NBA Rankings: Top 10 small forwards for 2014-15
4. Kawhi Leonard:
2013-14 Stat Line: 65 games, 29.1 MPG, 12.8 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.7 SPG, .522/.379/.802 shooting, 19.4 PER
Until you get to the shooting splits and the Player Efficiency Rating at the end, Kawhi Leonard has the least impressive stat line of anyone on this list. He didn’t even crack 30 minutes per game and No. 4 on the list might seem a bit high when you consider that Gregg Popovich might once again put his 23-year-old star of the future on a minutes restriction. The San Antonio Spurs are deep enough to be able to do so, after all.
But putting the 2014 NBA Finals MVP any lower on the list would have been an insult to what we saw out of Leonard in the playoffs this past season. He stepped up his numbers to 14.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game in the postseason while shooting 51 percent from the floor and nearly 42 percent from three-point range. In the championship series against the Miami Heat, Leonard averaged 17.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.2 blocks per game all while guarding LeBron James for the majority of each game.
That’s awfully impressive for a 23-year-old, and as Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili continue to inch closer to retirement, the focus will shift toward the future of Spurs basketball. It won’t happen immediately, and as we learned from watching Kawhi Leonard during the 2013-14 regular season, we shouldn’t be expecting a huge breakout year. But come playoff time? There’s not a single guy on this list we’ve covered yet that you’d rather have on your team.