And if you don’t move the ball and want to play right tomorrow, you’re sitting again.’ And I said ‘I want everybody to hear that, so it’s out there. And if you can’t handle that, that’s cool. And I have to coach you to who I think you should be some day, not to who you are today. But I am not going to allow you to waste what you are. And if you want to try and get me fired, I’m cool with that. I really believe, I know what’s better for you. And I said ‘Paul, I’m going to say this up front, and I’m going to say it in front of everyone, just so everyone’s clear. They’re pissed at Paul, but they’re pissed at me too, ’cause I took him out. So, I’m in the hallway, ’cause I’ve got to talk to the team now after the game. I took him out with four minutes left and sat him. My coming to Jesus moment with Paul was, we lost a game (Note: The Celtics actually won the game, with the Bucks, though the rest of Rivers’ recollection is accurate). If so, maybe it's time to start paying him a bit more attention.Doc Rivers: My first year with Paul Pierce was rough. His career may go down, historically, as one best experienced in the present. League Champion: San Antonio Spurs Finals MVP: Kawhi Leonard (17.8 / 6.4 / 2.0) 2014 Playoff Leaders: PTS: Kevin Durant (563) TRB: Tim Duncan (211) AST: Russell Westbrook (153) WS: LeBron James (4. Ultimately, we may have to acknowledge that Leonard's raw numbers simply won't do him justice, when everything is said and done. Instead, Leonard has found a comfort level that he settles into every night where huge numbers don't follow, but accurate reads, efficient offense and tough defense become his bread and butter. Fittingly, it's also his playoff career-high. In fact, Leonard’s career-high is 45 points. Sure, he isn't the type of player to suddenly go off for 55 points once a month, which may be a part of why he has a tendency to fly under the radar. This season, he's yet to have a single game of below 15 points, and he's had just two games shooting under 40% from the field. Rarely, if ever, does he experience games where he bottoms out. Part of that consistency stems from the fact that Leonard's baseline is incredibly high. The level of consistency Leonard displays is among the best we've seen in the history of the NBA. Over his past six seasons, Leonard has not failed to fall below a PER of 25, and during that span, he’s also sporting a TS% of 60.7 both of which are elite marks. Even as he increased his ballhandling duties over the past three years, he's still just at 9.2% which is mindblowing.) (Limiting turnovers may not be a sexy stat, but for his career, Leonard has a TOV% of just 9.1 which is utterly ridiculous. While he doesn't rack up triple-doubles, you can pretty much pencil him in for 25+ points, 6+ rebounds, elite defense and one of the lowest turnover rates in the NBA for any high-usage player. What Leonard has done over the past half-decade has been outstanding. But that only makes it that much more crucial that we, the collective global NBA community, cast a spotlight on players who dominate in the moment, and appreciate them for what they are doing, even if their raw stat lines don’t rank near the top of the league. It would seem optimistic to expect Leonard to suddenly go on a major five-year tear where he catches up to Harden, and it would also be out of character of him to even care about such an arbitrary goal.īut in a league where players become more and more heliocentric by every season, players such as Leonard, not to mention Draymond Green, stand out as potential long-term casualties of a stats-driven narrative.Īs such, maybe any attempt at preserving such legacies are futile. Leonard could get reduced to a footnote, or someone only the old-timers in the back (presumably still being played by Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall) will remember as being one of the most dominant two-way forces the league has ever seen.Īll of this is to ask: How much stock should we put into career numbers? Especially in relation to Leonard? And let’s not even begin to mention Russell Westbrook’s triple-double seasons. Under such a lens, Harden wins that discussion thoroughly. So when barbershops in the 2060’s discuss the merits of Leonard and Harden, what will be the basis of their conclusion? Yet, taking a snapshot of the present is usually an impossible task, as context gets lost over time. Some, even, would argue it’s not even close. Yet, right now in the present, Leonard is in many circles valued as the superior player. The latter has accumulated a ridiculously impressive 22,022 points, 5,712 assists and 4,782 rebounds over his 12 NBA seasons so far, which objectively dwarfs those of Leonard.
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