The 10 most irresponsible 2017 NBA Draft prospect comparisons

10. O.G. Anunoby is not the next Kawhi Leonard

This comp came up early in the season, and has stuck around even after Anunoby tore his ACL in January. The logic follows — Anunoby is a small forward with an advanced defensive profile, great athleticism and wingspan, and an offensive game that could turn out to be pretty solid if he fixes his funky 3-point shot. In essence, that was the book on Kawhi, and he turned out awesome!

However, this ignores a pretty large qualifier that needs to be accounted for with Leonard’s progression — that everything he’s done to this point in his career has the Spurs’ development staff’s fingerprints on it. Kawhi has become Kawhi as much because of the Spurs’ ability to coax a top-5 player out of him as his own determination and skill set. It’s fallacy to think that Leonard becomes a 39 percent 3-point shooter no matter what team he lands on — just look at the shooting progression of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with the Bobcats, who’s devoted similar time to fixing his release and shot 25.9 percent from mid-range this season. Anunoby’s shooting profile hits somewhere between these two extremes, obviously, but it’s far from a given that Anunoby can make the same ascension in outside shooting, and that’s before we get to Kawhi’s progressions as a playmaker and on-ball scorer.

Anunoby needs to focus on becoming a functional offensive player before he ever sets his sights on being Kawhi 2.0. He also has the issue of his elite athleticism, which is in question now that he’s coming back from an ACL reconstruction. If he can’t get his explosion and lateral quickness back, that ceiling as a Kawhi-level defensive stopper is also gone.

Anunoby is a lottery-level prospect, and has All-Star potential if he lands in the right spot. But banking on that ceiling is premature, given his ACL injury and just how much work needs to be done on his outside shot.