Kawhi Leonard and the Power of Less Is More
The veteran forward is handling the ball less, and it's yielding better results for everyone.
The ball hits Kawhi Leonard’s large right hand, nestling snuggly into his palm. Leonard pivots, rises, and fires off a mid-post jumper that tickles the nylon net to play the sweetest melody known in basketball — swish.
It’s a methodical pace, one used to drill down Leonard’s fundamentals as a scorer. It is pregame, after all; the time when players work on all levels of minutiae to prepare for the situations ahead, and for Leonard there’s no telling how many times on this night he will find himself in this particular setting.
One of the game’s premier scorers, Leonard operates at his own pace. LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue once described Leonard’s game as one that “surveys” the floor upon the ball’s arrival.
The two-time Finals MVP can oftentimes be found facing up and waiting for defenses to move before he makes his optimal decision, akin to a supercomputer attempting to process copious amounts of data in milliseconds.
“I think where our guys are different between [Kevin Durant] and Kyrie [Irving],” Lue mentioned in late November when asked about differences between that Brooklyn Nets team with James Harden and this current LA Clippers squad, before continuing, “They made more quick decisions, they got to their stuff quick where Kawhi more wants to survey, look it over.”
That word — “survey” — is one you hear a lot regarding Leonard and his systematic style of play. But something has changed within Leonard. And it’s started by surveying less.
So far this season, Leonard is averaging 3.64 seconds per touch and 2.85 dribbles per touch. Those would be his lowest marks, respectively, since the 2015-16 season.
Yet, despite Kawhi Leonard having the ball in his hands for the least amount of time, at least on a per-possession basis, since that 2015-16 season, this is still Leonard’s most profitable season in the Second Spectrum era — e.g. since 2013-14 when tracking data first became available.
Leonard is averaging 0.469 points per touch this season, slightly higher than the 0.465 points per touch he averaged during the 2018-19 season with the Toronto Raptors en route to his second NBA title and second Finals MVP award.
“I think because teams are trying to take him out of the game and try to limit his post touches, limit his shot attempts,” Lue said about Leonard making decisions quicker. “So, the faster he can go it allows him to, first of all, get to his spot but it doesn’t allow defenses to get set and then double-team.”
While known for his mid-range jumper and ability to get to whatever spot he wants to get to on the floor, it should be noted that Leonard is only shooting 38.2 percent on mid-range jumpers this season, a figure that would be his lowest in the tracking era. However, Leonard has also done it on the lowest volume he’s had.
Only 21.8 percent of Leonard’s total field goal attempts have come in the mid-range this season, down from 29.9 percent last season and 25.1 percent during his first season under Tyronn Lue. More to that point, Leonard’s rate has decreased as the season has gone along. In December, only 28 of Leonard’s 160 field goal attempts have come in the mid-range (17.5 percent).
But the light from the end of the tunnel appears to be approaching, at least as far as conversation rate goes: Leonard has made 14 of his 28 mid-range attempts in December and 29 of his 65 attempts (44.6 percent) since starting the season just 10-for-37 (27 percent) in that area of the floor.
The Clippers, especially under Lue’s stewardship, have loved to use Leonard in the mid-post and elbow areas. Leonard averages around 2.39 elbow touches per 36 minutes this season and shoots 68.6 percent on them, per Second Spectrum data. For comparison: Leonard averaged 2.59 elbow touches per 36 minutes last season and shot 56.3 percent. In other words, this is one of the game’s premier elbow orchestrators.
First things first: In terms of raw data, since the start of the 2022-23 season, Kawhi Leonard has registered 209 post-up possessions according to Second Spectrum’s tracking system. Yet, despite that sheer workload and possession share, Leonard has turned the ball over only two times in those 209 possessions. It makes Leonard arguably the most protective offensive hub in the league when accounting for just post-ups. After all, turnovers stop you from even getting shots up, and Leonard simply isn’t turning it over in that setting.
It should also be noted that the 1.5 turnovers per game Leonard is averaging overall this season represents the fewest he’s had since 2015-16.
Like a machine protecting itself against intrusion, Leonard refuses to be overwhelmed and cough up the rock, even when teams throw a multitude of looks at him, including but not limited to double teams.
“We’ve been talking about it all season long,” Lue remarked. “Just when you get to your spots, you catch the ball looking to go quicker and faster before the double teams get there, and he’s been really good.”
According to Second Spectrum, the Clippers have scored 38 points on 32 possessions when Kawhi Leonard has passed out of the post this season. That comes out to 1.19 points per possession, a mark the Clippers would live with throughout the season considering Leonard’s efficient production as a scorer overall.
“We watched film, we talked about different situations, we talked about being patient and seeing what’s going on,” Leonard detailed to ClutchPoints’ Tomer Azarly.
“We more look at where the defense is coming from and how quickly they’re coming, and it’s just kind of like being patient and reading the game and seeing what spots you can go quick in. He’s been, coach Ty Lue has been doing a good job of showing me [video], and him and me bouncing ideas back and forth from each other.”
