Kawhi Leonard is a uniquely oracular figure in an era where players participate in the year-round, around-the-clock, all-access content generating. Whereas his contemporaries are extremely online, airing out personal drama and planning superteams with one another in plain sight, Leonard has skulked beneath the surface. As a consequence of his social media anathema, his humble beginnings as a mid-first round pick in a small market and lone wolf persona, he is often overlooked. Yet, he now finds himself as the NBA Finals’ marquee star and the only obstacle between a third straight league year culminating with Golden State’s domination of the basketball world.
Leonard wasn’t fortunate enough to enter the league as a 7-foot unicorn like Kevin Durant or Giannis Antetokounmpo. He didn’t burst onto the scene. Here are the number of career games it took NBA greats to score 30 points for the first time. Wilt Chamberlain (1), Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3), Magic Johnson (11), LeBron James, Kevin Durant (17), Larry Bird (18), Steph Curry (41), Kobe Bryant (99), Antetokounmpo (175), James Harden (196). It took Leonard 313 games. Leonard is an oven-roasted superstar and each time we opened the hatch to check on his development, he was a little closer to his fully cooked state. This postseason, Leonard has posted 11 30-point games, one game shy of Hakeem Olajuwon’s pre-Finals record of 12 in 1995.
As Leonard has matured into a silent, serene, neo-noir wing whose scoring profile is a cross between the old guard and vanguards of new, Harden’s his astronomical high-volume 3-point shooting and paucity of mid-range attempts is considered the height of new-age efficiency. Harden’s offense electrifies during the regular season. In the postseason, Leonard’s potent post-up game, midrange proficiency, bumper car forays into the painted area and trash compactor defense takes you further.
The Toronto Raptors mute superstar is also set to become a free agent in about a month. True to his nature, he has been reticent to address his upcoming exploration of free agency. His deafening play in the postseason has spoken volumes as Nick Nurse has ridden Leonard like Lil Nas X’s country music Billboard thoroughbred all the way to the end of the ole playoff road. Despite all the superlatives being heaped upon Leonard, you could argue this isn’t even his best playoff run.
We saw a preview of Leonard’s world-beating ability in 2017 when he led San Antonio to a Western Conference Finals tilt against Golden State. During those playoffs, Leonard battled ankle injuries, but still averaged 27.7 points, 4.6 assists and 7.8 rebounds, coupled with 50/40/90 percentages. Lightning struck when Leonard landed on Zaza Pachulia’s foot during the third quarter of Game 1, aggravating an already tender ankle and forcing him to miss the remainder of the series. Up until that point, had the San Antonio Spurs up 23 on the road. Without him, Golden State immediately embarked on an 18-0 run and proceeded to steamroll past San Antonio in four games.
For most of the 2017-18 season, Leonard was defined by his struggle ascending an Airstair onto the team plane, the strange hiccups in a protracted rehab and his tension with the franchise that birthed “load management.”
During his first postseason since 2017, Leonard is averaging 31.2 points, 50 percent shooting, 3.8 assists and 8.8 boards per contest. He’s lugged a sluggish offense that is averaged 21.6 points fewer points per 100 possessions when he rested.
He flipped the Conference Finals on its head by frustrating Antetokounmpo as his primary defender during the Eastern Conference Finals. When Leonard Velcroed himself to Antetokounmpo, the soon-to-be crowned 2019 MVP’s volume and percentages dipped significantly. Antetokounmpo shot 35.3 percent and took 34 field goal attempts in 160 possessions when guarded by the 2-time Defensive Player of the Year. In 190 possessions defended by mere mortals, Antetokounmpo shot 44 percent on 105 attempts in 190 attempts.
Those god-level defensive instincts will be integral to Toronto’s chances of defeating Golden State in the NBA Finals. The Warriors offense earned the highest offensive rating in NBA history this season and have the three highest effective field goal percentages of all-time since 2016. The NBA’s most recognizable loner is bereft of All-Star teammates, however, he does have the benefit of four teammates worthy of NBA All-Defense honors in Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka and former Defensive Player of the Year, Marc Gasol.
Leonard’s herculean performance has affirmed the wisdom of playoff teams trading a run-of-the-mill All-Star for the expiring contract of an imitable generational talent. Leonard is the fourth player in the last 30 seasons to lead his team in postseason scoring and earn a Finals bid, joining Barkley in ‘93, Kidd in ‘02 and LeBron in 2011.
The closest comp to what Leonard has accomplished is Barkley’s first season in Phoenix. Phoenix essentially traded leading scorer Jeff Hornacek and flotsam for Barkley before the 92-93 season. In Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against Seattle, Barkley registered 44 points and 24 rebounds to propel Phoenix to the NBA Finals.
