LOS ANGELES – Older than their two new combined charges, having earned less money than they pocketed in a season. At first glance, it turns out that Jerry West has little in common with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George apart from a task with the Clippers. .
However, his unusual basketball lineage is clear. In the 1960s and 1970s, West lost 30 issues each night, then silenced the guy he kept on other nights, or the same, if necessary. The two-way player’s godfather, the NBA’s rarest talent, West gave the Hall of Fame example Leonard and George have been following ever since. The Clippers’ wing duo tortured the parties to the conflict on both sides, making passes in defense and firing shots from the entire offensive.
West was the standard-bearer of base excellence based on his NBA career, everything that happened with the Lakers, and now as a Clippers consultant, he has one of the most productive seats in space: front row, directly behind the basket near the house bench – to examine two teammates in hopes of making a respectable imitation of him.
It’s a top slat to cross. ” The Logo “unmatched by its vast two-way skills (although Oscar Robertson fans would possibly oppose it). However, if the Clippers manage to drink champagne in June and organize the most unlikely championship parade in Los Angeles history, it will be because Kawhi and George took themes into their own hands leaving 94 feet of fingerprints.
“It’s a laugh to see, ” said West.
And you know why it feels that way.
Over the past decade, seven players have averaged at least 25 game-consistent issues in one season and have also been part of the fully defensive first team in the same season or another: Leonard, George, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. If you come with the entire 2000s, upload Tim Duncan and Gary Payton to this list. That’s right.
Yes, there were others who, on their merits, can justify their club in such an adventure. Chris Paul, for example, had defensive honors without the average score. Anyway, the elite of two NBA games is the closest thing to a five. -Tool baseball player, celebrated only for his talent, but also for his rarity.
When Kawhi weighed the agency’s loose spots last summer, he looked for the Clippers to locate someone like him, someone who could simply be a team spouse in front of either basket. Father Time, as he usually does, was beginning to borrow LeBron’s defensive desire.
So there was only one candidate who reflected Kawhi’s abilities. Once the industry with Oklahoma City ended and George in the fold, the Clippers, along with two members of the two-way club, saw their championship hopes soar.
“We’re in sync in a lot of ways,” George said of Leonard, “only in the way we see things on the ground and how the game is played. “
In conversations with NBA skill reviewers, it’s difficult to place elite players in any of the instructions because of the athletic ability and skill needed to score. Many offensive or defensive specialists feel comfortable in their own skin, generously rewarded for being one-dimensional. a player determined to tick any of the boxes. If two-way players are made instead of born, the question is: is it more difficult to turn a closed defender into a wonderful scorer, or vice versa?
“Friend, ” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, “is hard to answer. “
Leonard and George are self-taught scorers who have never lost their DNA for defense. Leonard averaged 7. 9 points consistent with the game as a rookie and had a long history in the Hall of Fame ahead of him in the Spurs game e-book. and rarely tried to shoot 3 numbers. Meanwhile, in Indiana, George averaged 7. 8 problems consistent with the game and gave way to Danny Granger, Mike Dunleavy, Darren Collison and . . . Tyler Hansbrough.
West was more or less the same, exceling in defense at first, temporarily developed a shooting intuition and entered the NBA as a complete player.
First I think it was a defense factor. Actually, I had no choice. “
Jerry West, Clippers executive
“Defense was the most powerful component of my game when I started,” West said. “You can score points, but I think it was the defense first. I didn’t really have a choice. When I was in college, I had to remain the most productive person, regardless of their size.
“I was between 6 and 4 years old and had long arms. And he had a special ability to know the angles and learn the art of anticipation. Everything that evolved at school because we were in a hurry and we were trapped. We’ve done all the things”. so vital to be an advocate. I started thinking about a move to come. Think about who you’re staying with.
So why was West on the NBA All-Defensive team only five times?Because the league only created the award in the 1969–70 season, its tenth. After that, in his twilight, he succeeded each and every year (four first teams, one team moment) until his last season . . . when he played only 31 games due to knee disorders and groin bloating.
Also that the NBA did not track flights until 1973-74, West’s last season. However, West, then 36, has averaged 2. 6 interceptions this season despite the injury. NBA seasons.
At the time, the NBA also had fewer teams, resulting in a higher concentration of the most sensitive players, meaning West didn’t have much encouragement in terms of night defensive assignments. He saw John Havlicek, Hal Greer, Dave Bing, Lenny Wilkens, Walt Frazier, Rick Barry, Earl Monroe – all the snipers and rapids of that day. Unless this player is a centre forward or forward, there is a smart chance of being awarded West.
