Everything Kawhi Leonard

[KeonClark]

Fun guy!

Lin is in shambles. Kawhi now most popular asian on the team too

[Zainab]

[The Great One]

So if they're going to put Kawhi on teh 2nd team even though he only played 60 games, why not put him on the 1st team? he's the best defensive player in the game.

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/st...59062379831297

[slaw]

So if they're going to put Kawhi on teh 2nd team even though he only played 60 games, why not put him on the 1st team? he's the best defensive player in the game.

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/st...59062379831297

Those are..... interesting all-NBA defense teams. I'm just wondering if they changed the names and made the Second Team the best group and the First Team the second-best group. Should have just switched the players around, less confusing.

[bertarapsfan]

I guess Kawhi not guarding the best player all season played into him making the 2nd team and not first? If thats the case Danny Green should have made it. Both him and siakam narrowly missed. We almost had 3 dudes on the all defensive team. Crazy

[bertarapsfan]

[golden]

I guess Kawhi not guarding the best player all season played into him making the 2nd team and not first? If thats the case Danny Green should have made it. Both him and siakam narrowly missed. We almost had 3 dudes on the all defensive team. Crazy

Add Gasol, Lowry, Powell, Ibaka and FVV - there isn't really a weak link defensively. Other than Lowry & FVV's height, which they compensate for in scrappiness. Damn, almost forgot about OG. This team is a defensive nightmare.

[KeonClark]

Unpopular opinion: siakam is a tad overrated on defense. Hes GOOD, but the narrative around the nba is hes this 2 way player.

what he actually is is a scorer who's shows energy, potential, and flashes of brilliance on defense. In reality hes the 5th best defender in the starting lineup, and maybe somewhere from 7th to 10th best on the team. He lacks the IQ of out savvier guys. Which is not a slight on him at all, because hes actually a plus defender. It's a testamant to the DNA masai has built in this team in basically a 1 season retool.

[MixxAOR]

Unpopular opinion: siakam is a tad overrated on defense. Hes GOOD, but the narrative around the nba is hes this 2 way player.

what he actually is is a scorer who's shows energy, potential, and flashes of brilliance on defense. In reality hes the 5th best defender in the starting lineup, and maybe somewhere from 7th to 10th best on the team. He lacks the IQ of out savvier guys. Which is not a slight on him at all, because hes actually a plus defender. It's a testamant to the DNA masai has built in this team in basically a 1 season retool.

if you watch him on defense he overhelps

[bertarapsfan]

Unpopular opinion: siakam is a tad overrated on defense. Hes GOOD, but the narrative around the nba is hes this 2 way player.

what he actually is is a scorer who's shows energy, potential, and flashes of brilliance on defense. In reality hes the 5th best defender in the starting lineup, and maybe somewhere from 7th to 10th best on the team. He lacks the IQ of out savvier guys. Which is not a slight on him at all, because hes actually a plus defender. It's a testamant to the DNA masai has built in this team in basically a 1 season retool.

Weird thing is pascal isn't that great at defending his own position. Where he really shows the all defensive potential to me is when he matches up on guards. He played the best defense vs John wall last playoffs. And when the defense turned around this series was when we switched him onto bledsoe/middleton and had kawhi guard giannis. He also showed some great D on guys like kyrie in flashes during the season.

[KeonClark]

Weird thing is pascal isn't that great at defending his own position. Where he really shows the all defensive potential to me is when he matches up on guards. He played the best defense vs John wall last playoffs. And when the defense turned around this series was when we switched him onto bledsoe/middleton and had kawhi guard giannis. He also showed some great D on guys like kyrie in flashes during the season.

Yep and he shut down Butler in spurts. you're right his fast feet and long arms make him ideal to guard backcourt guys. Its his help defense as Mixx said, some silly fouls, basically his motor hurts him where as guys like gasol and lowry and kawhi know when and how to use speed and aggressiveness

[planetmars]

Congrats Kawhi! Another unpopular opinion... Kawhi didn't deserve it. He is awesome, but there were many times in the regular season where he just didn't try hard defensively and wasn't covering the opposing team's best player. I think Danny deserved it more.. Kawhi got in due to reputation.

