Ranking the top 5 small forwards of the 2023-24 season

Ranking the top 5 small forwards for the 2023-24 season: 3. Kawhi Leonard

There may not be a more unreliable player in the NBA than Kawhi Leonard. Nonetheless, he is still one of the best players in all of basketball. The reason he is unreliable is that he manages his body so carefully and even when he's 99% percent healthy, he might choose not to play. 

Last season was a down year for Leonard. After coming off an ACL injury in the 2021 playoffs and missing the entire 2022 season, Leonard got off to an expectedly slow start. But he averaged 23.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals on career-best efficiency shooting 51.2 percent from the field, 41.6 percent from 3, and 87.1 percent from the free throw line.

In the last 40 games that Leonard played in, he averaged over 35 minutes per game and he looked like superstar Kawhi Leonard. He averaged 26.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 52.7 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from 3, and 89.7 percent from the free throw line.

Leonard has no weakness in his game. He is a three-level scorer and is one of the best mid-range shooters in the NBA hitting 53.1 percent on shots 10-16 feet and 46.3 percent on shots 16-23 feet. He can rebound, make shots in the clutch, and is one of the best defenders in the league.

The only question mark that surrounds Leonard is whether or not he's going to play. This won't be as much of a question mark this season because the Los Angeles Clippers have expressed they want to take the regular season seriously. If Leonard does, he'll play like one of the best players in the NBA but because there will still be plenty of planned rest games even if he's healthy, so we have him third.