What more can Kawhi Leonard do in his NBA career?
The San Antonio Spurs have one of the best young players in the NBA, in Kawhi Leonard. What more can the 23-year-old do in his professional career?
There once was an experiment conducted back in 1979 dealing with the important of writing down goals. The experiment was seeing how many students who graduated from Harvard’s graduate school wrote down their goals for the future.
Out of 100 percent of students, 84 percent had no immediate goals in mind. Only 13 percent had goals but didn’t write them down, while only three percent of graduates wrote down their goals.
How about we join the three percent of Harvard students who wrote their goals down and make a miniature checklist for the San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard?
- Become a NBA first round pick ✓
- Become a starter ✓
- Play in the NBA Finals ✓
- Win an NBA Championship ✓
- Make All-NBA Defensive Team ✓
What is there to do once a person has accomplished all of their goals? What motivates someone to want to stay at the top of their game, or better yet get better from their success?
For Leonard, the 23-year-old has accomplished so much during his three seasons in the NBA including becoming a first round pick, playing in two NBA Finals, making the All-NBA Defensive team, and even becoming the third youngest player in NBA history behind Magic Johnson to get named as a NBA Finals MVP.
*On another note: Magic Johnson won the NBA Finals award twice at the age of 20 and 22.*
Because Leonard’s accomplished so much at such a young age, what more is there left for him to do? It might seem crazy that at 23 years old, Leonard has had more achievements that a lot of veterans in the NBA, but thankfully he understands that there is much more left for him to accomplish.
Who Are You?
In one of the most humbling interviews in the NBA Finals, Leonard spoke to ESPN’s Stuart Scott (Rest In Peace) after having a monster game four against the Miami Heat which left the Spurs one game away from winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Leonard finished with 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting, 14 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocked shots, and then humbly answered one of Scott’s questions with a simple response.
Scott: Kawhi Leonard, who are you man?
Leonard: Kawhi Leonard.
Ever heard of the phrase, the world is your oyster?
For Leonard, the basketball world is looking like his oyster because as much as he’s already achieved in his career as a professional basketball player, there is still much more that he can learn. Simply put, there’s a lot in Leonard’s game that he can improve on to become one of the best players in the league.
For example when Leonard played against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 26, 2015 he had a monster game finishing with 19 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, three steals and one block. For most people that stat line is a career night. For Leonard, it was his ninth double-double of the 2014-15 season.
Even though Leonard has only played in 28 games this season, and averages 32 minutes a night, he only trails LeBron James by three double-doubles for the lead league for small forwards.
The reason why Leonard is so good is because he understands what his niche is on the court. He’s the type of person who’s going to do everything that it takes to win games, including going in the paint and getting rebounds, diving on the floor for loose balls, and worry about shutting down the opponents best player while enjoying the game of basketball.
Though Leonard may seem stoic at times, it’s because he’s so dialed in mentally that he’s about his business. It’s that type of passion that got him signed with the Jordan Brand, and it’s that type of focus why he’s already a young champion.
The fact that Leonard offensively isn’t at the level of other small forwards in the league such as Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Gordon Hayward, he doesn’t lack anything in his game. But of course, unlike the small forwards mentioned above, Leonard still has to develop a reliable jump shot to make the next step in his game and become a go to scorer for the Spurs.
What Leonard can do better is start shooting in the mid range at a higher clip.
Last season Leonard was a reliable shooter in the mid range as he made nearly 48 percent of his jump shots from 10 to 16 feet.
This year because of the torn ligament to his shooting hand, he’s taken a step back and he’s shooting 41 percent from the mid range.
When Leonard is dialed in offensively, there isn’t much a defender can do because he can take opponents off of the dribble, and with his jump shot flowing he can nail open shots and make tough shots too.
Even though Leonard is developing his offense game, where he makes his mark as a basketball player is on the defensive side of the basketball. Because of his efforts on defense the Spurs are a significantly better team when Leonard’s on the floor.
In an interview with Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated, Leonard said this about his game:
"“My mindset is the same every game….Whoever I’m playing against, I go in and try to stop their best scorer and try to get myself going on the offensive end."
Leonard is ranked No. 3 in defensive rating in the league and he’s No. 10 in Defensive Box Plus/Minus.
Additionally looking at ESPN’s Real Plus Minus he’s ranked at No. 12, in front of John Wall, Blake Griffin, Klay Thompson, Marc Gasol, Paul Millsap, Jimmy Butler, and Jeff Teague. What do all these players have in common? They are all most like going to participate in the 2014-15 NBA All-Star game in New York City.
Kawhi So Serious
There’s still more for Leonard to accomplish in his NBA career including making the All-Star game, making the All-NBA team, and becoming a household name in the league, because his game is that of superstar potential.
As for those graduates students we spoke about earlier, they met up ten years later and the results were wonderful. The three percent of the students that wrote down their goals on average earned ten times more than the other 97 percent of their classmates. In essence, it pays to write down goals.
For Leonard, the question is what other goals in his mind does he have left to achieve?
Go write them down.