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After the Rockets game, Pop evoked the name of Bruce Bowen to describe the play of Kawhi Leonard. Quote: Originally Posted by Pop It’s huge for us to have a guy on the team that can do similar things to what Bruce (Bowen) did in the past. This young man has got a lot to learn, but he’s very willing, very versatile and I think he’s got the ability to be one heck of a player. Here are some thoughts on the comparison of Leonard to Bowen: -As it stands right now, Leonard's defensive ability isn't in the same stratosphere as Bowen at his best (or Bowen at his worst, for that matter). And that's not a knock on Leonard. He's a 20-year-old who didn't have summer league or a training camp. In fact, he's already playing better defense than I thought he would in his rookie season. At this point, Leonard has two distinct modes: he's even locked in to his opponent and neglecting most of his team defense responsibilities or he's flying around the court trying to cause havoc. Eventually he'll find the middle ground. That's something you can only learn through experience gained by playing and learning tendencies of each player in the league. -Being an elite perimeter defender is extremely rare for a young player. Bowen was 30 years old when he joined the Spurs and it still took him a couple years to reach his peak performance on defense. The best perimeter defender in the game today is Tony Allen and he's 30. I can't think of a 20-year-old player off the top of my head who came into the league and received minutes mostly due to perimeter defense. -Some scouts questioned whether Leonard was able to play small forward -- they said he was actually going to be forced to play power forward. Thankfully, those scouts were wrong. Leonard is definitely capable of playing small forward on both ends. In fact, he's starting at shooting guard right now. Going forward, if Leonard can turn into a legit shooting guard, that would be scary good because he could physically overwhelm just about every SG in the league due to his combination of bulk, size and length. -So far, we've seen Leonard defend small forwards and shooting guards. Can he defend point guards? Hopefully Pop gives him a shot because if he can, that shoots his value up another notch. I'm not sure he has the quickness but it's worth a try. Another thing to try is to see if Leonard can handle true power forwards. We've seen him on smaller power forwards like Lamar Odom but if Leonard can legitimately defend point guards through power forwards, that alone would be enough to guarantee him a long, successful NBA career. -Chances are, Leonard won't become as good as Bowen was defensively. Bowen was one of the best perimeter defenders to ever play the game, so that's not really a knock on Leonard. But Leonard already rebounds about twice as well as Bowen ever did and he has tools to become an average to above average offensive player. Bowen was always markedly below average by any measure. Thus, even if Leonard doesn't reach Bowen's level defensively, he could still reach the status of championship quality starter by other means. -If Pop is going to fully commit to Leonard being the next Bowen, Pop needs to start him from here on out. As we saw in the Bucks game, bringing your ace perimeter defender off the bench doesn't work because once an NBA player gets hot, it's almost impossible to cool him off (See: Jackson, Stephen). Once Manu Ginobili returns, the right adjustment is to move Richard Jefferson to the bench. Jefferson's skillset (shooting and running the floor, mostly) works as well or even better off the bench since opposing teams won't be able to key on him as easily. Let's see if Pop is all talk or he's willing to put his rotation where is mouth is. -One reason why Pop loves Leonard so much so early is that Leonard doesn't foul. At all. Pop hates nothing more than useless fouls out on the perimeter. Pop's two tenets to perimeter defending: Don't foul and don't let your man drive middle. Leonard is averaging 1.6 fouls per 36 minutes. Bowen rarely fouled and his lowest foul rate was 2.3 fouls per 36 minutes. In NBA history, only one rookie swingman fouled at a lower rate than Leonard's current rate: Peja Stojakovic -- and he wasn't exactly the Sacramento's perimeter defensive stopper. While such a microscopic foul rate is mostly good, it probably points to Leonard having room to grow in terms of being more physical. Bowen tiptoed the line between being physical and fouling. Leonard doesn't have to be as safe as he's currently playing. -Another thing Leonard hardly does is turn the ball over. In 243 minutes, he has five turnovers for a TOV% of 5.8. To put that in perspective, Matt Bonner always leads the team in lowest TOV% and his lowest number as a Spur was 6.3 back in '08-09. Bonner's TOV% is low because all he usually does is catch-and-shoot. Leonard's number being low is extra impressive since he does a lot more than just stand around on the perimeter. Historically, no rookie has played 500 minutes and posted a TOV% that low -- at any position. -Overall, it'll be interesting to see how it goes the rest of the season with Leonard. We saw Danny Green explode ... only to regress. Leonard surely will have a few bumps in the road but his short-term and long-term potential is exciting. Let's hope he keeps learning game by game and that Pop continues to bring him along at a rapid pace.

