Randolph. He is amongst the best in the game when it comes to isolation defensive sets, but also has shown the strength and the awareness to guard stronger and bigger players on the low block.

He is at his best when he feeds off his 7’3” arm-span and 11 ½ inch hands to great effect in the defensive end. His length allows him to haul down rebounds, affect and intercept loose passes and earn some easy steals by playing the passing lanes. Add to that his ability in the open court, one can easily see that his defence has led to many easy transition buckets for the Spurs. He is quite easily the modern day Bruce Bowen, in terms of his defensive intellect and ability to shut down the biggest offensive threats; maybe what Spurs were missing in the past few years.

While he may be seen as the new-age Bruce Bowen on the defensive end, Leonard has done much better on the offensive end. His gym-rat mentality has paid him huge dividends, as he seems to have developed a very efficient offensive game. His shooting has gone up quite a few notches as he is shooting close to 40% from beyond the arc and close to 50% from the field. He also finished the season averaging 1.9 steals/game and managed to rake in over 7 rebounds per game. The most important thing is that Leonard seems to understand and relish his role better than maybe any 21-year-old in the league. He understands that with Parker, Ginobili and Duncan in the line-up he isn’t required to handle the bulk of the scoring. His role is to stretch the floor with his perimeter shooting, read situations and trust his execution. And unlike Danny Green, he has developed into a far better all-round player. If you run him off the three-point line, he is quite adept at beating you off the dribble and getting to the rim. His poterizing dunk on Mike Miller is maybe the best example of his supreme athleticism and ability to finish at the rim.

However, his greatest strength lies in his temperament, as he just seems to come up big in the clutch moments, making vital plays be it on the defensive and or on the offensive end of the floor. While people may still say that his missed a free throw in the dying seconds of Game-6 may have cost Spurs the Championship, it is also vital to know that in the last two games of the Finals, Leonard averaged 21 points, 13.5 rebounds, and two steals while going 17-31 from the field. Better numbers than anyone else in the Spurs team.

Kawhi Leonard #2 of the San Antonio Spurs attempts a rebound during Game Seven of the 2013 NBA Finals on June 20, 2013 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami

Most importantly, if one were to recall, it was Danny Green who was supposed to be the side-kick and the additional scoring punch beyond the Big Three. Some even had him hyped us as the potential Finals MVP. While Green had his off-nights when the Spurs needed him the most, Leonard chose to hustle and fight his way through. He wasn’t shooting the ball very well, so he found different ways to score and be effective. He didn’t settle on the perimeter jump-shots. He was ready to crash the boards and earn second-chance opportunities, showcased his rapidly improving mid-range game and his newest addition, the floater and the hook shot in the paint. He made many clutch fourth quarter buckets and with Duncan and Parker failing to get their offence going, he single-handedly was responsible to keep the Spurs in the game.

While the growth and the maturity are apparent, there is still a lot that Leonard has to do before he can legitimately stand true to Popovich’s claims of being the next face of the franchise. He needs to develop a post-up game, and maybe improve on his pick-and-roll defence; two qualities that were exploited heavily by the Heat and coach Spoelstra. In Game-6 and Game-7, the Heat manned up LeBron James against Parker and that left the much smaller Chalmers on Leonard.

Heat could take that risk, because they knew that Leonard didn’t have a post-up game to punish Chalmers and take advantage of the mismatch. Further, Leonard was often found wanting when the Heat went on the 1-3 pick-and-roll with LeBron and Chalmers. He didn’t know when to step out and block Chalmers, and when to stay home and deny the pocket pass off the roll to LeBron. The Heat used this strategy to great effect as LeBron earned some very easy looks and open lanes to exploit. Leonard may have defied LeBron by staying back and giving him the freedom to take the perimeter and mid-range jumper, while blocking out his dribble penetration and keeping him off the paint, but on the pick-and-roll he just seemed too confused to take decisions and the Spurs were made to pay heavily.

However, the prospect, the heart, the desire and the promise is evident in Leonard’s game and considering the bargain deal the Spurs had with him, he may very well be one of the best steals ever. The Spurs franchise has put all their faith and hope on Leonard evolving into a legitimate Superstar. He is still far from being the finished article but with the game evolving into a run-and-gun mode, energy players like Leonard can very much be the face of the league in the near future. It is about time that one starts to believe the hype.