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It is now exactly a decade since Kawhi Leonard entered the NBA. The Klaw, who was drafted 15th overall by the Indiana Pacers in 2011, was traded the same day to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for George Hill.
Since then, Leonard has built quite a reputation for himself on both ends of the floor, winning NBA titles on two different teams – San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and Toronto Raptors in 2019 – and two Finals MVP awards. He is also a two-time Defensive Player of the Year. On the back of these awards and achievements, Leonard would certainly rank among the top five NBA players of the 2010s decade, alongside Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and James Harden.
But the more important question is what does Kawhi Leonard need to do to make it to the big-time? What must Leonard do to rank in the NBA’s all-time top five, a list that includes the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar? Here are some such milestones for The Klaw to conquer.
#1 Kawhi Leonard must score 25,000 career points
10 years into the league, Kawhi Leonard has 11,085 career points. That means he must score approximately another 14,000 career points to reach the 25k mark.
Why is it important? Because the greatest NBA players, be it Kareem, LeBron, Bryant, MJ or Wilt Chamberlain, have more than 30,000 points. Scoring at least 25,000 points would put Kawhi in the same category as Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Kawhi Leonard’s fans might cite the example of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell, all of whom have fewer than 25,000 points, but still, figure in a conversation on the NBA’s all-time top-five list. However, Bird and Johnson had other achievements too that added to the weight of their individual resumes. Russell, meanwhile, purely on the strength of his 11 NBA rings, gets a lot more leeway than his 14,522 career points give him.
The significant challenge for Kawhi Leonard in hitting the 25k mark is that he isn’t getting any younger. He's 30 at the moment. His current ACL injury will keep him out for most of the upcoming season and he'll be 31 by the end of 2021-22.
The most Leonard has scored in a single NBA season is 1,888 points, in the 2016-17 season. That means if Kawhi plays another seven years beyond 2021-22 in the league, he would have to average at least 2,000 points per season. That is a mark he has never touched and has gotten close to it in only one NBA season.
But stranger things have happened. Kawhi Leonard could end up playing until he is 40, which means he has nine more seasons beyond 2021-22 left in the league. Reaching 25,000 points over nine seasons would mean that he has to score just a little over 1,550 points per season, a much more achievable mark for a player of his caliber.
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#2 Kawhi Leonard must win at least a couple of regular season MVPs
Another glaring gap on Kawhi Leonard’s resume is that he has never won a regular season MVP award. The closest he has come to winning the NBA’s premier individual accolade was in 2015-16, when he finished second, behind Stephen Curry’s unanimous MVP season.
Leonard also put in a strong showing in 2016-17 but finished third behind Russell Westbrook (historic triple-double season) and James Harden in the MVP race. More recently, Leonard finished fifth in 2019-20 when Giannis Antetokounmpo won his second MVP award.
Kawhi Leonard must, therefore, do better on this front. Most of the great all-time players have multiple regular season awards. Kareem has six, Bill Russell and Jordan have five each, while Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron have four MVP awards to their credit. Among the active players looking to break into the NBA’s all-time top-five list, Curry and Antetokounmpo have two regular season MVP wins each while Durant has one regular season MVP.
Winning a couple of regular season MVP awards would give Kawhi Leonard the same number of MVPs as Curry, Giannis and Duncan. That would catapult him ahead of Bryant, O’Neal, Olajuwon and Durant, all great players in their own right.
#3 Kawhi Leonard must win another Finals MVP with the LA Clippers
Winning the NBA Finals MVP with a third team would put Kawhi Leonard in a very select club. Currently, Kareem, LeBron and Kawhi are the only players to win multiple Finals MVP awards with different teams. But Kareem achieved this feat with only two ball clubs: the Milwaukee Bucks (1971) and the LA Lakers (1985).
If Kawhi Leonard wins a third Finals MVP with the Clippers, he and LeBron James – who has won the Finals MVP award with Miami (2012, 2013), Cleveland (2016) and the Lakers (2020) – would be the only two players to win Finals MVP with three different teams.
More importantly, winning another Finals MVP would mostly mean that Kawhi Leonard has also led the LA Clippers to their first-ever NBA championship. That would really put Kawhi in a special, special place on the all-time list.
If he gets the Clippers their first Larry O’Brien Trophy, he would have then helped a second franchise after the Toronto Raptors to their first-ever NBA title. That would be something even LeBron James cannot boast about.
Also read: Kawhi Leonard ACL injury: What does it mean for his and the LA Clippers’ future?
