San Antonio Spurs: Can Kawhi Leonard Sustain This Level Of Play?
Kawhi Leonard has made dominating the league look too easy. Will he be able to sustain this level of play for the San Antonio Spurs?
It happens every NBA season within the first week, there are a number of players who put up ridiculous numbers in the box scores and fans overreact by claiming that respective player’s MVP candidacy. The majority of the players who start out strong fail to sustain that level of play throughout the course of an 82-game season.
This season, Kawhi Leonard has been one of the players to begin the season in dominant fashion. He certainly didn’t surprise anyone, as his name has continued to be the common denominator for MVP even prior to the season.
Other players such as DeMar DeRozan, Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis are off to a mind-blowing start as well, but it’ll be difficult for them to sustain their production after taking into mind their particular teams and health (especially for Davis).
Leonard on the other hand, is in the most efficient system NBA fans have had the pleasure of watching since the early 2000s. Gregg Popovich continues to show why he is arguably the best basketball coach to ever live by replacing one Hall-of-Famer in Tim Duncan and setting up Leonard to have similar success throughout his career.
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In the six games this season, Leonard is averaging 28.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in 32 minutes per game. There are plenty of reasons to believe that Leonard can continue this preeminence. When you watch how he is scoring, it’s all within the flow of the offense.
The San Antonio Spurs have never been known as a team that depends on isolation situations. Even when there is a mismatch, they continue to run their sets until the player who has the mismatch is in the best position to expose it.
One example can be seen here when Leonard sets the off-ball screen on LaMarcus Aldridge’s man. Ultimately, Aldridge goes to set a ball-screen for Patty Mills and Leonard comes off the down screen from Pau Gasol, which forces Dante Exum on the help side to switch onto Leonard.
From there, he takes advantage of his size against the lighter Exum, finishing with a pump-fake to get Rudy Gobert in the air:
It’s no secret that Leonard is the best defender that the NBA has to offer either. Watch the two-time Defensive Player of the Year on these back-to-back possessions. It should be a crime for how easy he made it look:
The fact that this is normalcy for Leonard and the Spurs leaves plenty of hope that games he has had in the first week and a half of the season will only continue. He struggled through the first four games connecting from beyond the arc, but bounced back in the fifth game going 5-for-7 from deep.
Leonard is looking to become a part of the 50-40-90 club this season. So far, he is shooting 50.9 percent from the field, 37 percent from three, and 96.4 percent (53-55) from the free throw line. His free throw percentage could very well be the most impressive improvement that isn’t getting any notice.
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Popovich allowed the leash on Leonard to stretch a little more each year, but now, he’s making it clear that the monster is unleashed.
The NBA should be terrified.