Kawhi Leonard: The New Age Star Wing
By Aaron Mah
Even before winning the 2014 NBA Finals MVP, San Antonio Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich had already crowned Kawhi Leonard as the future “face of the Spurs” — high praise from someone who don’t exactly always give public complements regarding his own players.
Accordingly, now that the 23-year-old small forward has somewhat established a name within the NBA hemisphere by becoming the youngest Finals MVP since his teammate, Tim Duncan, in 1999, Pop has heaped even more expectations on his rising star wing.
Most notably, the Spurs’ legendary coach has loosen the reigns and given Kawhi the green light. In fact, he recently told Kawhi that, since the Big Three are “old as dirt”; he is now officially “the Big One”.
The rise of Kawhi Leonard, in many ways, represents the modern-day approach in evaluating players. With the advent of modern analytics, a player’s reputation is not solely based on his raw statistics, like in past decades.
Particularly, when evaluating and forming an opinion on a player – fans, scouts, and analysts, alike – are taking into account advanced metrics, such as his on/off court numbers, his per-minute production, and defensive impact in conjunction with his team’s overall production on both ends of the court.
The current-day statistical revolution came to ahead last season when Joakim Noah was named as the first team All-NBA center.
Despite his modest statistical line of 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game, pundits recognized Noah’s true impact on the floor and his ability to anchor the league’s second-best defense by leading the NBA in individual defensive rating, defensive win shares, and defensive box plus/minus — per Basketball-Reference — thus, capturing the honor over centers who put up the traditional first-team-worthy 20-and-10 numbers, like Al Jefferson and DeMarcus Cousins.
At present, Kawhi is looking more and more like the perimeter equivalent of Noah. Through his first 20 games this season, he is putting up a statistical line of 14.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.0 steals per game.
When comparing his raw production to the star wings of 10 years ago, the top tier of wing players — such as Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade — of whom all averaged around 25-5-5, and the league’s second-tier wings – headlined by Ray Allen, Michael Redd, Richard Jefferson, Jason Richardson, and Rashard Lewis — of whom all averaged more than 20 points per game, Kawhi’s production seems a little underwhelming.
However, with the league’s renewed emphasis on ball and man movement, individual scoring numbers have incrementally dipped during this decade. Elite wings, like Kevin Durant, LeBron, and James Harden, still put up gaudy raw stats — but unlike the elite wings of a decade ago, they are achieving their numbers through ungodly efficiency.
Players who currently score a volume of points, but through rather low efficiency, such as a DeMar DeRozan, are not valued as highly as they did in the past. Meanwhile, players like Kawhi, a player who performs at both ends of the court, is put on a proverbial pedestal.
By evaluating players through readily available advanced metrics, like effective field goal percentage or true shooting percentage instead of raw field goal percentage, rebounding percentages instead of rebounds per game, assist percentages instead of assists per game, opponent field goal percentage at the rim instead of blocks per game have definitely made fans and scouts smarter in identifying players of value.
However, as with most good things in life, the over-reliance on advanced metrics can become somewhat of a slippery slope — as legends such as Allen Iverson have suddenly become criminally underrated.
When watching Kawhi, his ability to defend at a high level while creating turnovers is extremely impressive. Rarely does Kawhi compromise his responsibilities as a team defender by gambling for steals.
Instead, he utilizes his 7’3″ wingspan and gargantuan hands to blow up dribble handoffs or outright strip the opposing ballhandler.
Offensively, Kawhi continues to make huge strides. His ballhandling is still a little suspect after three dribbles, but he is a capable negotiator in short pick-and-roll situations off of the catch through pin downs and weaves.
Additionally, he has been an above average floor spacer for several years now, and has mastered the dribble pull-up game.
This year, the Spurs have been running their offense through Kawhi more so than ever — namely, through the pinch-post elbow extended area. From there, Kawhi is able to unleash a nifty baby hook, face up and blow by his defender, hit the opposition with turnaround J, or execute his jab step pull-up.
Of course, in classic Spursian fashion, San Antonio surrounds Kawhi with a bevy of shooters to keep the court effectively spaced.
Gone are the days when averaging 20 points per game was a required prerequisite to be considered a star. Players who have a positive impact on winning — on both ends of the court — are valued as highly as ever as such traits are now measurable through advanced analytics.
As such, get ready for the emergence of a new breed of star players.