Don't get me wrong.. I will take it. Kawhi is a beast and deserves every recognition he gets. But I'm surprised he made it. Especially since he only played 60's ish games.

I don't get Klay either. I've watched Klay play defense. He's okay but not some elite defender. Iggy should have made it over Klay.

[golden]

Unpopular opinion: siakam is a tad overrated on defense. Hes GOOD, but the narrative around the nba is hes this 2 way player.

what he actually is is a scorer who's shows energy, potential, and flashes of brilliance on defense. In reality hes the 5th best defender in the starting lineup, and maybe somewhere from 7th to 10th best on the team. He lacks the IQ of out savvier guys. Which is not a slight on him at all, because hes actually a plus defender. It's a testamant to the DNA masai has built in this team in basically a 1 season retool.

7th to 10th..... on the Raptors? Crazy talk, man. Pascal was 2nd on the team in defensive impact (D-PIPM & DRPM) after Gasol. While he still makes a lot of mental mistakes (understandably), Siakam is the most switchable player 1-to-5 on the team. The fact that he can guard a guy on the perimeter as lightning quick as Bledsoe, yet still have the quickness and length to help on Giannis drives towards the rim makes him pretty unique and valuable. It's one of the things enabling the schemes that we're using to work. He saved the game the other night, flying to the rim to block Lopez (after almost coughing up the game missing 2 FTs, lol). Once he gets a bit physically stronger (without losing quickness and agility), while gaining defensive IQ, he's going to be an all-defense team regular.

Kawhi should not have made the All-Defense team this year because it's based on the regular season performance. He had his worst defensive season in years, and saved most of his energy for offense. Glad he did make it, though. Goes to show you just how subjective those all-defense teams are (*cough* Kobe).

[DanH]

Congrats Kawhi! Another unpopular opinion... Kawhi didn't deserve it. He is awesome, but there were many times in the regular season where he just didn't try hard defensively and wasn't covering the opposing team's best player. I think Danny deserved it more.. Kawhi got in due to reputation.

Don't get me wrong.. I will take it. Kawhi is a beast and deserves every recognition he gets. But I'm surprised he made it. Especially since he only played 60's ish games.

I don't get Klay either. I've watched Klay play defense. He's okay but not some elite defender. Iggy should have made it over Klay.

Danny got more votes, but the voting among forwards was more spread out. Kawhi just sneaked in over Tucker, with Pascal not far behind the two of them.

But yes, this was a reputation call. Not that it's not earned - don't have to look any further than this series to see that Kawhi was definitely not trying too hard in the regular season (and was still a net positive defender while carrying a huge offensive load, which is nuts).

[DanH]

7th to 10th..... on the Raptors? Crazy talk, man. Pascal was 2nd on the team in defensive impact (D-PIPM & DRPM) after Gasol. While he still makes a lot of mental mistakes (understandably), Siakam is the most switchable player 1-to-5 on the team. The fact that he can guard a guy on the perimeter as lightning quick as Bledsoe, yet still have the quickness and length to help on Giannis drives towards the rim makes him pretty unique and valuable. It's one of the things enabling the schemes that we're using to work. He saved the game the other night, flying to the rim to block Lopez (after almost coughing up the game missing 2 FTs, lol). Once he gets a bit physically stronger (without losing quickness and agility), while gaining defensive IQ, he's going to be an all-defense team regular.

Kawhi should not have made the All-Defense team this year because it's based on the regular season performance. He had his worst defensive season in years, and saved most of his energy for offense. Glad he did make it, though. Goes to show you just how subjective those all-defense teams are (*cough* Kobe).

Totally agreed. Pascal is great defensively - he's just a high event player defensively, and mistakes stick out in the mind. The numbers bear it out - on aggregate, Pascal was awesome on defence this year and has nowhere to go but up as he learns to cut down on those mistakes with experience.