Two decades ago, the New Jersey Nets similarly changed the tide of their franchise by swapping Stephon Marbury with Jason Kidd. However, in the age of six and seven-year deals, New Jersey had more cushion to soften the risk. Raptors team Masai Ujiri pulling the trigger on a kamikaze trade for Leonard (and Danny Green) meant this Raptors golden era could be an ephemeral one because of its makeup.
A Toronto roster that couldn’t make the leap crossed the Nets-Kidd rubicon when they acquired Leonard in exchange for DeMar DeRozan. There was a caveat-emptor attached to Leonard’s presence.
Kawhi Leonard has no desire to play in Toronto, league source tells ESPN.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 18, 2018
Not only is Leonard set to become a free agent next month, but Lowry will be 34 next season and Gasol, whom they traded for at the deadline, will be 35. The gamble has been worth it. Ujiri’s alternative to risking it all for Leonard was another demoralizing postseason as Eastern Conference vassals in the post-LeBron epoch. The Dwane Casey and DeRozan-led Raptors peaked in 2018, yet still wound up getting swept as their leading scorer was benched in the second half of a competitive Game 3. Without DeRozan, the Raptors stayed close before James’ buzzer-beating, one-handed, running bank shot put Cleveland up 3-0. Toronto’s 35-point loss in Game 4 was a cry for help.
A year earlier, Oklahoma City trading Victor Oladipo, Damontas Sabonis for Paul George’s expiring deal provided the blueprint. Not only did George re-sign, but he emerged as an MVP contender and is a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year despite playing through a torn labrum.
It feels like a lifetime ago when Leonard wanted to increase his marketability in a major market, specifically by playing for one of his hometown’s two L.A. franchises and was reportedly disappointed when he landed north of the border. But it was only last July.
Five years earlier, Ujiri was at the helm of a egalitarian Nuggets squad which had Andre Iguodala, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Corey Brewer, Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler averaging between 11 to 16 points a game. They won the third most games in the West, but lacked any all-world talent. In the postseason, the Golden State Warriors dispatched them in the first round to win their first playoff series of the Steph Curry era, then poached Iguodala. Ujiri was named Executive of the Year, then accepted the Raptors offer to become team president. Ujiri eschewed the widely held idea that Toronto should go young, rebuild and tank for Canada’s previous Cornrow King, Andrew Wiggins.
Toronto’s ascendance during Leonard’s one season has allowed Toronto to move on from their ayahuasca illusions of Wiggins’ Maple Jordan upside and the tangible All-Star seasons DeRozan gave the city, quicker than Northern Westeros’ houses shifted their allegiances from Rob Stark to Jon Snow before settling on the preternaturally savvy Queen Sansa.
Leonard’s iconic series ending baseline coup de grace to put Philly away reverberated throughout Raptors history and excised the Game 7 demons dating back to from Vince Carter’s bricked fadeaway in 2001’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.
The crater Leonard left behind in the Eastern Conference offers a slither of hope for Portland, Utah and Denver, who are positioned as marquee teams that lack championship-caliber buoyancy on their roster. These teams are trapped in a terrarium with a crystalline view of a world of possibilities just outside their reach. Reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert is now eligible for the five-year, $247.3M supermax, but he and Donovan Mitchell are not enough. They’ll eventually need a boost to climb The Association totem pole. Portland’s needs a reinvention because they’ve maxed out in their current form. Even Denver requires an elite playmaking wing or a true point guard who can partner with Nikola Jokic to put them over the top.
The upper echelon of superstardom is an exclusive affair and the fanbases of stalled teams would sacrifice almost anything to join the NBA’s elite. The ROI on Leonard’s lone season also opens up the AD’s sweepstakes. As with George and Leonard, a team on the cusp could swoop in and roll the dice on AD’s expiring contract in hopes of a franchise-altering campaign.
Before we reach that juncture, Leonard will have a platform to put his legacy on a fusion rocket into the stratosphere. A victory over Golden State allows him to bookend the Warriors dynasty with a pair of titles and portray his understated career in an even more auspicious light. In 2013, when Leonard was still a tertiary figure in the Spurs solar system, it was his missed free throw with 19.4 seconds remaining that allowed Ray Allen’s corner three to tie Game 6 as time expired. That mistake and the subsequent loss was avenged the next year in a Finals rematch in which Leonard was awarded Finals MVP, despite averaging a meager 17.8 points per game based on his maximal defense on LeBron.
Since digging The Heatles’ graves in 2014, Leonard spent 2016 and 2017 nipping at Golden State’s heels. The 2019 Finals are the capstone of that pursuit and the culmination of the first half of his sterling career.
