Pop Culture, Vol. 4

by

tim-duncan-spurs-drake-cover

While we’ve shied away from the traditional recap that used to take up far too much of our time, we still have a few thoughts after each game. For more thoughts as they happen, be sure to follow 48MoH on Twitter. You’ll find our postgame grades in emoji form there. Really. Today, we’re back with Pop Culture featuring a couple of mind nuggets following the Spurs’ 94-84 win over the Knicks in New York City on Monday night. But it’s not a recap.

 

Matthew Tynan:

We’ve watched the Spurs stack the building blocks of Kawhi Leonard’s game for years now. The thing is, I’ve become less and less sure of what his ceiling might be.

You could see from the start he had a ton of raw potential. During media availability after every practice, you watched him run the drills with Chip Engelland, Chad Forcier and others, working on simple things like pull-up jumpers, baseline drives and reverse layups. It all seemed so rudimentary, so basic, so fundamental.

Then holy hell, what do you know? Turns out fundamentals are important, even at the NBA level. Watch Kawhi play for two minutes. Everything seems textbook. Everything feels methodical. Everything seems… easy. Even when he decides to freelance a bit, it doesn’t seem forced and it certainly doesn’t take place outside the flow of the system. It’s becoming more and more evident: He’s the Spurs’ best player.

Yes, LaMarcus Aldridge is in town now, and Tim Duncan still has gas left in the tank after all these years, but Leonard is everywhere. He had four blocks and two steals on top of his 18 points and 14 rebounds, and as a side note, he held Carmelo-freaking-Anthony to 4-of-17 shooting less than a week removed from limiting Kevin Durant to 6-for-19 shooting.

Kawhi is just devouring some of the league’s best scorers.

He’s become a force of nature defensively, and if the development we’re seeing on the offensive side of the ball is real, it’s not crazy to include him in the MVP conversation. He’s that damn good. He’s now averaging 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.2 blocks per 36 minutes on 48.6 percent shooting, and the Spurs have a net rating of 12.9 while he’s been on the floor this season. (Of course, that’s nothing compared to Timmy’s 16.7, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Don’t freak out. I’m not saying he’s the favorite to win the award. All I’m saying here is, just watch this storyline with a side-eye.

 

Andrew McNeill:

It dawned on me Sunday afternoon as the Spurs took the floor in Boston and again on Monday night when Tim Duncan handed out high fives to fans hanging over the tunnel at Madison Square Garden, that for Duncan, he in his 19th year in the league, this could be his last stop at these historic locations. (Let’s not point out the fact that the Celtics play in TD Garden now, it’s still Boston.)

Duncan is essentially on a player option from here on out. Every summer he decides if he’s going to have another go at it. I figured he was going to retire two or three years ago, so for him to come back again this season, one in which he’ll be 40 by the end of, his days in the league are decidedly numbered. No matter how well this season goes for Duncan and the Spurs, expecting him to come back again in 2016-17 is not playing the odds.

Duncan didn’t announce before the year that this season would be his last—I can’t imagine he’d ever put that kind of spotlight on himself to start a campaign—but it’s reasonable to think that this is his final tour. So as the Spurs make their way around the country, stopping in historic venues like MSG, take a moment to appreciate Duncan in the moment. There won’t be standing ovations from hostile fans or gifts from opposing franchises, nor would he ever accept such things, but there will be a man putting up 16-10-6-2 in 35 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back on the road at 39 years of age, because Tim Duncan is a wizard.

  • Ryan McShane

    One thing I’ve noticed lately is that Danny Green is putting the ball on the floor more often this season. And I don’t just mean in the half-court like some of the announcers have pointed out. I’m talking about in transition too. There was a point last night where Green rebounded the ball, stopped moving to find someone to bring the ball up, found Ginobili, and passed it to him. Last year, that would have been the end of it, but Manu passed it right back to Danny and made him bring it up the floor. I think the coaching staff and/or Tony/Manu are trying to train Danny to be a better ball-handler. That includes ball-handling reps in-game and improving his confidence.

    Can you imagine if Danny Green had had ball-handling skills in the 2013 Finals? The Spurs wouldn’t have needed to have played Manu all those minutes at the end of Game 6 and Manu wouldn’t have had 8 turnovers. I’m not claiming that that would have been the difference in winning and losing, but I think it would have helped.

