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Kawhi Leonard would like to remind you he's an MVP candidate
Serious conversation over the NBA’s 2016-17 MVP candidates focuses on a few players — James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and whichever star happens to be on a hot streak at any particular moment. That third group has included all sorts of players over the last few months, including Isaiah Thomas and LeBron James (especially before he got involved in his latest round of media controversies). For the most part, though, only Harden and Westbrook have registered as likely winners. They’re putting up stats we’ve never seen before and carrying their teams to better-than-expected records and playoff seeds.
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It might be time to add Kawhi Leonard as permanent, if not necessarily favored, member of the list. The San Antonio Spurs superstar has continued to ride his seemingly endless development curve this season and came into Tuesday night’s home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with career-best 25.4 ppg and his peerless wing defense for the league’s third-most efficient unit. Few players have such an impact at either end, let alone both, and Leonard seems fully comfortable in his role as leader of the team with the second-best record in the NBA.
His performance vs. OKC only drove home the point. Leonard scored 36 points (13-of-26 FG, 9-of-11 FT) and added eight rebounds, four assists, and two blocks in San Antonio’s 108-94 win, dominating at the offensive end and helping to hold the visitors to just 35.2 percent shooting from the field.
Kawhi also had the best highlight of any game on Tuesday when he crossed over Victor Oladipo and finished with a sweet reverse layup:
That fantastic play encapsulates much of what makes Leonard such a fascinating figure. Many players improve from year to year, but Leonard genuinely looks like a different player than the one who used to camp out in the corner during his first couple seasons with the Spurs. He’s now genuinely capable of taking over games and scoring when the offense has no other options. He doesn’t just get better — he seems to add four new skills every month.
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That rapid improvement is also showing up in his scoring numbers this year. While Leonard’s shooting percentages are down (though still very good) with a 4.4 percent increase in usage, he has become a much more consistent force. Leonard now has 15 games of at least 30 points this season after having produced four such games in his first five seasons (all of which came in 2015-16). Calling him an improved scorer is a gross understatement. He’s now the obvious first option on one of the best offenses in the league.
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The Spurs needed all he brought on Tuesday despite the comfortable-seeming result. Only LaMarcus Aldridge (25 points on 8-of-15 FG) joined Leonard in double figures, and the rest of the team shot a mere 35.6 percent from the field. Of course, the Thunder struggled to score much of the night and only really threatened the Spurs’ superiority during a 25-4 third-quarter run that gave them a brief lead. Even then, though, the advantage seemed destined to turn back to San Antonio.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
