ardee wrote:Man I can't believe Kawhi is getting mentioned here.
Simple question.
If you replaced Blake or DeMarcus with Kawhi, do you think the Clippers or Kings would get better?
So, first let me object to the "simple question" perspective. It's a good thought experiment to ask how Kawhi would do on those teams, but you also have to ask how the other guys would do on the Spurs, and there's an argument that the latter is the more important question given that it's how a guy can do on a great team that best indicates his ability to win titles.
What I keep going back to with Kawhi skeptics is that there's nothing magical to the math that puts Kawhi as a superstar-type impactor: This is what you get when you have a DPOY level defender who is also the first option on a great offense. We rarely actually see it happen, but when we do, it's a really big deal.
Griffin at his best has an argument as a Top 5 player so Kawhi > Griffin is obviously nothing like a given, but clearly there's a pretty huge gap on defense there.
Cousins is just a tough guy to really peg at this point. The way he was playing at the beginning of the year was really something, but he's never had a full year playing anything like that, and there's plenty of reason to think that that's not a coincidence - that his mental hangups mean that it just doesn't take much for him to go down a bad road focusing on the negative. Were I the Kings I'd obviously be all-in on Cousins, max deal & everything, because he's by far the best thing they have going, but in comparison to other obvious max players, there's actually quite a lot to be concerned about with Cousins.
Back to your actual question:
The Clippers had the best offense in the league this year despite Griffin missing time and then playing <100% for more time, and even with Griffin we've yet to see any evidence that that kicks the offense up to a whole different GOAT-ish level. Meanwhile their defense is suffering. I think you could make a great case that on a team with Paul & DeAndre, Kawhi is the better fit.
The Kings? They have a 4-man core, 3 of which are primarily in this league for their scoring ability and were drafted with the expectation that they would be #1 option. While the two non-Cousins ones are much weaker than Cousins - which makes it just bizarre that the Kings built the way they did - yeah, you do have to ask whether adding a DPOY level player who doesn't need to score to be effective would let the team FINALLY win 30 games.
But in each case, the answer is debatable. The bigger concern I have is ignoring the fact that Kawhi seems remarkably well suited to being the Man in the healthy, contending Spurs environment.
