PHILADELPHIA — Everybody and their cousin LeRoy has been arguing about who the best player in the league is for the past month. Boyz have been throwing KD’s name in the ring along with the Greek Freak. Now it’s all subjective and who really cares who it is right now but boyz have been sleeping on Kawhi Leonard like that dun has gone out to pasture or something.
Well playas, he reminded us all that he was still in the land of the living and still handling his business on Sunday night when he put the Raptors on his back. He carried them to a 101-96 win over Philly to tie the series 2-2. Ole boy put up a smooth 39 points and 14 rebounds just to let you know that he was still Kawhi.
On some real talk, he’s been ballin’ the entire postseason and putting up some historic numbers while you’re trying to ignore him. On Sunday he was so efficient it was silly. He was 13 of 20 from the field and he’s knocked down 21 of his 24 uncontested shots in the first four games of this postseason.
In the first 9 games of this postseason he’s become the first player in NBA history to average 30 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists on an effective field goal percentage greater than 65. That’s NUTS but nobody’s talking about him right now.
However, he’s averaging 32.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists with an effective field goal percentage of 66.2. For y’all that’s checking that’s rare for a boy to put up those types of numbers in the playoffs. Only three other cats in the history of the league has put up 30, 5 and 3 on at least 60% and they are LeBron (2016-17), Shaq (1996-97) and Kareem (1976-77).
So let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! When we’re talking about who the best players in the league are from now on. Don’t start the conversation without talking about Kawhi Leonard. I know boyz love to jump on the cat on the best team and holler KD like he’s the only great player playing right now but Kawhi is putting in crazy work.
Just think of how much we’d be talking about him had he been playing for Golden State. Not taking anything away from KD but it’s a whole lot easier to get buckets playing with a team full of shooters that you have to account for. You can’t ever double team him or cheat on defense playing against the Warriors. Did I mention that the dun was 7-feet tall too?
All I’m saying is, pay attention to what Kawhi is doing too. He’s no slouch and stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.