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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |