San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard is a long-armed monolith who can hold nine grapefruits in one hand. He's also one of the best basketball players in the world, and on path to become one of the best basketball players the NBA has ever seen.
On Thursday night, it was announced that Leonard would start in his very first All-Star game. The achievement is well deserved, but doesn't come close to capturing just how good Leonard has been.
He's having a season for the ages on both ends of the floor, doing things we haven't seen in decades:
Kawhi Leonard is the most well-rounded elite shooter since Larry Bird: https://t.co/78ocyHndVs pic.twitter.com/dA1brQoOWd
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) January 22, 2016
From Neil Paine's 538 article:
Leonard currently ranks second among qualified players in 3-point accuracy, having knocked down a ridiculous 48.4 percent of his threes. Before this season, his career high had been 37.9 percent (on 2.8 threes per game) and his high for attempts per game was 3.0; this year, he’s taking 3.8 per game and shattering his career numbers. Merely putting a shooting threat of that magnitude on the floor can dramatically grease the wheels of offensive efficiency: Since 1997-98,1 teams whose regular lineups featured a guy hitting at least 45 percent of his threes scored 2.7 more points per 100 possessions than their peers. But Leonard is more than just a long-distance sniper.
If stats aren't your thing, Leonard's aesthetic brilliance will knock you over. He can get wherever he wants, whenever he wants, and has transformed himself into a human highlight reel of efficiency:
Only 24 years old, averaging 20.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game; making 48.4 percent of his threes with the fifth highest PER and ninth-lowest turnover rate in the NBA, Leonard is not real.
Salute to every fan who guaranteed his spot as an All-Star starter, even though he probably deserves even more.
