Who's the best player on the Spurs now.

[mdonnelly1989]

I'd say it's pretty close between Kawhi, Duncan and Aldridge now.

[mdonnelly1989]

I don't think Kawhi is better than Aldridge he has never had to carry the same weight and responsibility as Lamarcus has.

Kawhi is a Top 20 player in the league. Aldridge is Top 15 imo.

[The-Power]

Well, you never know with Duncan but I'm very comfortable choosing Kawhi here. Kawhi to me already was the best player on the Spurs last year and he'll most certainly be more important on both offense and defense than Duncan next year. You can make a very convincing argument that this already was the case last year. Kawhi's defensive impact is off the charts and even though the Spurs' system still relies heavily on Duncan's post-play and presence one can make a convincing argument that Kawhi already took over the offensive primacy last season. Maybe not when both were on the floor but when both were healthy I do believe that Kawhi was more important overall factoring in minutes played. This tendency will only increase from now on, so it's Kawhi > Duncan as soon as next season if you didn't already regard him as the better player last year.

Concerning Aldridge, I'm not as high on him as some others might be. Don't get me wrong, he is a good player with a nice skill-set but his impact doesn't strike me as incredibly high. This might be unfair since RAPM generally has him ranked pretty high and every time my reasoning and the +/- data differ I become a little cautious. According to RAPM his offense is, albeit not world-beating, pretty high for a big and his defense is a plus, he also seems to be more effective in post-up situations than one might expect at a first glance. So as I said I might undersell him here, but looking at him a see a volume-scorer on (slightly) below league-effiency. He has some range, but not out to the 3pt-line so he draws on his midrange- and long-range game (he took more shots from 10ft to 3pt-line than shots at the rim, from 3ft to 10ft and behind the arc combined, hitting these shots at around 40%). He is a jump-shooting big without the elite shooting-game of someone like Dirk (i.e. doesn't instill as much fear in opponents with his shooting) - and his efficiency tends to drop even further in the playoffs. He takes care of the ball but has yet to emerge as playmaker either, i.e. he doesn't pass much but instead does his thing on offense on mediocre efficiency. His defense is decent but one would hardly call him a defensive anchor or even a very good defender for his position. At a first evaluation, this isn't exactly the type of big I'd be looking to get for my team. But he deserved that I at least wait and see what he's capable of doing in a system like the Spurs run it.

So knowing that I might be wrong in case of Aldridge (i.e. underselling his true impact), I comfortably ranked Kawhi higher than him last year and I project him to become even better this year so I don't expect much of a contention. But who knows, maybe he can achieve great success under this legendary coach, on a talented team and great organization. For now, however, I take Kawhi without much contest and believe in my judgement - until I'm proven wrong.

[70sFan]

Duncan will be the best Spurs player in 2025

[mdonnelly1989]

Well, you never know with Duncan but I'm very comfortable choosing Kawhi here. Kawhi to me already was the best player on the Spurs last year and he'll most certainly be more important on both offense and defense than Duncan next year. You can make a very convincing argument that this already was the case last year. Kawhi's defensive impact is off the charts and even though the Spurs' system still relies heavily on Duncan's post-play and presence one can make a convincing argument that Kawhi already took over the offensive primacy last season. Maybe not when both were on the floor but when both were healthy I do believe that Kawhi was more important overall factoring in minutes played. This tendency will only increase from now on, so it's Kawhi > Duncan as soon as next season if you didn't already regard him as the better player last year.

Concerning Aldridge, I'm not as high on him as some others might be. Don't get me wrong, he is a good player with a nice skill-set but his impact doesn't strike me as incredibly high. This might be unfair since RAPM generally has him ranked pretty high and every time my reasoning and the +/- data differ I become a little cautious. According to RAPM his offense is, albeit not world-beating, pretty high for a big and his defense is a plus, he also seems to be more effective in post-up situations than one might expect at a first glance. So as I said I might undersell him here, but looking at him a see a volume-scorer on (slightly) below league-effiency. He has some range, but not out to the 3pt-line so he draws on his midrange- and long-range game (he took more shots from 10ft to 3pt-line than shots at the rim, from 3ft to 10ft and behind the arc combined, hitting these shots at around 40%). He is a jump-shooting big without the elite shooting-game of someone like Dirk (i.e. doesn't instill as much fear in opponents with his shooting) - and his efficiency tends to drop even further in the playoffs. He takes care of the ball but has yet to emerge as playmaker either, i.e. he doesn't pass much but instead does his thing on offense on mediocre efficiency. His defense is decent but one would hardly call him a defensive anchor or even a very good defender for his position. At a first evaluation, this isn't exactly the type of big I'd be looking to get for my team. But he deserved that I at least wait and see what he's capable of doing in a system like the Spurs run it.

So knowing that I might be wrong in case of Aldridge (i.e. underselling his true impact), I comfortably ranked Kawhi higher than him last year and I project him to become even better this year so I don't expect much of a contention. But who knows, maybe he can achieve great success under this legendary coach, on a talented team and great organization. For now, however, I take Kawhi without much contest and believe in my judgement - until I'm proven wrong.

Very nice breakdown. I'm not as high on Kawhi as most people are. I don't think he's anything close to a super star. I have a hard time giving any player on the Spurs as a truly dominate player aside "Peak" Tim Duncan where he has been the clear cut MVP and largest reason for most of the Spurs dynasty.

Kawhi is elite defensively. And I'll even go as far as to say he's historically great defensively and impacts the game at very high levels.

On offense he's a good player but he's got the advantage of Coach Pop and 7 other offensive players who were more than capable for creating offense. The pressure wasn't that high on Kawhi Leonard to be the anchor every night to put on offensive clinics.

I'm not saying that he isn't capable of producing at a high level offensively. I just need to see it first and I don't think we will especially now that Aldridge is there and as long as Coach Pop will continue being the coach we won't ever see one player have that much offensive responsibility. It's what makes Coach Pop such a great coach. I just can't sit here and say Kawhi is a great offensive player when he's in a Coach Pop system unless he's truly putting up crazy efficiency and PPG as that matter.

I'll put it like this.

Kawhi
Defense - 97/100
Offense - 83/100
Impact - 90/100
Overall - 88/100

[mischievous]

With all players given equal health i'd say Leonard. He will get better next year, and was already comparable to aldridge last season. I think Aldridge's offense is overrated despite what some advanced stats might say, i get the low turnovers but his scoring is around league average ts% or below it and he's been terribly inefficient in the playoffs the past 2 seasons. His d is above average but not elite.