Kawhi Leonard: 1 reason why Kawhi should’ve been First-Team All-Defense
By Evan Desai
LA Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard was named Second-Team All-Defense for the 2020-2021 season.
It’s a nice gesture, but Leonard should have been First-Team All-Defense this year.
The numbers agree with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Draymond Green being selected first-team over him, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Kawhi Leonard should have been named First-Team All-Defense because of who he is as an athlete on defense.
Kawhi Leonard is a better athlete than Antetokounmpo and Green. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s automatically a better defender than those two. The issue is, Kawhi’s athleticism forced him to take on different kinds of assignments than what Antetokounmpo and Green had to take on.
Those two can guard multiple positions, but as the big men in their starting lineups, often guard frontcourt positions more primarily. In a league where 2-guards and forwards are more often better scorers than power forwards and centers, Leonard was tasked with guarding better athletes and more diverse scorers than Antetokounmpo and Green.
Leonard is so agile and quick on defense that he can guard any position. Just look at the last playoff series. Leonard put the clamps on a 7’3″ Kristaps Porzingis. He was able to guard Porzingis effectively, and handled one of the league’s best point guards in Luka Doncic whenever he was called upon to do it.
A guy who can guard one of the NBA’s best point guards in Doncic as well as play lockdown D on a 7’3″ big man who can score in many different ways shows how dynamic of a defender Leonard is. He can take on all sorts of assignments.
All-Defensive Team selections are based on what happened in the regular season, so the last playoff series didn’t go into consideration. However, Leonard has been taking on those type of assignments all season.
Giannis and Draymond aren’t quick enough to pick up the league’s top point guards consistently like Leonard can.
Therefore, Kawhi’s 109.5 defensive rating being higher than Green’s 106.5 and Giannis’s 107 doesn’t look all that much higher.
Antetokounmpo only had 1.2 steals per game this year. Kawhi had 1.6.
Green had 1.7, but again, Leonard had to man up against more dynamic scorers than both the First-Team forward selections did.
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Green and Antetokounmpo are both elite defenders. Leonard, however, was more deserving of a first-team nod than the two of them, though.