To be honest, this is all you really need from the picture... http://i42.tinypic.com/9gh4sj.jpg

Would you prefer the NBA Finals as a sample size? lol

Credit goes to Jordan-esque at TLN. Statistics: -- Kobe has scored 40+ points in 109 regular season games & 11 playoff games for a combined 120 games. -- When Kobe scores 40+ points he is currently making them at a combined 0.515 FG%. Regular Season: -- When Kobe scores 40+ Lakers in those games have a 76-33 winning regular season record good for a 70% win rate. -- An 82-game season would equate that as a 57-25 regular season record. -- Kobe has made 1688/3297 shots good for a .512 FG% for the season. Playoffs: -- When Kobe scores 40+ Lakers in those games have an 11-1 winning playoff record good for 92% win rate in the playoffs. -- Kobe has made 172/315 shots good for a .546 FG% in the Playoffs. http://lakernation.com/forums/index.php?/topic/53107-list-full-stats-when-kobe-scores-40-and-lakers-win/

I don't know why, but this made me laugh.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/351/tumblrlxic1loivn1qdmvov.jpg

The NBA is indeed in a rather dire need for 'Sheed.

He's definitely not afraid to put it up, but really, he's the third option on our team.. Melo and Amar'e only played 20 minutes each. Which leads me to this.. anyone else think Amar'e looks like he lost about 75% of his explosiveness this year? I know that he needs a creator to feed him, but he just looks like he has no quickness or moves to the basket this season at all. The lack of a PG is the undoing of this team. The defense has been fine, but without a PG to force an issue on offense.. we've got nothing. Trade anyone but Iman, Melo, Amar'e, or Chandler for a quality PG and the team improves dramatically. Fields/Douglas/Jordan and a 1st.. what would that get us? Sundiata Gaines?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Rd7vd9Dl8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb8S50fndPs&feature=related Yes, he can. Ask the Pistons as well.

I actually gave LeBron props, and you're still throwing your rocks. If you're still mad about LeBron losing in the NBA Finals, I didn't blame him...I blamed the Mavericks kicking his ass.

speaking of bass he was playing pretty good, made me miss him

He dominated in the clutch every series last year besides the Finals. In Cleveland he had multiple years as the best statistical clutch performer in the league. He dominated in the clutch in the 2009 ECF (where he averaged 38/8/8). He had one of the best clutch performances ever in the 2007 ECF to get his team to the Finals. His failures are overblown. He isn't the greatest clutch performer in the world, but because he hasn't won a championship and he's LeBron every single time he doesn't get it done it's national news. When Kobe fails in the clutch, it's overlooked or blamed on his teammates. Wade's failures in the clutch are never mentioned, and over the last year or two he hasn't been great in those situations (and he's my favorite player). Why do those two get away with it? They've won a championship. Until LeBron wins one, every little thing he does will be dissected to pieces. It's kinda ridiculous.

SOOO overrated Considering his popularity, Tebow could run for President. He couldn't throw for it though.

Whoever says Pistol Pete Maravich is banned for life. EDIT: With the exception of iMan.

Dirk could go 0-15 a game, but when it matter id still give him the ball.

He doesn't need one, his parents will just pay for everything.

Alright man. You know I'm gonna ride with you cause you my boy but [expletive] we're gonna catch some heat. Lol.