Thread on Kawhi Leonard’s overrated ass career. People often have propped him up and compared him to Jordan and put him over guys like Jordan, Lebron, Bird, Curry, Kobe, Durant etc. but don’t criticize him the way those guys all have been criticized when they underperformed.

It’s starts as early as 2013 for a young Kawhi. Many people talk about Ray Allen’s shot, but don’t realize this shot wouldn’t have mattered if 12 seconds before Kawhi made both his free throws to put his team up 4 and win his team the finals. He missed one. We know the rest.

In the year after, the Spurs redeemed themselves. But people oddly give Kawhi all the credit just cause he won finals mvp. His averages in that playoff run:

14/7/1 on 60% TS

Just for comparison, Lamar Odom averaged 14/10/3 in his 08 Finals run.

In 2015, the defending champion Spurs and reigning FMVP Kawhi Leonard were set to play the Clippers in the 1st round. Kawhi averaged 25 points on 70% TS through the first 4 games. He then averaged 13 points on 39% TS in the last 3 games. The Spurs were favored in all 3 games

In 2016, Kawhi was 2nd in MVP voting and won the defensive player of the year award. The Spurs won 67 games this year, they were one of the 10 best teams ever according to SRS, most called them the “best Spurs team ever” and people were putting Kawhi ahead of KD.

Fast forward to the WCSF, the Spurs were an overwhelming favorite.The Spurs went up 2-1 in the series then lost 3 straight games. Why?

Kawhi in those 3 games: 23 ppg on 49% TS

Meanwhile the player he was supposedly better than, Kevin Durant, averaged 34 ppg on 60% TS.

Now onto Kawhi’s only elite playoff run, 2018-19 playoffs. But here’s some context.

Kawhi averaged 29 PPG on 49% eFG after the conference semi finals. Before that he averaged 31 PPG on 60% eFG. He was taken 6 games by a GS team without Klay Thompson or KD.

Now we arrive to 2020. Kawhi is crowned the best player in the world and he decides to form his own super team in LA with Paul George. The Clippers are the significant favorites to win the NBA Finals. After going up 3-1 in the semi finals, the Clippers lost 3 straight games. How?

LAC had a 16 point lead, a 19 point lead, and were only down 8 in the 4th quarter in these 3 games. He shot 6/19 across these last 3 games (and 9/29 for the series) in the 4th quarter. He ended the game with 14 points on 6/22 shooting in a GAME 7. And got outplayed by THIS DUDE.

Players Kawhi Leonard was compared to in game 7s:

Curry: 28/7/6 on 44/44/100 shooting splits
Lebron: 35/10/6 on 49/33/78 shooting splits
KD: 33/7/3 on 55/53/83 shooting splits
Jordan: 37/8/7 on 46/0/82 shooting splits

Kawhi in game 7s: 20/2/9 on 40/24/73 LMFAOOO

End thread.