“Jerry tenacious, ” said Frazier, “You knew you were going to have a difficult night of play against the Lakers. “
What’s surprising is how much West had the juice to protect himself while burning so many calories in the attack. Understand that during an 11-season era, West averaged at least 25. 9 dpi. Averaged 39. 2 mpg, more than many of today’s players combine in a season not to mention that West, and other players of that era, lacked all the fashionable comforts (private jets, complex physiotherapy, consecutive games, cargo management, etc. ) enjoyed today.
“I was very lucky,” West said, “I had a lot of energy, I didn’t get tired. The competitive component of you, with which you are born or informed, also has to hate losing. I think if you can make a difference in a game with a defensive game, a scouse borrowed here and there, it’s just crucial, so do it and don’t worry about the offense until you want it ».
In the 1965 playoff series against the Baltimore Bullets, Elgin Baylor injured his knee in the first game and finished. West responded by scoring 49 points in the Lakers’ victory. In the game at the moment, he went for 52. , the two losses he had 44 and 48. The fifth game produced 43 in one win, and in the final game, it was 42. Its 46. 3 numbers remain those for any playoff.
And, of course, he’s still the only MVP winner in the final who hasn’t won the championship. This became imaginable in the 1969 series when Celtics player and coach Bill Russell disrespectfully refused to overtake West in the first two games. He lost 53 and then 41 tracks to Sam Jones when the Lakers went 2-0 before losing in seven.
These scenes are alien to Leonard and George, born decades after the fact. For them, West won championships with the Lakers. . . as the team’s architect. Today, he is a valued member of the Clippers headquarters. when Kawhi and his uncle, Dennis Robertson, held one last assembly at Rivers’ house before signing, the only other user in the West Room.
When Leonard arrived in San Antonio in 2011, his overflowing appetite was evident (as you know, the table member is paid and all that). His defense temporarily reached NBA level, allowing him to play a role in the rotation of a championship. -Calibre equipment.
However, offensively, Kawhi needed varnish. He pitched only 25% in triples at San Diego State. He had little confidence in his diversity and did not revel in the conditions, as the Spurs had Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili for that.
“But Kawhi worked on it, ” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “I wanted to be a complete player, so I wasn’t satisfied. He put time in his shot and kept getting better, and since we were betting as a team, he ended up with the ball.
Leonard’s representative as an elite defender shot himself in the 2014 Finals when his claws on LeBron proved crucial; In Game 3, for example, Kawhi beat LeBron 29-22, but while Kawhi won two consecutive Kia Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2015-16, his score advanced far enough to make him the standout choice for the Spurs. problems consistent with the game as a rookie to 25. 5 problems consistent with the game in its fifth season. After mastering medium diversity and post-up, Kawhi has expanded its diversity where it has more depth. In his playoff career, he is 41. 1% on 3 tracks.
“It’s about running hard,” he says. I need to be the most productive player I can be. “
George’s offense gradually evolved: he fired 29% depth as a rookie. As he advanced in his shooting skills, the Pacers took a step forward as a team, coming and going to the playoffs and soon placing an incrusent spot over LeBron and the Heat. George’s average scores have advanced six years in a row (without adding his 2014–15 injury-interrupted season), and last season in Oklahoma City, his average moment of 28 points ahead of James Harden for the lead. Oh, and the first All-Defense team component leading the league at interceptions.
“Offensively, he had a long way to go as a rookie,” said Frank Vogel, George’s coach in Indiana at the time. “Shots, overtaking, awareness of the terrain, had a long way to go. You can’t grow up when you’re not playing. I had the ability to stay in the area defensively, and that’s what gave me the confidence to pitch and be offensively informed. “
George and Kawhi get up on the defensive. They anticipate theft, provide assistance, protect themselves on the open floor and play the perimeter without worrying about being expelled from the drain due to their ability to quickly re-license. There’s an interested spectator sitting behind the house basket at Staples Center reading them.
“They have a glorious intuition, big hands, anticipation and strength,” West said. “They have everything they want to succeed.
“Look at Kawhi: playing in San Antonio is a pleasure of intelligent learning and he trusted that. He had the intuition to do it right away. You look at him and Paul there and say, “Oh my God, how are you?Are you going to get those boys around with the duration they have?”They cut the corners on the road. Watching those guys play at the angles is something else.
George said he hears West gives advice, as the game recognizes the game.
“He showed me everything I had no idea, how I was attacking,” George said. “It was with the foot of his head. I’m used to having my feet in a safe way. He says to lean him toward the basket,” so I lean toward the basket. Just a few small main points that he can see through who he is and what he’s done. If there are little things where he thinks I can paint, believe me, I’ll paint on them. the next day. “
As the Clippers sail this ambitious season, they’ll want everything from both sides of their elite two-lane partner.
Well, get out.
“I’m glad all three of us were given,” Rivers said.
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Shaun Powell has been covering the NBA for over 25 years. You can send him an email here, his files here and follow him on Twitter.
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