Finch23

Let's go Spurs

Leonard!!!!!!!!

After the Rockets game, Pop evoked the name of Bruce Bowen to describe the play of Kawhi Leonard. Quote: Originally Posted by Pop It’s huge for us to have a guy on the team that can do similar things to what Bruce (Bowen) did in the past. This young man has got a lot to learn, but he’s very willing, very versatile and I think he’s got the ability to be one heck of a player. Here are some thoughts on the comparison of Leonard to Bowen: -As it stands right now, Leonard's defensive ability isn't in the same stratosphere as Bowen at his best (or Bowen at his worst, for that matter). And that's not a knock on Leonard. He's a 20-year-old who didn't have summer league or a training camp. In fact, he's already playing better defense than I thought he would in his rookie season. At this point, Leonard has two distinct modes: he's even locked in to his opponent and neglecting most of his team defense responsibilities or he's flying around the court trying to cause havoc. Eventually he'll find the middle ground. That's something you can only learn through experience gained by playing and learning tendencies of each player in the league. -Being an elite perimeter defender is extremely rare for a young player. Bowen was 30 years old when he joined the Spurs and it still took him a couple years to reach his peak performance on defense. The best perimeter defender in the game today is Tony Allen and he's 30. I can't think of a 20-year-old player off the top of my head who came into the league and received minutes mostly due to perimeter defense. -Some scouts questioned whether Leonard was able to play small forward -- they said he was actually going to be forced to play power forward. Thankfully, those scouts were wrong. Leonard is definitely capable of playing small forward on both ends. In fact, he's starting at shooting guard right now. Going forward, if Leonard can turn into a legit shooting guard, that would be scary good because he could physically overwhelm just about every SG in the league due to his combination of bulk, size and length. -So far, we've seen Leonard defend small forwards and shooting guards. Can he defend point guards? Hopefully Pop gives him a shot because if he can, that shoots his value up another notch. I'm not sure he has the quickness but it's worth a try. Another thing to try is to see if Leonard can handle true power forwards. We've seen him on smaller power forwards like Lamar Odom but if Leonard can legitimately defend point guards through power forwards, that alone would be enough to guarantee him a long, successful NBA career. -Chances are, Leonard won't become as good as Bowen was defensively. Bowen was one of the best perimeter defenders to ever play the game, so that's not really a knock on Leonard. But Leonard already rebounds about twice as well as Bowen ever did and he has tools to become an average to above average offensive player. Bowen was always markedly below average by any measure. Thus, even if Leonard doesn't reach Bowen's level defensively, he could still reach the status of championship quality starter by other means. -If Pop is going to fully commit to Leonard being the next Bowen, Pop needs to start him from here on out. As we saw in the Bucks game, bringing your ace perimeter defender off the bench doesn't work because once an NBA player gets hot, it's almost impossible to cool him off (See: Jackson, Stephen). Once Manu Ginobili returns, the right adjustment is to move Richard Jefferson to the bench. Jefferson's skillset (shooting and running the floor, mostly) works as well or even better off the bench since opposing teams won't be able to key on him as easily. Let's see if Pop is all talk or he's willing to put his rotation where is mouth is. -One reason why Pop loves Leonard so much so early is that Leonard doesn't foul. At all. Pop hates nothing more than useless fouls out on the perimeter. Pop's two tenets to perimeter defending: Don't foul and don't let your man drive middle. Leonard is averaging 1.6 fouls per 36 minutes. Bowen rarely fouled and his lowest foul rate was 2.3 fouls per 36 minutes. In NBA history, only one rookie swingman fouled at a lower rate than Leonard's current rate: Peja Stojakovic -- and he wasn't exactly the Sacramento's perimeter defensive stopper. While such a microscopic foul rate is mostly good, it probably points to Leonard having room to grow in terms of being more physical. Bowen tiptoed the line between being physical and fouling. Leonard doesn't have to be as safe as he's currently playing. -Another thing Leonard hardly does is turn the ball over. In 243 minutes, he has five turnovers for a TOV% of 5.8. To put that in perspective, Matt Bonner always leads the team in lowest TOV% and his lowest number as a Spur was 6.3 back in '08-09. Bonner's TOV% is low because all he usually does is catch-and-shoot. Leonard's number being low is extra impressive since he does a lot more than just stand around on the perimeter. Historically, no rookie has played 500 minutes and posted a TOV% that low -- at any position. -Overall, it'll be interesting to see how it goes the rest of the season with Leonard. We saw Danny Green explode ... only to regress. Leonard surely will have a few bumps in the road but his short-term and long-term potential is exciting. Let's hope he keeps learning game by game and that Pop continues to bring him along at a rapid pace.