As things stand, Leonard is posting career-best marks in both True Shooting Percentage (63.1 percent) and Effective Field Goal Percentage (58.9 percent) this season. Coupled with how the Clippers have done when he operates as a passer in the post, you can understand how the team, at least through his first 27 games of the season, had a 117.8 offensive rating overall, good for eighth in the league.
“It’s a little bit out of his comfort zone,” said Lue before elaborating, “Because he likes to survey and catch the ball and wait and kind of see where teams and defenses are coming from. But the faster he can go, the easier it is for him, and like I said, his efficiency has been better because of that.”
Making quicker reads has undoubtedly helped not only Leonard but the Clippers as a whole. It’s also been a notable byproduct of the gravity that James Harden has presented the Clippers with as their lead ball-handler, especially with Harden able to take a heavy burden off of Leonard’s shoulders and allow the San Diego State alum to operate in his more proficient areas.
For Leonard, who has played with the likes of Tony Parker, Dejounte Murray, Kyle Lowry, Reggie Jackson, John Wall, and Russell Westbrook, it’s Harden who represents the most talented point guard that Leonard has been on the floor with.
Harden’s ability to not only space the floor as an offensive hub but also be a trusted ball-handler with the gift of making exceptional passes has alleviated the burden that Leonard has grown accustomed to over the last several years. That, in turn, has likely aided in the rise in efficiency that Leonard has shown this season.
When strictly just looking at the numbers, 16.3 percent of Leonard’s total field goal attempts this season have been catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts which would be the highest mark in his career since the 2016-17 season, his final full healthy season in San Antonio when he finished third in MVP voting.
The more interesting part, however, lies with the fact that he’s shooting a career-best on catch-and-shoot 3s, at least in the tracking era, while also seeing the most wide-open 3-point attempts of his career since 2017-18, a season in which he played just nine games due to injury. As you can see, 11.1 percent of Leonard’s total field goal attempts this season have been wide-open 3-point attempts, the most he’s had in a full healthy season since 2015-16.
Yet all of that pales in comparison to the true gem out of all of this: Leonard is holding the ball a lot less than he has in years past, as evidenced by just 17.9 percent of his total field goal attempts this season coming after touching the ball for at least six seconds. It’s his lowest rate since 2015-16, a season where he was playing alongside Tony Parker and LaMarcus Aldridge in a high-ball-movement offense that emphasized quick decisions and not allowing the ball to get stagnant.
Leonard is averaging just 51.9 touches per game this season, his fewest since his nine-game stint in 2017-18, and his fewest in what can be classified as a full season since 2014-15 when he averaged 49.7 touches per game. Or, better yet, Leonard is averaging his fewest touches per 36 minutes since 2013-14 — a full decade ago.
Leonard isn’t just making quicker decisions, but rather he’s also touching the ball less in general. It’s not a massive decrease, but it is a noticeable one, especially when factoring in touches per 36 minutes.
This trend even keeps up when accounting for the Nov. 17 lineup change that saw Russell Westbrook move to the bench in favor of Terance Mann, a player who doesn’t demand the ball at all offensively.
“That’s not his role,” Lue said recently when asked if he’s concerned with Mann’s lack of scoring this season. The 27-year-old is averaging 6.3 points on 38.8 percent shooting overall while posting a 46.1 True Shooting Percentage which would be the second-lowest mark in the league among players to log at least 500 minutes.
“It’s not his job. If he’s getting open 3s, he takes those, gets out in transition, gets some layups, but we’re not going to try to involve him in the offense. He brings more to the table and just for him, just defensively, like I said, being great defensively, bringing that energy, cutting to the basket, getting open, getting layups, and things like that. But [as] far as incorporating [him] to the offense, we’ve got too many great offensive players to do that.”
Among those “great offensive players” is certainly Kawhi Leonard, and despite that Nov. 17 lineup change, Leonard is averaging only 54.82 touches per 36 minutes in that time, a marginal increase from his overall number from this season.
Leonard is touching the ball less, handling the ball less, and making quicker decisions. It’s not only benefited himself, as mentioned earlier, from an efficiency standpoint but it’s helped the team greatly by keeping others involved and limiting turnovers. Since Nov. 17, the Clippers have the fourth-lowest turnover rate in the league behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, and Denver Nuggets.
“Once he goes quicker then teams double-team, then we have more opportunity to make the second and third pass and drive closeouts,” Lue said when asked what benefits he’s seen for the team with Leonard’s quicker decision-making.
Lue continued: “But if he catches it, holds it, and they’re double-teaming but he waits, and waits five or six seconds, that’s five or six seconds gone, and now he makes a move, now they come and double-team, now it’s eight or nine seconds gone, so now it’s usually one pass or two passes, shot, and we don’t have a lot of time and a lot of opportunities to make that second, third pass and actually drive closeouts if teams are out of control. So, by him going quicker, it’s a lot more time on the shot clock for us.”
The Clippers presently rank sixth in the NBA in half-court offense, mustering up 103.5 points per 100 plays, according to Cleaning The Glass.
Kawhi Leonard is a huge part of that, and his increased awareness to get off the ball quicker, whether as a passer or as a scorer, has yielded high-quality results for all parties.
If the Clippers are to continue their success this season, Leonard will have to keep doing what’s been excelling at: doing more with less.