Getty Kawhi Leonard #2 of the San Antonio Spurs is fouled by Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers at AT&T Center on February 6, 2016 in San Antonio, Texas.
There have been many an outlandish or provocative opinion on ESPN First Take. This Tuesday’s comments from Max Kellerman seemed to genuinely rile up the feathers of fellow analyst Stephen A. Smith and guest Jay Williams.
Kellerman asserted that Raptors star forward Kawhi Leonard is “better under pressure” than Kobe Bryant, causing Smith to roll his eyes through the explanation and Williams to take a lap immediately after it.
Here’s the video.
“Nobody had more heart than Kobe. Kobe’s not scared of anything,” Kellerman said, “but because Kobe is the best bad-shot maker who ever lived, he would take a lot of bad shots because he knew he could make them. Look at how often he made them, as opposed to what Kawhi is doing. He takes higher percentage shots and makes them more often under pressure than what Kobe Bryant did.”
Leonard is coming off a 39-point performance in a Game 4 road victory at Philadelphia on Sunday. As NBA.com notes:
Leonard is second in the league in postseason scoring averaging 32.3 points per game. Even more impressive, he is averaging 38 points on 62 percent shooting, including 49 percent shooting from three, in four games against the Sixers this series.
To head off criticism of recency bias, Kellerman added that Leonard already has an NBA Finals MVP from the Spurs’ 2014 title over the Heat. Basically, he is arguing that this postseason is building on an already impressive resume.
“Kawhi Leonard just started averaging 20 points per game a couple of years ago,” Smith retorted. “Kawhi Leonard just started becoming an offensive force a couple of years ago. We haven’t seen Kawhi Leonard have to carry the load that Kobe had to carry with the Lakers.”
Williams pointed out that Kellerman was only using a single playoff series against the Sixers to justify his opinion. Basically, both he and Smith need more evidence over the next several seasons.
Statistically, it took until Leonard’s 4th playoffs (during the 2014-15 season) to average more than 20 points per game. That year ended with a 1st round series exit, and he hasn’t been past the conference semifinals since the breakout title year.
Meanwhile, Bryant also took until his 4th playoffs to average 20 points per game, doing so during Los Angeles’ first of three titles in 2000. In every other postseason after that, he scored over 20 points a game, including 5 where he posted averages over 30.
Leonard has connected on over 50 percent of his postseason shots, while Bryant shot just under 45 percent on a much higher volume. He also has two Finals MVPs from 2009 and 2010.
Kellerman is probably arriving at this point a few data points too early. If Leonard gets to the Finals this year and keeps it up, let’s readdress it.
Kawhi Leonard Free Agency Rumors & Updates
A few weeks ago, there was a lot of buzz about Raptors president Masai Ujiri and Leonard being a package deal to one of the Los Angeles teams, particularly the Lakers. Now, it seems like Leonard’s playoff success could keep him in Toronto.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said as much to Real GM:
“Kawhi Leonard just felt all along, it was going to take the full year to sell him on Toronto,” Wojnarowski said. “It wasn’t going to be done in training camp or by Christmas or by the trade deadline. But I do think they’ve made progress with him. I do think they’ve made pretty good progress with him from the sense I have. They put themselves in it. And when Kawhi showed up there, I’m not sure he imagined any future in Toronto. I do think it’s a serious consideration now.
Leonard has gone from wanting to team up with LeBron and the Lakers to slightly favoring the Clippers. What a shocker it would be if the Raptors retained him, but that’s the way the winds are blowing at the moment.
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