I guess I shouldn't have said "weaker" conference. What I meant is there really isn't a clear favorite. OKC is probably favored in the West, but I wouldn't call them the "clear" favorite. Denver plays great "team" basketball, but they still lack that closer. When the game is close down the stretch in the PO I don't trust them to be able to grind it out and get the win. IMO the same goes for Portland, although they have the player(s) to assume that role. (Aldridge). I won't count out the champs, simply out of respect but the bottom line is they are OLD. (Oldest team in the league I believe). This season is going to be difficult for them, especially not having young legs to come in off the bench to give the vets rest. Also the front court outside of Dirk (maybe Odom if he gets going) isn't that good. *Cough Ian Mahinmi Cough*. I think LAL and OKC are the 2 best teams in the West, with San Antonio (with a healthy Manu) and Portland being right behind them.

I'm not saying Spurs are title contenders, but Boston?

People give Boston a chance but won't even consider the much younger Spurs in the weaker conference?

Lol, he's done. One of my favorite non Spurs of all time though.

Chucker...... Pass

I'm on my phone and cant find the proper link to post, but last night Tim Duncan passed the great Larry Bird on the all time scoring list (which puts Duncan 27th all time). Duncan has never been a flashy scorer but has been extremely efficient for his career. To pass a legend like Larry is a pretty big accomplishment, congrats Timmy. We all know that Timmy is not near the player he once was, but he has such a tremendous IQ that it allows him to make up for what he lacks in athleticism. During yesterday's game the Rockets announcers asked Duncan when he is going to hang him up and he replied "the way Pop plays me now I can continue on for a good 3-4 years." Timmy is still a damn good big and while he isn't the same on offense, he still plays exceptional defense and if he takes less money (which I'm sure he will) I look forward to watching him move up the all time list for the next 3 years.

Oh I've tried to bring some of my e-Spur fans away from sites like Spurstalk, but that's such a successful forum (not only for Spur fans) that it's hard to convince people to stay. It's cool to post with a bunch of Spur fans, but I do also like talking with other teams fans as well.

TJ was just starting to really figure things out. He wasn't putting up huge numbers, but he was running the 2nd unit very well. When Manu went down he had the ability to break the defense down with his penetration and find the open man. Now the Spurs will have to rely on Neal as the back up PG, at some point they need to try out Cory Joseph and see what he can do!

I have the biggest man crush on Kawai Leonard. The kid is going to be a GREAT all around player, and he's only 20!! GG by Tony Parker, TJ and Manu need to get back SOON

Congrats for PASSING Larry Bird Timmy!

Congrats Timmy for tying LARRY BIRD on the all time points list.

I wish game threads had more posting in them

It seems like Kevin Martin sucks every other night he doesn't play the Spurs. Against us he channels his Michael Jordan and makes EVERYTHING. It's the same story with S-Jax as well, must be a former Spur thing?

Scola's footwork is exceptional. Beautiful to watch. Almost McHale-esque! Still pissed that we traded him, we probably ring at least once more with him. The good news about this game is that Kawai Leonard continues to improve every game. His offensive game is coming around!

Clippers

Home cooking for the Thunder, Parker left the game (even though he was playing like shit) Blair injured, no Manu, and a B2B against the current west favorite.... yeah NO CHANCE

Parker to the locker room? :(

Jefferson gets MAULED in the paint, no call. Ibaka gets braised by wind and you hear the whistle.

Tony Parker is playing like dog shit.......

Kevin Durant is a BEAST, but he gets so many super star calls it's ridiculous!

[expletive] You Harden

These Thunder announcers are retarded. "Splitter is a perimeter player" "Gary Neal has made a big impact on the Spurs primarily because of his defense" "Richard Jefferson has given the Spurs that slashing forward they desperately needed" HeySUS Christo I'm pretty sure this guy has never watched the Spurs, these comments are straight out of his ass