Kawhi Anthony Leonard is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. Leonard is listed as a small forward at 6 ft 7 in and 230 lb.
Leonard has started the season building on his excellent play against Miami. He's averaging a career-high 15.1 points and 7.7 rebounds in 31.6 minutes per game, and he's had a few standout performances. Leonard made a few huge plays down the stretch against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday and finished the game with 26 points and 10 boards. That was the fourth time he topped 20 points on the year.
It'd be unwise, however, to expect Leonard to put up those kind of numbers every night. Beyond the fact that there will be times where Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are piling up points, it's not Leonard's or the Spurs' style to force anything. He'll make smart plays and he'll be aggressive, but it'd be surprising if his usage rate jumped far above his current 21.9 percent by the end of the season.
San Antonio is lucky to have an array of playmakers as well as a 23-year-old rising star at small forward. Leonard is approaching franchise-player status, and Popovich is handling his development the right way. We'll surely see him dominate from time to time, but he even said in the story that "they're trying to score the ball as much as I am, and they've already been here for 10 years and Coach Pop has the confidence in them, and they've been here, they know more than me, so just got to ride with them and wait until they're on their way out."
Popovich's advice is to play as if they're out the door already. That's the balance Leonard and the Spurs are trying to reach
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