TORONTO — What number of titles did Kawhi Leonard go away on the desk?
We’ll by no means know, after all. And the person has two championship rings to go together with two NBA Finals MVPs, so it’s not like he wants any validation or any extra proof that at his finest he’s among the many best to ever do it.
However the NBA strikes quick, and Leonard is now 32 years previous, and can flip 33 this summer time. He’s 10 years faraway from his first championship with the San Antonio Spurs as a 22-year-old, two-way drive that nobody actually noticed coming. He’s 5 years out from his win with the Raptors when he was the perfect participant on the planet for a span of two months, lifting his sport to new heights a season after he missed most of a 12 months resulting from a leg downside, the remedy and analysis of which prompted his cut up from the Spurs.
Trying again it’s arduous to think about the 2019-20 Raptors wouldn’t have defended their championship had Leonard stayed in Toronto. The Raptors set a franchise file for profitable share with out him and went to seven video games within the Japanese Convention semifinals with the Boston Celtics. They have been an elite staff in want of a more in-depth.
Was working in it again with Leonard ever even within the playing cards?
One Western Convention government I spoke with lately stated that “all of the intel on the market was that he was going to Los Angeles, that anybody who traded for him would have him for one 12 months.”
The Raptors rolled the cube and gained, however misplaced Leonard.
The Raptors’ finest hope was that with a title as proof of idea and the picture of the championship parade contemporary in his thoughts, Leonard would stick round. Nevertheless it wasn’t ok. Leonard wished to play in Los Angeles and the Clippers have been capable of minimize a deal to make it occur.
The query is whether or not Leonard will attain the heights he reached as a Raptor ever once more.
Nobody is suggesting he’s not succesful. He rolls into Toronto on Friday evening taking part in just like the Kawhi of previous, or younger, relying in your perspective.
Leonard and the Clippers began slowly — Leonard recovering from low season knee surgical procedure and the Clippers adjusting to the addition of James Harden — however he’s been his monstrous self since, higher than ever in some respects.
For the reason that center of November, Leonard is averaging 24.9 factors a sport with almost absurd taking pictures effectivity as he’s transformed 54.4 per cent of his two-point makes an attempt, 45.1 per cent of his three-point makes an attempt and 90.8 per cent of his free throws. It provides as much as a True Taking pictures share (which components in accuracy and manufacturing from all three classes) of 65.3 per cent.
For reference, his True Taking pictures share throughout his championship run with the Raptors was 61.9. When Nikola Jokic — one of the vital environment friendly offensive gamers in league historical past — led the Denver Nuggets to the championship final season, his True Taking pictures share was 63.1.
It’s bonkers stuff. And as anybody who watched earlier this season when the Raptors misplaced to Clippers in Los Angeles and noticed Leonard eradicate Scottie Barnes within the fourth quarter can attest, the Clippers star stays one of the vital formidable stoppers within the sport, too.
“He’s a drive of nature,” stated Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, who was an assistant with the Spurs summer time league staff the 12 months San Antonio acquired Leonard — unheralded because the Fifteenth-overall choose within the 2011 draft — in a commerce with Indiana. “I used to be capable of comply with his profession from the beginning, his very first Summer time League. It was wonderful transformation… he simply continues to enhance each single 12 months, including extra stuff to his sport and clearly among the finest two-way gamers within the league.”
However for Leonard, the one quantity that basically issues is video games performed.
Even with the Raptors he was solely capable of play 60 regular-season video games, and whereas he led the playoffs in minutes performed, there have been moments through the run when his availability wasn’t sure as he handled a persistent knee situation.
Since then, Leonard’s profession has been a narrative of peak performances sandwiched round prolonged damage absences. Leonard was placing up 30.4 factors per sport and taking pictures 57.3 per cent through the 2020-21 playoffs earlier than {a partially} torn ACL ended his post-season within the Western Convention semifinals. He missed the entire 2021-22 season however was again on his sport in 2022-23 and had put up a pair of big performances to open the Clippers’ first-round sequence in opposition to the Phoenix Suns however tore the meniscus in the identical knee the place suffered his ACL damage. His post-season was executed early once more, with the Clippers being eradicated within the first spherical shortly after.
It’s been a unique story to date this season. Heading into Friday’s sport, he’s performed in 38 of the Clippers’ 42 begins. He’s performed in back-to-backs and has solely missed 4 video games whole resulting from a strained hip flexor over Christmas. If he maintains his present tempo, Leonard will play 74 video games this season, which might tie his profession excessive, set as a 25-year-old with the Spurs in 2016-17 when he completed third within the MVP race.
Not surprisingly, having Leonard out there and taking part in at his regular elite degree has been a boon for the Clippers. Since beginning 3-7, Los Angeles has gone 25-7, the second-best file league-wise over that stretch.
“It’s been nice for us, simply having that consistency,” stated Clippers head coach Ty Lue once I spoke with him in Los Angeles earlier this month on the identical day Leonard signed a three-year contract extension for $153 million. “Simply having our guys taking part in each evening. We will repair our rotations, we are able to perceive who performs properly collectively and the proper match. … The most important factor with Kawhi was that this summer time, like he all the time does, he put within the arduous work. Nevertheless it takes a bit luck. It’s a tricky sport and the way in which he performs the sport, accidents are a part of it and an enormous factor in sports activities. I’m simply grateful he’s wholesome and all of the arduous work he’s put on this summer time to get to his level has been good for him.”
In fact Leonard is simply midway dwelling. However at this stage it’s arduous not to have a look at the Clippers as a formidable risk within the Western Convention, and with Harden and Paul George and the assist of an in any other case deep roster, one that may emerge from the West.
And if the Clippers make the NBA Finals and Leonard is wholesome, his means to shut the deal is properly documented. Title No. 3 is ready.
Three is a powerful quantity to make sure, however as any Raptors fan is aware of, with Leonard there’ll all the time be a query of what number of extra he might have gained.
