Over the past 15 months, Kawhi Leonard’s stock has soared all the way up. His two rings and two Finals MVPs with two different teams, along with his multiple DPOY awards has earned him the distinction of being included in possible top 10 all time debates.
I’m writing this to tell you this is a grave mistake. Kawhi Leonard not only shouldn’t be included in these talks – he is also not that much better than Jimmy Butler, who you can argue has much better feats.
Kawhi Leonard gets credit for his Finals MVP in 2014. A series where he averaged 18 and 6. And Tim Duncan averaged 15 and 10. And Tony Parker averaged 18 and 5. And where the team as a whole shot over 60% from the field in some halves. And where he got credit for his defense when LeBron averaged 28 and had “cramps”. In short, Kawhi Leonard’s “Finals MVP” was really a toss up that could have gone to anyone in that series. This doesn’t mean he didn’t play well: rather, it isn’t really strong enough move the needle either way for Kawhi. It was reminiscent of Iguodala’s Finals MVP against Bron.
Perhaps most importantly: People forget that Kawhi Leonard went back to being a fringe top-20 player that averaged a grand total of 18 and 7 throughout 2015 and 2016 together. In 2016 he faded in their series against the OKC Thunder. Again, this doesn’t mean he was even bad. He was still developing as a player during this time, offensively. This shouldn’t be held against him; but it shouldn’t go unnoticed when ranking his greatness because it shows how long it took for him to even become great in the first place.
2017 was his first real MVP level season, in which he averaged some 25 points and took a cheap shot injury that voided him from playoff contention. That was unfortunate, because he could have done some damage against the Warriors. Maybe.
2018 happened with the leg injury. Being fair, this shouldn’t be held against him either.
Then 2019 comes, and he goes to Toronto. He was brought in essentially to be a stat-boosted, more-clutch version of DeRozan, and he was: he carried Toronto in the 2nd and 3rd round for sure against Philly and Milwakee; but we overrate his Finals performance quite a bit. For starters, we criticize Steph Curry for winning the Cavs in 2015 with an injured Kyrie and Love. But we don’t seem to hold Kawhi Leonard to the same standard. Kawhi benefited from Klay missing a game, and KD missing virtually the whole series. And with Kyle Lowry and Van Vleet making the memorable plays. Kawhi’s “Jordan” moment was in game 5, where they lost at home after he faded in the final 2-3 minutes.
Regardless, let’s be fair. It was still a very good title run. The teams he played were no slouches. The 76ers and Bucks were very good teams. The Warriors team he played in the Finals was the weakest of the warriors dynasty (bench that consisted of really old or really inexperienced players, and no KD and partial Klay), but they were still good enough to get past Houston, so it’s not like they were bad. Overall, it’s a great resume builder. A great Finals run.
So now we have the 2020 season. Where the Clippers were anticipated to win the Finals, and were one of the most hyped up teams in recent memory. Where the only team that could have possibly beaten them was the Lakers. Two sixth men of the year. Paul George, a perennial top 15 player in the league, who, although not always reliable as a number #1 option, is a good number #2. With great shooters as well. Kawhi Leonard had a really good season. The idea of the Clippers failing to get out of the 2nd round was an afterthought.
All for them to be a 2nd seed and lose in game 7 of the semifinals. Where he shot 0-11 in the 4th quarter. 0-11 in the 4th quarter. His team was healthy. There were no suspensions. It was a 3rd seed Denver team that just got done playing a 7 game series after being 3-1, and whose best players are becoming top players, but still had growing pains. Murray used to be bad in game 7s. Not only was LA up 3-1 – they were up by double digits in the last 3 games they lost, where Kawhi failed to put the game way.
And that’s the present day. That’s it. 3 MVP level seasons. 1 great playoff run. 1 disappointing run in 2016, and an all-time epic collapse that is probably worse than that of the 2011 Heat and 2016 Warriors.
Now let’s look at Jimmy Butler.
Jimmy Butler, as stated before has much more impressive feats than Kawhi Leonard. Take a look at the last four teams that Jimmy Buckets has played for:
Chicago Bulls
Minnesota Timberwolves
Philadelphia 76ers
Miami Heat
What do you notice about those teams? All of them were worse before and after Butler.
The Chicago Bulls have not made the playoffs since Jimmy Butler has left. The Minnesota Timberwolves made their only playoffs appearance in the last 15 years only when Jimmy Butler appeared, and before he hurt his meniscus, they were a 3rd seed.
Philadelphia made it the farthest they have in the process era when Jimmy Butler was on the team. The tried running it back without him, still keeping Embiid, Simmons, Tobias Harris, and adding Horford. They got swept in the first round. (Yes, Simmons was hurt. But they finished with a lower seed.)
Now, Butler is in Miami. Miami didn’t make the playoffs last year, and hasn’t made a conference final since the big 3 era with Lebron. They accomplished that this year with Jimmy Butler. Of course, they acquired Tyler Herro Kendrick Nunn, while players like Adebayo and Robinson have improved. But the Heat had a 6-6 record without Butler this season, showing his impact.
So, it becomes clear that Jimmy Butler’s feats are more impressive than Kawhi Leonard’s. Kawhi played in that 20 year juggernaut system of the San Antonio Spurs. Then played for a Raptors team that, at the very least, has had never had an issue making it far in the playoffs both before and after he left. And lastly, this year he played for a Clippers team had two 6th Man of the Year players and a top 15 player in Paul George. A Clippers team that also managed to go to the playoffs in 2019 with no real star players.
Skill set wise, Kawhi isn’t the defender he used to be. Both he and Jimmy are two-way wings with similar skillsets and talent. Kawhi is a better 3PT shooter and overall slightly better statistically. Not by much, and this could be attributed to the teams they’ve played for. Kawhi played for the Spurs and Raptors – teams that already had great ball-movement offensive systems in place before he was there.
So is Kawhi really that much better than Butler? This is being asked because recently, people have been trying to push Kawhi as a potential top 10 player ever. There are people who have been calling him the best player in the league. All because of the 2 Finals MVPs with different teams? 1 of which he was just one of the guys? Because of 3 MVP level seasons? None of which were historical, memorable, record-breaking, or game-changing.
Kawhi Leonard is like an overvalued, bullish, meme stock that is currently experiencing a bubble. He is a very good player, but attempts to argue that he could have already been a top 10 player ever if he were to win with the Clippers this season are nothing more than the product of massive overrating. It seems like the real reason behind the Kawhi Leonard push is emotion. Part of it is a desire to find the next Jordan/Kobe heir apparent, and for some people (keyword: some), part of it may be due to dislike of LeBron James, and the dislike of the Warriors (Steph Curry and KD’s superteam) – as evidenced by how those players’ playoff performances are scrutinized much more than Kawhi Leonard’s (seriously, imagine if any one of those guys shot 0-11 in the 4th quarter of a game 7), but either way, it says lot about the way sports media and sports fans alike run away with narratives as long as a) everyone else says it, and b) as long as it validates their bias. The truth is, the Kawhi hype should be learning lesson to not be a prisoner of the moment.
