Getty Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers, at left, guard Lakers forward LeBron James
Kawhi Leonard is a two-time NBA Champion and NBA Finals MVP as a member of the San Antonio Spurs and the Toronto Raptors.
A two-time All-NBA First team member, a two-time NBA All Defensive Player of the Year and three-time NBA All-Defensive First Team member, Leonard has goals of winning an NBA Championship as a member of a Doc Rivers-guided Los Angeles Clippers team that has Paul George, Patrick Beverley, Joakim Noah, Ivica Zubac and Lou Williams on their roster.
The Clippers like the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks could potentially make it to the NBA Finals.
Leonard turned heads when he guided the Raptors to the NBA Finals.
Appearing on this week’s episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, Ryan Hollins checked in discussed LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard comparisons. “Kawhi is intriguing,” Ryan Hollins told me while on Scoop B Radio.
“Because he can actually guard LeBron, but at a time when he won it, he beat a hobbled Warriors team. So we can’t quite grade and say whoa, you did something LeBron couldn’t do because there was no KD. Heck, there was no Klay Thompson and these guys were a little bit older. Iggy was hobbled; I mean, they were the walking wounded honestly. So it’s hard to cast him in or put him in those shoes. It was a lot of opportunity, a lot of timing, but to me, if you talk about the hottest year in basketball; like he’s up there if you take one year and what’s so crazy Scoop, and intriguing; Kawhi Leonard, that run you can only compare to Michael, Kobe and Hakeem. Like the numbers he put up was unreal and he absolutely led his team. And intriguingly the time that he did it, he and KD through the playoffs even though we didn’t see it, they were the best players on the planet at that time. KD was stepping into a place and what’s very sad is that we can’t really properly evaluate either of those two because KD got hurt, and then Kawhi played against a hobbled Warriors team. So all you have to go on is show me in the next year. But if you go on their track record before that, you can’t quite put him in that conversation yet and that’s where you appreciate LeBron and his longevity. No, he only won three out of the nine Finals but you have enough of a sample to see that the guy keeps on coming back and consistency absolutely means something.”