  • Tyler

    When was the last perimeter defender as good as Kawhi? Bowen was great, but he certainly wasn’t the same ball-hawking force of nature, and he certainly couldn’t defend the rim like Kawhi. Maybe all the way back to Pippen in his prime? Kawhi the best perimeter defender in over 25 years? Sounds crazy, but I honestly can’t think of anyone else. And when you factor in the freedom of movement rules that have been instituted over the last decade, it’s even more impressive.

    Either way, my god is Leonard just devouring people.

  • Comrade747

    Andrew why you depress me with Timmy

  • BirdsDecision

    Kawhi is great, but he’s just one of a few top tier, great defenders, in my opinion. On the perimeter, I would put Paul George (if he comes back fully), and Jimmy Butler on par with him. As far as a devastating perimeter defender from the past decade, I think Ron Artest (good ol’ Metta) should top anyone’s list. I love Kawhi’s game, but I think people should slow down on his ceiling, he doesn’t create enough for others (check his assist numbers) and his ball handling and scoring are not on par with other superstar talents. He’ll be a very good 2nd option for SA.

  • Tyler

    Defensively, I think Kawhi is in his own tier among perimeter defenders right now. What he showed last year when healthy and so far this year is a better stretch than anything a healthy George or Butler has put together IMO. Granted, he hasn’t had to shoulder an entire offense like George for long stretches, so that certainly helps.

    Artest was great, though I’d still side with Leonard (full disclosure - I’m a Spurs fan, so bias may or may not be clouding my judgment). While advanced stats can get noisy, most I see on basketball reference favor Leonard (so far).

    As for his offensive game, I’m probably still in your camp, though it’s getting harder and harder every game. I’m skeptical he can be the #1 creative force for a good offense. But that question will probably never be answered simply because of the Spurs’ philosophy. The ball and player movement, reliance on a depth, etc - I don’t think SA will ever ask Kawhi to impersonate Lebron, Kobe, Durant, A. Davis, etc. Over the next few years, between Kawhi and Aldridge you have option 1a and 1b depending on matchups. No need to ask Kawhi to should all the offensive load if you don’t have to.

  • BirdsDecision

    Yeah, I can’t really argue with what you’re saying. Defense is so hard to quantify in this way. I don’t put much weight on stats when it comes to defense. I think you have to watch (and watch close) to get the feel for a defender. I just think that Leonard, Butler, and George can all guard four positions on the floor with skill and, at times, dominance, all are aggressive and smart, and all are willing (willingness would be the reason LeBron isn’t on my list). I think Kawhi has the best, strongest hands, George is (was?) the most athletic, and Butler the most stout, but I just think it’s splitting hairs to choose between them. My opinion would be that they are all equally great, and that they all succeed or fail based on what the task for the night calls for. I would have no quibble with anyone who says that Leonard is the best defender in the league, I would argue against someone who said that he is the only logical choice.

    I put Artest above all of them because I’ve never seen a defender so strong and physical that they actually made good offensive players not want to play anymore - he simply cut people’s hearts out.

    I’m a Spurs fan, too, so I worry about the torch being passed to Aldridge and Leonard. They seem like ‘Team Guys’, but don’t seem like they have games that fit into a ‘Team Concept’. Maybe they’ll become better, more willing passers, and help facilitate a more fluid offense the way guys like Ginobili, Duncan, Diaw, etc etc. have. Time will tell.

    Thanks for the conversation.

  • td4life

    I’d put PG13 in the conversation. And Butler is close behind. Those guys are 1 and 2 years older than Leonard, though. Butler is now playing for an offensively-minded coach, so I’m not expecting him to ever edge out Kawhi. PG has great length, and should age well, but he’s in a muddled program over there in Indiana, and I think that will have an adverse effect on his overall performance from year to year. Leonard just has a perfect storm of length, instincts, and coaching to keep him on track to be the gold standard of defensive wings.

    The one guy I’d really watch out for is Giannis the Greek, he’s young, and has extraordinary tools. As he improves, the sky’s the limit. Though they may end up using him to guard more fours, since they also have Middleton and MCW. We’ll see.

    I love Stanley Johnson, as a Ron Artest type, but more of a leader. If Rondae Jefferson can score enough to stay on the floor, he has it all, including superior quickness like Pippen had. But it’s way too early to tell.

    It will be interesting to see if Kawhi can pick up multiple DPOYs before Davis, Gobert, and Cauley-Stein (and maybe Towns) lock up that award for a decade.