Wait so kawhi really the second best player in the nba

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Gil Scott-Heroin

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the kid said:
Breh, dont be intentionally dense. Just because he matches up with Westbrook well doesn't mean he guards anybody else well. Even in the vid u posted of Kawhi, Tony Parker was guarding Kyrie and got picked so Kawhi switched onto him just before shooting. Kyrie didn't iso on Kawhi cause he aint that stupid. But since u like videos, Im just gonna drop these videos here. In Game 6 of the Finals last year, on the biggest stage in a possible closeout game.





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Well, where do I start with this.

First of all, don't clam that I'm being intentionally dense and then post clips (especially post the same one twice) of a few instances where either Curry gets stuck behind a pick, or makes a wrong rotation when you can do to the same for every single player in that series (LeBron included). Curry played outstanding defense all throughout the season, both man-to-man and as a team defender, and only really had trouble guarding lengthy PGs. Yes, he most definitely was subpar on the defensive end in the Finals (and not because Kyrie was hitting shots over him), but that doesn't take away from how good he was over the rest of the season.

From the 2015/16 season:

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Spot up defense - 206 attempts, holding matchups to 33% shooting - 68% percentile

Off screen defense - 53 attempts, holding matchups to 34% shooting - 74% percentile

He also was a top-10 guard (not just PGs) in Keep-in-front% and contesting shots.

Curry was one of, if not the best PG (also one of the best out of all positions) when defending ISO, PnR ball-handler, spot up and off screen plays last season - not just one of these areas but ALL OF THEM. Now obviously there needs to be some context applied to all these (game situation, matchups, scheme and help defender deterrence), but you don't rate as highly as Curry did in ALL these defensive situations by being a trash defender.
 
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Devil Plisken…CMS

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Illuminatos said:
I'm still :mindblown: @ nikkas using the ability to carry bum teams as a criteria for being a top 5 player and then list Kawhi over Curry? The whole argument itself is stupid and ridiculous but still. :mindblown:

Kawhi was drafted to the best organization in the NBA and was playing with 3 HOFers and the GOAT coach. Golden State was arguably the worst organization in sports when Curry was drafted. They were literally at the bottom and now they're having the GOAT three year run in NB history. :gucci:

Kawhi was a damn project and had no pressure to develop his game under Pop, Duncan and Ginobili and Parker. nikka was in the Conference Finals his rookie year and then made the Finals the next 2 years. :wtf: Curry was came in hoping to be the face of the Warriors franchise and had to battle injuries for three years along with playing alongside garbage.

And how can anyone fix their face to call Curry a system player when Kawhi had that label on him for years? :laff:

And let me not even get into Durant supposedly carrying bummy teams when he had top 5 players in Westbrook and Harden alongside Ibaka for years, then signed with a 73 win team. :mjlol:
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09-10 wasn't nobody tripping off Stephb
Versa said:
A few stray comments

- Westbrook is arguably top 5 but definitely not better than the 4 players ahead of him, so that gap should be acknowledged for these discussions. The better question regarding Russ isn't whether he's better than LBJ/KD/Kawhi, but whether he's really better than Wall, AD and IT2.

- Curry being the best shooter to ever live, having top tier handles and being a great facilitator have nothing to do with the system he's in. Those are his own skills and are a primary factor for why the system even works to begin with.

- It's disturbing that a player who has won back to back MVP awards (one unanimous) and has led a team to a 73-9 record is still being called fraudulent/overrated. That shows a degree of stubbornest bordering on the ridiculous. It's really unfortunate that Draymond Green's dumbass couldn't avoid getting himself suspended, or we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion.

- Curry is not 1 dimensional...at all.

- Houston and GSW have better basketball teams than SAS, so I don't think it's fair to say that Kawhi needs to carry the Spurs past to those team to certify his elite credentials.
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Draymond got suspended for 1 game. It's a shame that the unanimous MVP couldn't get it done 2 more tries including a game 7 at home
 
HabitualChiller

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LeBron is still better than everyone. Closest to him is Kawhi with KD SLIGHTLY behind him.

Bron is damn near unguardable with his 3pt shot being viable and him being, of course, unstoppable inside. Couple that with him being a defensive anchor and he's still ahead of the competition.
 
mbewane

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duckbutta said:
What exactly does this mean? Cause I am unaware of the part of a basketball game that is officially "take over a game" time?

Is it 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter?

4 minutes left in the 4th quarter?

Is it the 4th quarter at all?

As someone who watches virtually all spurs games I would go so far as to say that I can't imagine any player in the nba "taking over" more games than Kawhi Leonard did this year. Because the vast majority of spurs games this year have had some point in the 2nd or 3rd quarter where they are up by 6...and then on offense kawhi goes jumper, jumper, and 1, jumper...and on the defensive end he guards the other team best guy and he goes contested miss, contested miss, steal, contested miss, block, forced turnover...and then the spurs are up 14 and he goes to the bench and for the rest of the night the other team never cuts it any closer to 7...there was no crunch time work for kawhi to do because he put the team away before crunch time occurred...
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It's whenever the game requires a player to take over and carry the team on his back. And if you reread my post, I specifically say that he's been doing it more and more this year, including in these playoffs. I've seen around 30-35 Spurs games this year (including playoffs, only missed Game 1 vs Memphis) so I guess I have a somewhat good sample size.

No need to get mad or whatever, Kawhi is prob my current favorite player. All I'm saying is that he's still developping that aspect of his game, wihch is scary because HE ALREADY DOES IT AT A HIGH LEVEL. But Lebron has been doing it for longer and still has an edge imo. I'm just saying he's still growing in that department, which is good.
 
bucks3115

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Steph better than lebron :mjlol:
Some OP start watching (understanding) the NBA in 2015 :heh:
 
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